Ground Penetrating Radar Evaluation and System Integration: Progress Report. Digital Highway Measurement (DHM) Vehicle Project, Turner Fairbank Highway Research Center. Natchez Trace Ground Penetrating Radar (GPR) Field Trial: DHM Subsurface Sensor Compar

摘要

The Federal Highway Administration (FHWA) is developing several sensor technologies to satisfy needs for efficient, safe and accurate pavement and infrastructure evaluation. New methods for fusing data from many sensors have made pavement and infrastructure evaluation with integrated, multi sensor vehicles an important application and research area. One type of sensor technology under consideration for these applications is ground penetrating radar (GPR). GPR can be a useful technology for pavement, drainage, bridge, materials evaluation and other subsurface measurement and detection needs. A field trial was carried out for this study to evaluate the performance characteristics of a new type of ground penetrating radar (GPR) instrument. The evaluation consisted of a comparison with standard GPR technology and an assessment of the new GPR instruments capabilities to meet needs defined by a FHWA project specification. The specification under consideration was for the FHWA Digital Highway Measurement (DHM) vehicle project. The field trial took place along a designated segment of the Natchez Trace Parkway near Vicksburg, Mississippi. A previous test had already been completed on the same site using standard GPR technology, which was used for comparison.