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In order to accurately model the hydration characteristics of a portland cement, it is necessary to assure that the original three-dimensional representation of the cement particles in water is as realistic as possible. With this in mind, experimental and computational techniques have been developed to characterize the multi-phase spatial structure of the starting cement powder and create a three-dimensional representation which reliably represents the following characteristics: particle size distribution, phase volume fractions, phase surface area fractions, and phase autocorrelation structure. Determinations of the latter three of these characteristics are based on image analysis of two-dimensional images of the starting cement powder, as described in this section.