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Geosciences
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Advances in Ground Penetrating Radar Research
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Advances in Ground Penetrating Radar Research

A special issue of Geosciences (ISSN 2076-3263). This special issue belongs to the section "Geophysics".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (31 December 2018) | Viewed by 30216

Special Issue Editors

Prof. Dr. Vega Perez-Gracia

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
GIES Research Group, Universitat Politecnica de Catalunya, Barcelona, Spain
Interests: ground-penmetrating radar; applied geophysics; geophysical prospection; civil engineering assessment; archaeology; cultural heritage; buildings; signal processing; surveys in agriculture
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals
Dr. Sonia Santos Assunçao

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
Department of Fluid Mechanics, Polytechnic University of Catalonia, Campus Diagonal Besòs, Edifici A (EEBE), Av. Eduard Maristany, 16, 08019 Barcelona, Spain
Interests: ground penetrating radar; cultural heritage; civil engineering; geophysics; archaeology; data analysis
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals
Dr. Wallace Wai Lok Lai

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
Department of Land Surveying and Geo-informatics, The Hong Kong Polytechnic University, Room ZS621, 6/F, South Wing, Block Z, Phase 8, 181 Chatham Road South, Hung Hom, Kowloon, Hong Kong, China
Interests: ground penetrating radar; nondestructive testing and evaluation; engineering geophysics; data processing
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

This special issue is a collection of innovative contributions on ground penetrating radar (GPR) technology, methodology and applications. GPR is a widely known non-destructive method that uses electromagnetic waves to image the subsoil or structures. The technique allows defining the structural arrangement of media with contrastive electromagnetic properties and to detect pathologies.

The first reported attempt at measuring subsurface features with radio waves was done in 1956, when the interference between direct air transmitted signals and signals reflected from the water table was exploited to estimate the water table depth. In the subsequent years, the majority of activity regarded radio echo sounding in ice, both in polar regions and on glaciers. Subsequently, radio waves were used to explore coal mines and salt deposits. The Apollo 17 lunar exploration (1972) included the measurement of surface electrical properties by using a pulsed radar sounder. After that, GPR equipment started being commercialized and applications began to grow. Throughout the years, hardware systems and software have been sophisticated to provide better resolution at higher data acquisition speed and more user friendly equipment. Recently GPR multi-channel systems were developed, combining different frequency antennas. GPR has been mounted on road and marine vehicles and even to drones. The newer systems combine GPR with complementary non-destructive sensors. Software progress comprises interactive data filtering, three-dimensional (3D) processing and accurate electromagnetic modelling. Recent software options permit to combine and compare GPR data with information measured by other geophysical techniques. GPR and its applications are a trend in science. The 4-years European project COST Action TU1208 significantly contributed to this area of research and particularly to the use of GPR in civil engineering.

We invite researchers to contribute with original articles presenting the most recent progresses and interesting case studies within the following topics, and beyond:

  • Design, realization and testing of GPR systems and antennas
  • GPR data processing and analysis
  • Modelling and inversion methods for GPR
  • Imaging approaches and 3D visualization
  • Applications of GPR in the geosciences
  • Applications of GPR in environment
  • Geological and geotechnical applications of GPR
  • Environmental engineering applications of GPR and prospection of natural landscapes
  • Applications of GPR in agriculture and for water management
  • GPR archaeological prospection
  • New data processing algorithms
  • Mine detection and forensics
  • Combined use of GPR and complementary non-destructive and semi-destructive techniques

Dr. Vega Pérez-Gracia
Dr. Sonia Santos-Assunçao
Dr. Wallace Wai Lok Lai
Guest Editors

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Geosciences is an international peer-reviewed open access monthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 1800 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

Keywords

  • ground penetrating radar
  • non-destructive testing
  • electromagnetic waves
  • signal processing
  • antennas and radar systems
  • geosciences
  • cultural heritage
  • archaeological prospecting
  • environmental prospecting
  • integrated geophysical methods

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Published Papers (5 papers)

