Micromechanical Response of Crystalline Phases in Alternate Cementitious Materials using 3-Dimensional X-ray Techniques.

Cementitious materials are complex composites that exhibit significant spatial heterogeneity in their chemical composition and micromechanical response. Modern 3-dimensional characterization techniques using X-rays from synchrotron light sources, such as micro-computed tomography (μCT) and far-field high-energy diffraction microscopy (ff-HEDM), are now capable of probing this micromechanical heterogeneity. In this work, the above mentioned techniques are used to understand the varying micromechanical response of crystalline phases (cubic iron oxide and α-quartz) inherently present within an alkali-activated fly ash (AAF) during in-situ confined compression.