Determining Hounsfield Unit values of mortar constituents by computerized tomography

Computerized tomography was first developed in mid-1970 for medical purposes to non-destructively monitor the conditions of human tissues and bones. The idea was to detect the transmitted X-ray radiation emitted from multiple angles and to reconstruct the data as a tomographic image in an arbitrary unit known as Hounsfield Unit (HU) emerged in data processing phase. In this study, the same methodology was employed to obtain the HU values of sand and cement, which are two main components of mortar and concrete. Ranges of HU values were calculated for cement powder, hardened cement paste the sand in both dry and wet conditions.