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Menu Selection 15 can be used to selectively leach (remove) a portion or the complete volume of a phase(s) from a hydrated microstructure. The calcium hydroxide (CH) and the initial four cement clinker phases are all leachable, with the user selecting which phases to include in a specific execution of the leaching algorithm. As shown in the input form in Figure 18, the user must supply the filename of the microstructure to be leached, a new filename in which to store the microstructure after leaching, the phases to be leached, the number of leaching cycles to execute or to entirely leach the selected phases from the microstructure, a leaching probability (pl in the range 0.0-1.0), a negative integer random number seed for the leaching process, and their e-mail address. The leaching probability can be used to control the amount of a phase(s) leached in a given cycle. If a given leachable phase pixel is in contact with pore space, it will be leached with probability pl (and remain as is with probability 1-pl). In this way, microstructures with "leached" levels less than that removed during a single cycle of full (pl=1.0) leaching can be created for subsequent evaluation.
Figure 18: Form to specify inputs for leaching CH/cement from a hydrated 3-D microstructure.