Quantitative Attribute Analyses with Ground Penetrating Radar for Infrastructure Assessments and Structural Health...

Area of Science:

• Civil Engineering
• Materials Science
• Geophysics

Background:

• Structural health monitoring (SHM) is crucial for assessing civil infrastructure performance.
• Nondestructive evaluation (NDE) techniques complement SHM by providing detailed material insights.
• Ground penetrating radar (GPR) is an NDE tool typically used for defect detection, not mechanical property assessment.

Purpose of the Study:

• To investigate the effectiveness of GPR attribute analysis for characterizing concrete material properties.
• To validate SHM conclusions by correlating GPR data with known material variations.
• To explore GPR's potential as a complementary technique for SHM and NDE.

Main Methods:

• Conducted a GPR survey on Streicker Bridge, a two-phase construction with varying concrete strengths (51 MPa and 59 MPa).
• Applied standard GPR processing and attribute analysis techniques to interpret reflections.
• Identified construction elements and compared attribute signatures between different concrete strength phases.

Main Results:

• GPR attribute analysis revealed distinct signatures corresponding to different concrete compressive strengths.
• The study confirmed the sensitivity of GPR attributes to variations in material properties.
• Relative differences in attribute signatures were successfully identified between the two construction phases.

Conclusions:

• GPR attribute analysis demonstrates potential for material characterization in concrete structures.
• This method can validate and enhance structural health monitoring studies.
• GPR attribute analysis shows promise as a complementary NDE technique for infrastructure assessment.