Magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) and relaxation time mapping of concrete

The use of Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) of water in concrete is presented.; This thesis will approach the problem of MR imaging of concrete by attempting to design new methods, suited to concrete materials, rather than attempting to force the material to suit the method. A number of techniques were developed, which allow the spatial observation of water in concrete in up to three dimensions, and permits the determination of space resolved moisture content, as well as local NMR relaxation times. These methods are all based on the Single-Point Imaging (SPI) method. The development of these new methods will be described, and the techniques validated using phantom studies.; The study of one-dimensional moisture transport in drying concrete was performed using SPI. This work examined the effect of initial mixture proportions and hydration time on the drying behaviour of concrete, over a period of three months. Studies of drying concrete were also performed using spatial mapping of the spin-lattice (T₁) and effective spin-spin (T₂*) relaxation times, thereby permitting the observation of changes in the water occupied pore surface-to-volume ratio (S/V) as a function of drying. Results of this work demonstrated changes in the S/V due to drying, hydration and drying induced microcracking.; Three-dimensional MRI of concrete was performed using SPRITE (Single-Point Ramped Imaging with T₁ Enhancement) and turboSPI (turbo Single Point Imaging). While SPRITE allows for weighting of MR images using T ₁ and T₂*, turboSPI allows T₂ weighting of the resulting images. Using relaxation weighting it was shown to be possible to discriminate between water contained within a hydrated cement matrix, and water in highly porous aggregates, used to produce low-density concrete.; Three dimensional experiments performed using SPRITE and turboSPI examined the role of self-dessication, drying, initial aggregate saturation and initial mixture conditions on the transport of moisture between porous aggregates and the hydrated matrix. The results demonstrate that water is both added and removed from the aggregates, depending upon the physical conditions. The images also appear to show an influx of cement products into cracks in the solid aggregate. (Abstract shortened by UMI.)...