With advances in x-ray microtomography, it is now possible to obtain three-dimensional representations of a material's microstructure with a voxel size of less than one micrometer. The Visible Cement Data Set represents a collection of 3-D data sets obtained using the European Synchrotron Radiation Facility in Grenoble, France in September 2000. Most of the images obtained are for hydrating portland cement pastes, with a few data sets representing hydrating Plaster of Paris and a common building brick. All of these data sets are being made available on the Visible Cement Data Set website at http://visiblecement.nist.gov. The website includes the raw 3-D datafiles, a description of the material imaged for each data set, example two-dimensional images and visualizations for each data set, and a collection of C language computer programs that will be of use in processing and analyzing the 3-D microstructural images. This paper provides the details of the experiments performed at the ESRF, the analysis procedures utilized in obtaining the data set files, and a few representative example images for each of the three materials investigated.
Keywords: Plaster of Paris; cement hydration; image analysis; microstructure; visualization; x-ray microtomography.