Introduction

This web site is a resource for students and professionals interested in the microstructure of cement based materials. We have gathered images from our own collections and invited other researchers to contribute to make The Concrete Microscopy Library a comprehensive resource that can be widely used as an educational tool.

The images are provided as a public service by the contributors, and may be distributed or copied with appropriate byline/photo/image credits.

Web Site Authors:

Prof. David A. Lange Paul E. Stutzman
Department of Civil Engineering National Institute of Standards and Technology
University of Illinois Building Materials Division
2122 NCEL, MC-250 Bldg. 226, Rm B352
Urbana, IL 61801 Gaithersburg, MD 20899
Ph: 217-333-4816
Fax: 217-333-9464
Email: dlange@uiuc.edu Email: paul.stutzman@nist.gov

Acknowledgements:

The authors would like to acknowledge the University of Illinois and the National Institute of Standards and Technology for the primary support for creation and maintenance of this web page. Prof. Lange is supported by an NSF CAREER award that encourages educational outreach. Both Lange and Stutzman are affiliated with the NSF Center for Advanced Cement Based Materials. The initial motivation for The Concrete Microscopy Library was as a laboratory for the ACBM Undergraduate Faculty Enhancement Workshop in Evanston, IL, July 1999.

Sponsoring Organizations:

University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign (UIUC)

National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST)

National Science Foundation (NSF)

NSF Center for Advanced Cement-Based Materials (ACBM)

Trade Name Disclosure:

Our mention of brand names is made to provide complete details of the experimental procedure. In no case does such identification imply recommendation or endorsement by the National Institute of Standards and Technology, nor does it imply that the products are the best available for the purpose.

An invitation to you…

Do you like what we’re doing in this project? Is it useful to you? We invite your feedback via email to dlange@uiuc.edu or paul.stutzman@nist.gov.

We also invite your contributions. We are always interested in high-quality images. While this site is primarily about microscopy, we have already stretched the definition by including some video images and digital camera images at resolutions that are not truly “micrographic.” We are interested in covering the breadth of imaging techniques being used in cement and concrete research, so if you have a new approach, we can feature it along with the other methods already present in the site.

Our basic objective is to publically distribute selected high quality images, so all contributors must share that spirit of open knowledge transfer.