Detecting Reinforced Concrete Rebars Using Ground Penetrating Radars

Abstract

A new algorithm is developed to automatically detect rebar locations and diameters of reinforced concrete structures using the ground penetrating radar technique. The study uses two-way travel time and biquadratic equations to formulate electromagnetic wave speed in reinforced concrete structures where hyperbolic signatures are approximated. Leveraging an established algorithm, a computer code has been developed to offer automated analysis of ground-penetrating radar data obtained from survey grids. Four reinforced concrete slabs were designed, fabricated, and tested to validate the developed evaluation approach. The proposed methodology demonstrates outstanding signal processing proficiency and reliably and effectively identifies rebar information.

Keywords

• nondestructive evaluation
• ground-penetrating radar
• rebar depth
• rebar diameter
• reinforced-concrete structures