A high water to cement ratio in concrete produces excessive porosity in the paste, thereby increasing the concrete’s susceptibility to sulfate attack and subsequent premature deterioration. Widely used as a building material, concrete experiences physical and chemical deterioration whose extent and nature may be determined by polarized light microscopy (PLM) and scanning electron microscopy (SEM). New software innovations allow exact image relocation in PLM and SEM, thereby producing complementary information which aids in analyst recognition and increases the effectiveness of each analytical technique.

Although overlapping information may be derived using both PLM and SEM, each technique has inherent advantages and disadvantages which complement the other. The advantages of PLM include a color image, good low magnification resolution providing a bridge between macro/micro analysis, and the ability to distinguish polymorphs and materials of nearly identical composition (e.g., solid-solution series components). Disadvantages of PLM include limited high magnification potential, mineralogical identification based on the analyst’s knowledge of optics, and the need for photographic attachments.