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24 pages, 7366 KiB  
Article
Toward Core-Free Pavement Compaction Evaluation: An Innovative Method Relating Asphalt Permittivity to Density
by Kyle Hoegh, Roger Roberts, Shongtao Dai and Eyoab Zegeye Teshale
Geosciences 2019, 9(7), 280; https://doi.org/10.3390/geosciences9070280 - 26 Jun 2019
Cited by 23 | Viewed by 5125
Abstract
Asphalt pavement compaction quality control and quality assurance (QC/QA) are traditionally based on destructive drilled cores and/or nuclear gauge results, which both are spot measurements representing significantly less than 1 percent of the in-service pavement. Ground penetrating radar (GPR) is emerging as a [...] Read more.
Asphalt pavement compaction quality control and quality assurance (QC/QA) are traditionally based on destructive drilled cores and/or nuclear gauge results, which both are spot measurements representing significantly less than 1 percent of the in-service pavement. Ground penetrating radar (GPR) is emerging as a tool that can be used for nondestructive continuous assessment of asphalt pavement compaction quality through measuring the pavement dielectric constant. Previous studies have established that asphalt pavement dielectric constant measurements are inversely proportional to the air void content for a given asphalt mixture. However, field cores are currently required to calibrate the measured dielectric constant to the pavement density. In this paper, a method is proposed to eliminate the need for field calibration cores by measuring the dielectric constant of asphalt specimens compacted to various air void contents. This can be accomplished with a superpave gyratory compactor (SGC), which is routinely used in the pavement industry to fabricate 6 in. (15.2 cm.) diameter specimens. However, this poses difficulties with the GPR antenna height, direct coupling, and the Fresnel zone in relation to the asphalt specimen dimension limitation. These challenges are overcome by employing a plastic spacer with a known dielectric constant between the SGC specimen and the antenna. The purpose of the spacer is to reduce GPR wave speed so that the signal reflected from the specimen is separated from the direct coupling effects at an antenna height where the Fresnel zone of the GPR is not affected by the specimen dimension. The specimen dielectric constant can then be measured using the reflection coefficient-based surface reflection method (SR) or the pulse velocity-based time-of-flight method (TOF). Also, The Hoegh–Dai model (HD model) is demonstrated to reasonably predict pavement density based on the results of field measurements and corresponding core validation, especially as compared to the conventional exponential model. Results are presented from multiple days of paving on one project, as well as a single paving day on a project with significantly different mix properties. The agreement between the HD model, coreless prediction, and field cores shows the promise for implementation of dielectric-based asphalt compaction evaluation without the need for destructive field core calibration. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Advances in Ground Penetrating Radar Research)
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13 pages, 2348 KiB  
Article
Data Acquisition Methodologies Utilizing Ground Penetrating Radar for Cassava (Manihot esculenta Crantz) Root Architecture
by Alfredo Delgado, Alexandre Novo and Dirk B. Hays
Geosciences 2019, 9(4), 171; https://doi.org/10.3390/geosciences9040171 - 15 Apr 2019
Cited by 10 | Viewed by 4311
Abstract
Cassava (Manihot esculenta Crantz), a root crop utilized as food and industrial starch product, develops and maintains its marketable product sub-surface. Often, however, it is difficult to determine the potentially marketable goods available at any given time due to the sub-surface nature [...] Read more.
Cassava (Manihot esculenta Crantz), a root crop utilized as food and industrial starch product, develops and maintains its marketable product sub-surface. Often, however, it is difficult to determine the potentially marketable goods available at any given time due to the sub-surface nature of the product and the inability to non-destructively sample. This dilemma has provided an avenue for application of ground penetrating radar. Relatively available designs of this technology, however, are cumbersome and do not provide the efficiencies for field applications. The objective of this research was to determine the functionality of a two Gigahertz frequency IDS GeoRadar C-Thrue antenna for the detection and parameterization of root architecture to be utilized for estimating marketable product. Cassava roots were buried across three horizontal and two vertical orientations to simulate the multi-directional nature of cassava roots. The antenna has dual polarization which also allowed to testing efficacy of polarization for detecting the varying root orientations. This study found that the C-Thrue system, more specifically, the Vertical transmit and Vertical receive polarization, was the most effective at accurately estimating cassava root length and widths at varying angles that simulate root development in true fields. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Advances in Ground Penetrating Radar Research)
