Image Analysis of Cracks in Concrete: Methodology, Opportunities and Pitfalls

Image Analysis of Cracks in Concrete: Methodology, Opportunities and Pitfalls

P. Stroeven
H. He

Faculty of Civil Engineering and Geosciences, Delft University of Technology, The Netherlands.

Page: 
145-161
|
DOI: 
https://doi.org/10.2495/DNE-V6-N2-145-161
Received: 
N/A
| |
Accepted: 
N/A
| | Citation

OPEN ACCESS

Abstract: 

Damage in concrete is mostly visualised in sections or at the surface of specimens subjected to internal and/or external loading. It continuously develops by growth and coalescence of tiny cracks into a spatial network structure. This structure can be seen as the finger-print of the material reflecting its history of loadings under given environmental conditions. The methodology of contrast improvement as an essential link in visualising damage is touched upon. However, a major focus of the paper is on describing damage by submitting images of crack patterns consisting of lineal features in the plane to a sweeping test line system and counting intersections. To obtain three-dimensional damage information in an economic way, the damage structure is assumed in the most general case revealing a partial orientation of mixed lineal and planar nature (the so-called ‘Stroeven-concept’). The practical cases are elaborated of prevailing compressive and tensile stresses. This reduces the number of unknown crack portions to two. As a consequence, quantitatively analyzing the image patterns can be restricted to vertical sections only. This involves a dramatic reduction of sawing efforts and simplifies the image analysis stage as well, of course. Only two orthogonal intersection counting operations are required for the assessment of specific crack surface area and of the degree and direction of preferred crack orientation. When observations would have been obtained in more directions, so-called roses of intersections (or intersection densities) can be determined. For very large images this would be circles. For random cracks in the image plane a circle around the origin, for oriented cracks, a circle through the origin is found. This concept, in addition to mathematical formulations is employed to demonstrate that automation of quantitative image analysis generally yields biased information, unless the analysis is executed under conditions discussed herein.

Keywords: 

Analog and digitised images, automation of image analysis, concrete, cracking, line scanning, rose of intersections

  References

[1] Brandzaeg, A., Failure of a Material Composed of Non-isotropic Elements: an Analytical Study with Special Application to Concrete, Det. Kong. Norske Vidensk. Selensk. Skr., 12, 1927.

[2] Stroeven, P. & Shah, S.P., Use of radiography-image analysis for steel fi ber reinforced con-crete. Testing and Test Methods of Fiber Cement Composites, ed. R.N. Swamy, Constr. Press: Lancaster, pp. 345–353, 1978.

[3] Stroeven, P. & de Haan, Y.M., Structural investigations on steel fi ber reinforced concrete. High Performance Reinforced Cement Composites, eds. H.W. Reinhardt & A.E. Naaman, E&FN Spon: London, pp. 407–418, 1992.

[4] Stroeven, P., Damage evolution in concrete; application of stereology to quantitative image analysis and modeling. Advanced Materials for Future Industries: Needs and Seeds, eds. I. Kimpara, K. Kageyama & Y. Kagawa, SAMPE: Tokyo, pp. 1436–1443, 1991.

[5] Ringot, E., Automatic quantifi cation of microcracks network by stereo-logical method of total projections in mortars and concrete. Cement and Concrete Research, 18, pp. 35–43, 1988. 

doi:10.1016/0008-8846(88)90060-9, doi:10.1016/0008-8846(88)90119-6

[6] Stroeven, P. & Hu, J., Stereology: historical perspective and applicability to concrete technology. Materials and Structures, 39, pp. 127–135, 2005. doi:10.1617/s11527-005-9031-6

[7] Stroeven, P., Some observations on microcracking in concrete subjected to various loading regimes. Engineering Fracture Mechanics, 35(4/5), pp. 775–782, 1990. doi:10.1016/0013-7944(90)90161-9

[8] Stroeven, P., Stroeven, A.P. & Dalhuisen, D.H., Image analysis of “natural” concrete samples by automated and manual procedures. Cement and Concrete Composites, 23, pp. 227–236, 2001. doi:10.1016/S0958-9465(00)00064-0

[9] Stroeven, P., Stroeven, A.P., Dalhuisen, D.H. & van der Meer, J.J.M., Stereological analysis of ice fl ow-induced preferred orientation of small clasts in Tertiary tillite matrix of Mt. Feather. Acta Stereologica, 18(1), pp. 49–60, 1999.

[10] Underwood, E.E., Quantitative Stereology, Addison-Wesley: Reading (MA), 1970.

[11] Stroeven, P., Fractals and fractography in concrete technology, Brittle Matrix Composites 3, eds. A.M. Brandt & I.H. Marshall, Elsevier Appl. Sc.: London, pp. 1–10, 1991.

