SEM and 3D microtomography application to investigate the distribution of fibers in advanced cementitious composites

Abstract The incorporation of fibers on cement composites reduces its fragility, turning it a ductile material. The amount of fibers and its distribution presents a large influence on the composite performance, especially by the fact that it is self-consolidating, which facilitates the fiber distribution. 3D microtomography is an efficient tool for determining the fibers distribution, generating images and creating a representation in three dimensions of the sample. Moreover, the scanning electron microscopy (SEM) can be used to analyze the interaction of fibers with the cement composite. The purpose of this paper is to investigate the application of these techniques to visualize the distribution and interaction of metallic and polypropylene fibers inserted into an advanced cementitious composite, at 3% in volume content. The results presented these techniques' efficiency in the verification of fibers distribution within the mixture and the absence of flaws in the composition.