Use of Ground-Penetrating Radar (GPR) as an Effective Tool in Assessing Pavements—A Review

Abstract

In recent times, the road network in India is increasing rapidly and has become main route of transportation for goods and people. This has led to the boom in economic activities leading to greater tonnage being carried by the road. Further, this is assisted with the increase in road network by constructing new highways and increasing the traffic capacity of the existing highways/roads. The quality of roads and the thickness of each layer need to be designed properly to cater to this increased traffic movement and the tonnage too. GPR assists in quality assessment and interpretation of pavement conditions more precisely. With the use, the pavements generally tend to have problems, viz. cracking, roughness, rutting, and raveling over a period of time. To enhance the life of pavement, improve its riding quality, and minimize the maintenance requires thorough investigations of the existing pavements. Previously, investigations were carried out using visual observation of base course, core extraction, and its examination in the laboratory for which the core is extracted from the rutted section of roads. The methods used conventionally are time consuming, difficult to perform, and also not economical. So geophysical method such as ground-penetrating radar (GPR) is an alternative to the conventional methods, and being nondestructive, it is less difficult, time consuming, and also economical to use which gives detailed information about the pavement layer thickness, measurement of depth of rebar, dowel, etc., without much disturbance to the existing traffic movement. Thus, GPR can be used effectively in estimating total deteriorated sections and repair estimates.