[12] El-Saouma, V.E., Barton, C.C. & Gamaleldin, N.A., Fractal character-ization of fracture surfaces in concrete. Engineering Fracture Mechanics, 35(1), pp. 47–53, 1990. doi:10.1016/0013-7944(90)90182-G

[13] Carpinteri, A., Fractal nature of materials microstructure and size effects on apparent mechanical properties. Mechanical Matters, 18, pp. 259–266, 1994.

[14] Stroeven, P., Stroeven, M., Size of representative volume element of concrete assessed by quantitative image analysis and computer simulation. Image Analysis and Stereology, 20(Suppl. 1), pp. 216–220, 2001.

[15] Hu, J., Chen, H. & Stroeven, P., Spatial dispersion of aggregate in concrete; a computer simulation study. Computers and Concrete, 3(5), pp. 301–312, 2005.

[16] Stroeven, P., Hu, J. & Chen, H.S., Stochastic heterogeneity as fundamental basis for the design and evaluation of experiments. Cement and Concrete Composites, 30, pp. 506–514, 2008. 

doi:10.1016/j.cemconcomp.2007.12.001

[17] Freudenthal, A.M., The Inelastic Behaviour of Engineering Materials and Structures, Wiley: New York, 1950.

[18] Holliday, L., Geometric Considerations and Phase Relationships, Composite Materials, Elsevier Publishing Co.: Amsterdam, pp. 1–27, 1966.

[19] Bisschop, J. & van Mier, J.G.M., Effect of aggregates on drying shrinkage micro-cracking in cement-based composites. Materials and Structures, 35(252), pp. 453–461, 2002. doi:10.1007/ BF02483132

[20] Gundersen, H.J. & Osterby, R., Optimizing sampling effi ciency of stereological studies in biology: or ‘Do more less well’. Journal of Microscopy, 121, pp. 65–73, 1981.

[21] Hsu, T.C., Slate, F., Sturman, G. & Winter, G., Microcracking of plain concrete and the shape of the stress–strain curve. Journal of the American Concrete Institute, 60(2), pp. 209–224, 1963.

[22] Nemati, K.M., Generation and Interaction of Compressive Stress-induced Microcracks in Concrete, PhD Thesis, University of California, Berkeley, 1994.

[23] Bien´, J., Burakiewicz, A. & Stroeven, P., Experimental study of steel-to-concrete bond in plain and fi bre reinforced concrete. Archives of Civil Engineering, XL(2), pp. 215–241, 1994.

[24] Reinhardt, H.W., Stroeven, P., den Uijl, J.A., Kooistra, T.R. & Vrencken, J.H.A.M., Einfl uss von Schwingbreite, Belastungshöhe und Frequenz auf die Schwingfestigkeit von Beton bei niedrigen Bruchlastwechselzahlen. Betonwerk Fertigteil-Technik, 44, pp. 498–503, 1978.

[25] Stroeven, P., Geometric probability approach to the examination of micro-cracking in plain concrete. Journal of Materials Science, 14, pp. 1141–1151, 1979. doi:10.1007/BF00561298

[26] Stroeven, P. & Hu, J., Gradient structures in cementitious materials. Cement and Concrete Composites, 29, pp. 313–323, 2007. doi:10.1016/j.cemconcomp.2006.10.002

[27] Chaix, J.M. & Grillon, F., On the rose of direction measurements on the discrete grid of an automatic image analyser. Journal of Microscopy, 184, pp. 208–213, 1996. doi:10.1046/ j.1365-2818.1996.1190672.x

[28] Stang, H., Mobasher, B. & Shah, S.P., Quantitative damage characteri-zation in polypropylene fi bre reinforced concrete. Cement and Concrete Research, 20, pp. 540–558, 1990. 

doi:10.1016/0008-8846(90)90098-I

[29] Nemati, K.M. & Stroeven, P., Stereological analysis of micro-mechanical behaviour of concrete. Materials and Structures, 34, pp. 486–494, 2000. doi:10.1617/13604, doi:10.1007/BF02486497 [30] Carcassès, M., Ollivier, J.P. & Ringot, E., Analysis of microcracking in concrete. Acta Stereologica, 8(2), pp. 307–312, 1989.

[31] Stroeven, P., Impact of materials science and stereology on the design of experiments in concrete technology. International Journal of Microstructure Properties, 4(2), pp. 250–264, 2009. 

doi:10.1504/IJMMP.2009.028637

[32] Stroeven, P., Damage evolution in compressed concrete. Proc. Int. Conf on Fracture, ed. A. Carpinteri, Univ. Turin: Turin, 2005 (on CD).

[33] Stroeven, P., Some Aspects of the Micromechanics of Concrete, PhD Thesis, Delft Univ. Technology, Delft, 1973.

[34] Stroeven, A.P., Stroeven, P. & van der Meer, J.J.M., Microfabric analysis by manual and automated stereological procedures: a methodological approach to Antarctic tillite. Sedimentology, 52, pp. 219–233, 2005. doi:10.1111/j.1365-3091.2004.00690.x