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23 pages, 12583 KiB  
Article
GPR Imaging for Deeply Buried Objects: A Comparative Study Based on Compositing of Scanning Frequencies and a Chirp Excitation Function
by Roger Tilley, Hamid R. Sadjadpour and Farid Dowla
Geosciences 2019, 9(3), 132; https://doi.org/10.3390/geosciences9030132 - 18 Mar 2019
Cited by 1 | Viewed by 3755
Abstract
Compositing of ground penetrating radar (GPR) scans of differing frequencies have been found to produce cleaner images at depth using the Gaussian mixture model (GMM) feature of the expectation-maximization (EM) algorithm. GPR scans at various heights (“Stand Off”), as well as ground-based scans, [...] Read more.
Compositing of ground penetrating radar (GPR) scans of differing frequencies have been found to produce cleaner images at depth using the Gaussian mixture model (GMM) feature of the expectation-maximization (EM) algorithm. GPR scans at various heights (“Stand Off”), as well as ground-based scans, have been studied. In this paper, we compare the GPR response from a chirp excitation function-based radar with the response from the EM GMM algorithm compositing process, using the same mix of frequencies. A chirp excitation pulse was found to be effective in delineating the defined buried object, but the resulting image is less sharp than the GMM EM method. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Advances in Ground Penetrating Radar Research)
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12 pages, 12244 KiB  
Article
Multi-Azimuth Ground Penetrating Radar Surveys to Improve the Imaging of Complex Fractures
by Federico Lombardi and Maurizio Lualdi
Geosciences 2018, 8(11), 425; https://doi.org/10.3390/geosciences8110425 - 20 Nov 2018
Cited by 3 | Viewed by 3986
Abstract
Ground Penetrating Radar (GPR) images are affected, to some degree, by the relative orientation of antennas and subsurface targets. This is particularly true not only for targets that show a significant directivity, but also for inclined planes, such as fractures and faults. Depending [...] Read more.
Ground Penetrating Radar (GPR) images are affected, to some degree, by the relative orientation of antennas and subsurface targets. This is particularly true not only for targets that show a significant directivity, but also for inclined planes, such as fractures and faults. Depending on the relative geometry between the antennas and the orientation of the target, radar waves can be preferentially scattered, which causes changes in the reflected signal amplitude. Therefore, traditional single polarization and single azimuth surveys may produce inadequate results. The work presented here examines the use of a multi-azimuth GPR survey to increase the imaging performance of inclined fractures, showing the shortcomings of single-profile surveying and highlighting the benefits that such a strategy has on detection and characterization. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Advances in Ground Penetrating Radar Research)
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20 pages, 5902 KiB  
Benchmark
Signal Processing of GPR Data for Road Surveys
by Luca Bianchini Ciampoli, Fabio Tosti, Nikos Economou and Francesco Benedetto
Geosciences 2019, 9(2), 96; https://doi.org/10.3390/geosciences9020096 - 19 Feb 2019
Cited by 95 | Viewed by 10980
Abstract
Effective quality assurance and quality control inspections of new roads as well as assessment of remaining service-life of existing assets is taking priority nowadays. Within this context, use of ground penetrating radar (GPR) is well-established in the field, although standards for a correct [...] Read more.
Effective quality assurance and quality control inspections of new roads as well as assessment of remaining service-life of existing assets is taking priority nowadays. Within this context, use of ground penetrating radar (GPR) is well-established in the field, although standards for a correct management of datasets collected on roads are still missing. This paper reports a signal processing method for data acquired on flexible pavements using GPR. To demonstrate the viability of the method, a dataset collected on a real-life flexible pavement was used for processing purposes. An overview of the use of non-destructive testing (NDT) methods in the field, including GPR, is first given. A multi-stage method is then presented including: (i) raw signal correction; (ii) removal of lower frequency harmonics; (iii) removal of antenna ringing; (iv) signal gain; and (v) band-pass filtering. Use of special processing steps such as vertical resolution enhancement, migration and time-to-depth conversion are finally discussed. Key considerations about the effects of each step are given by way of comparison between processed and unprocessed radargrams. Results have proven the viability of the proposed method and provided recommendations on use of specific processing stages depending on survey requirements and quality of the raw dataset. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Advances in Ground Penetrating Radar Research)
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