Articles | Volume 5, issue 2
https://doi.org/10.5194/gi-5-567-2016
https://doi.org/10.5194/gi-5-567-2016
Research article
 | 
15 Dec 2016
Research article |  | 15 Dec 2016

Application of ground-penetrating radar technique to evaluate the waterfront location in hardened concrete

Isabel Rodríguez-Abad, Gilles Klysz, Rosa Martínez-Sala, Jean Paul Balayssac, and Jesús Mené-Aparicio

Abstract. The long-term performance of concrete structures is directly tied to two factors: concrete durability and strength. When assessing the durability of concrete structures, the study of the water penetration is paramount, because almost all reactions like corrosion, alkali–silica, sulfate, etc., which produce their deterioration, require the presence of water. Ground-penetrating radar (GPR) has shown to be very sensitive to water variations. On this basis, the objective of this experimental study is, firstly, to analyze the correlation between the water penetration depth in concrete samples and the GPR wave parameters. To do this, the samples were immersed into water for different time intervals and the wave parameters were obtained from signals registered when the antenna was placed on the immersed surface of the samples. Secondly, a procedure has been developed to be able to determine, from those signals, the reliability in the detection and location of waterfront depths. The results have revealed that GPR may have an enormous potential in this field, because excellent agreements were found between the correlated variables. In addition, when comparing the waterfront depths calculated from GPR measurements and those visually registered after breaking the samples, we observed that they totally agreed when the waterfront was more than 4 cm depth.

Download
Short summary
When assessing concrete structures durability, the study of the water penetration is critical, because almost all deterioration reactions require the presence of water. Due to the nondestructive nature of ground-penetrating radar (GPR) technique, the objective of this study is, firstly, to assess water penetration depths in concrete from GPR wave parameters. Secondly, a procedure was developed to be able to determine, from GPR signals, the location of waterfront depths.