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| Titel |
Design and testing of Ground Penetrating Radar equipment dedicated for civil engineering applications: ongoing activities in Working Group 1 of COST Action TU1208 |
| VerfasserIn |
Lara Pajewski, Guido Manacorda, Raffaele Persico |
| Konferenz |
EGU General Assembly 2015
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| Medientyp |
Artikel
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| Sprache |
Englisch
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| Digitales Dokument |
PDF |
| Erschienen |
In: GRA - Volume 17 (2015) |
| Datensatznummer |
250114938
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| Publikation (Nr.) |
 EGU/EGU2015-15775.pdf |
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| Zusammenfassung |
| This work aims at presenting the ongoing research activities carried out in Working Group 1
“Novel GPR instrumentation” of the COST (European COoperation in Science and
Technology) Action TU1208 “Civil Engineering Applications of Ground Penetrating Radar”
(www.GPRadar.eu).
The principal goal of the COST Action TU1208 is to exchange and increase scientific-technical
knowledge and experience of GPR techniques in civil engineering, simultaneously promoting
throughout Europe the effective use of this safe and non-destructive technique in the
monitoring of infrastructures and structures.
Working Group 1 (WG1) of the Action focuses on the development of innovative GPR
equipment dedicated for civil engineering applications. It includes three Projects. Project 1.1
is focused on the “Design, realisation and optimisation of innovative GPR equipment for the
monitoring of critical transport infrastructures and buildings, and for the sensing of
underground utilities and voids.” Project 1.2 is concerned with the “Development and
definition of advanced testing, calibration and stability procedures and protocols, for GPR
equipment.” Project 1.3 deals with the “Design, modelling and optimisation of GPR
antennas.”
During the first year of the Action, WG1 Members coordinated between themselves to
address the state of the art and open problems in the scientific fields identified by the
above-mentioned Projects [1, 2]. In carrying our this work, the WG1 strongly benefited from
the participation of IDS Ingegneria dei Sistemi, one of the biggest GPR manufacturers, as
well as from the contribution of external experts as David J. Daniels and Erica Utsi,
sharing with the Action Members their wide experience on GPR technology and
methodology (First General Meeting, July 2013). The synergy with WG2 and WG4 of the
Action was useful for a deep understanding of the problems, merits and limits of
available GPR equipment, as well as to discuss how to quantify the reliability of GPR
results.
An innovative reconfigurable ground-coupled stepped-frequency GPR is being studied and
optimised by a group of WG1 Members; it was designed in Italy and is equipped with two
bow-tie antennas, with a series of switches along their arms, so that their size can be varied.
The system was tested in several sites, both indoor and outdoor, in comparison with a
commercial ground-coupled pulsed system [1, 3, 4]. Subsequently, within a COST
Short-Term Scientific Mission (STSM), the prototype device was sent to Norway and
compared with a commercial ground-coupled stepped-frequency radar [5]. These
experimental activities were fundamental to gain a deepen knowledge of the reconfigurable
GPR prototype and to plan its improvement.
Another innovative system being designed within the Action and proposed by Italian
Members, will allow investigating the mechanical properties of pavement, in addition to its
geometrical and electromagnetic properties.
Cooperation with the COST Action IC1102 “Versatile, Integrated, and Signal-aware
Technologies for Antennas (VISTA)” has been established, concerning the design of GPR
antennas.
At least two more WG1 activities need to be mentioned, as they are very interesting
and promising. The first one, coordinated by Italy and involving Members and
external experts from Germany, United Kingdom, Japan and United States, is the
development of a protocol providing recommendations for the safety of people and
instruments in near surface geophysical prospecting, with a particular focus to the use of
GPR.
The second initiative is called GPR4Everyone, it was proposed by Italy and consists in
creating a virtual store of GPR equipment at the disposal of Members from inclusiveness
Countries: some Institutes have GPR systems and complementary NDT equipment no longer
used, while there are Institutes who cannot afford to buy a GPR; thus, the idea is to cense the
unused equipment and make it available to be given for free to researchers from less
research-intensive countries, as a small step to counterbalance research communities’ unequal
access to funding and resources distribution.
Acknowledgement
The Authors thank COST, for funding the COST Action TU1208 “Civil Engineering
Applications of Ground Penetrating Radar.”
References
[1] Proceedings of the First Action’s General Meeting (Rome, Italy, 22-24 July 2013), 1st
edition, COST Action TU1208, L. Pajewski, A. Benedetto, Eds., ISBN 978-88-548-6191-6
(Aracne, 2013).
[2] Civil Engineering Applications of Ground Penetrating Radar, A. Benedetto, L. Pajewski,
Eds., ISBN 978-3-319-04812-3 (Springer, 2015, in press).
[3] Proceedings of the 15th International Conference on Ground Penetrating Radar - GPR
2014, S. Lambot, A. Giannopoulos, L. Pajewski, F. De André, E. Slob, C. Craeye, Eds., IEEE
Conf. Number 35163 (IEEE, 2014).
[4] Proceedings of the Second Action’s General Meeting (Vienna, Austria, 30 April-2 May
2014), COST Action TU1208, L. Pajewski, A. Benedetto, Eds., ISBN 978-88-548-7224-0
(Aracne, 2014). |
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