Ground Penetrating Radar Assessment of Flexible Road Pavement Degradation

Abstract

GPR investigations were used to study degraded road pavements built in cutting sections. Road integrity was assessed via quantitative analysis of power curves. 1600 MHz and 600 MHz radar sections were collected in 40 damaged and undamaged road pavement sites. The collected data were processed as follows: (i) linearisation with regression analysis of power curves; (ii) assessment of absorption angleα′ which is directly proportional to absorption coefficientα(this was obtained by setting the e.m. propagation velocity to 10 cm/ns); (iii) comparison of absorption coefficients in both damaged and undamaged zones with respect to road pavement degradation. If the absorption coefficients of damaged and undamaged road sections have nearly the same value, then the likely cause of degradation is the fatigue or the thermal shrinkage; if they are not, then road degradation is due to the different compactness of the soil caused by vehicular traffic load. In a considerable number of sites, the statistical comparison of damaged and undamaged zones through the absorption coefficient analysis shows that surface observations of road pavements are quite consistent with power curve analyses.

A Review of GPR Application on Transport Infrastructures: Troubleshooting and Best Practices

“…Those clays produce an extreme attenuation of the GPR signals. Other studies demonstrate that GPR is effective in determining the asphalt layers, being moderately successful in the detection of base thickness and shallow stratigraphy and is not applicable in the location of the near-surface bedrock [225]. However, other studies demonstrate that a 600 MHz center frequency antenna allows the detection of the bedrock contact and also changes in the compaction of the subgrade, locating areas under the pavement with poor soil compaction [226].…”

Automated detection of cracks in roads using ground penetrating radar

“…Furthermore, the low speed of operation (1.3 km/day), due to the small sampling intervals (10 mm and 20 mm for joint and crack detection respectively) being used in an attempt to achieve higher accuracy, was a drawback of the employed method in practice. Colagrande et al (2011) investigated which GPR parameters, including power curves, absorption angle and absorption coefficients (obtained by setting the propagation velocity to 10 cm/ns), should be considered when attempting to detect the main cause(s) of deterioration of a flexible asphalt road pavement. The study collected GPR data from 40 deteriorated and newly constructed roads using 1600 MHz and 600 MHz antennas.…”

Improving Maintenance Practice for Road Network in Sudan

“…They are due to deterioration of its load-bearing capacity and have major effect on pavement durability. Defects of this type include surface cracks, longitudinal, and transverse cracks, alligator cracks and failures [11,12].…”