C3S Inc. Civil / Materials Engineering, Petrographic Analysis, Concrete Expert Witness

Petrographic Analysis Services
Concrete petrography involves the optical examination of
concrete or cementitious specimens under low and high
power magnification using two standard ASTM methods:

ASTM C295: Standard Petrographic Examination of
Aggregrate for Concrete to determine:
- Alkali-silica reactive constituents in any fractions
> . of the aggregate.
- Presence of contaminants in aggregate.

ASTM C856: Standard Petrographic Examination of
Hardened Concrete to determine:
- Causes of inferior quality, distress, or deterioration
> . of concrete
- Description of cementitious matrix, including qualitative
> . determination of the kind of hydraulic binder used,
> . evidence of unsoundness of the cement, presence of >
. > mineral admixture, the nature of hydration products, > .
> . adequacy of curing and unusually high water-to-cement
> . ratio of the paste.

C3S, Inc petrographic analysis methods include:
- X-ray Diffraction (XRD)
- Scanning electron microscopy (SEM)
- Differential Thermal Analysis (DTA)

The Scanning Electron Microscopy (SEM) is capable of
viewing concrete samples to magnifications over 5,000x as
compared to petrographic analysis yielding up to 500x.
Our reports include SEM images.

Questions about petrographic analysis or testing?
> Contact us