Quantification of the Specific Aggregate Surface Area Using X-Ray Tomography

This paper presents a new method using x-ray tomography imaging to quantify the specific surface area of aggregates. The method reconstructs the three-dimensional (3D) representation of individual particles and computes the specific surface area and the sphericity (a shape factor) of individual particles. The quantified specific surface area of a limestone aggregate in the sieve size range (3/8"-No.4) indicates that the specific surface area and the sphericity have a large variation among individual particles. However, the overall specific surface area of the aggregate particles within the same sieve size range can be accurately obtained using about 25–30 particles. It has been found that the specific surface area of the aggregates is much larger (84%) than that of the spheres of equivalent size.