Pore segmentation of cement-based materials from backscattered electron images

A technique to segment pores from a normal backscattered electron (BSE) image of cement-based materials is presented. The upper threshold grey level for porosity is determined from the inflection point of the cumulative brightness histogram of the BSE image. This represents a critical point where a small incremental grey value will cause a sudden increase in thresholded area, a condition termed as overflow. The proposed technique was found to be more consistent and reliable than existing methods. Significantly fewer images are required to achieve a satisfactory level of statistical confidence for quantifying porosity.