Ground Penetrating Radar (also known as Ground Radar, GPR, Impulse Radar Ground Probing Radar, Sub-surface Radar and Surface Penetrating Radar) was originally developed for mapping geological features. It is now increasingly used as an NDT survey technique in Civil Engineering and offers a unique non-invasive and non-destructive means for the characterisation of the subsurface and subsurface features.
Ground Penetrating Radar surveys can be used on a wide variety of materials, most commonly soil, concrete, masonry and asphalt.
Ground Penetrating Radar Applications
The following list of Ground Penetrating Surveys offered by Sandberg demonstrates some of the more common GPR applications for the construction industry:
- Construction detail surveys: A Ground Penetrating Radar survey can determine the general construction arrangement, including changes in material type, location of structural steelwork and layer thickness.
- Concrete mapping surveys: Ground Penetrating Radar can be used to inspect concrete floors, walls, decks, slabs, tunnels, balconies, warehouses and garages. It can locate and map rebar, tendons and conduits at a higher resolution and at greater depths than most other survey methods.
- Chimney flue location surveys: Ground Penetrating Radar offers a quick and non-intrusive method of locating and mapping chimney flues. The results can either be marked-up on-site or CAD drawings.
- Floor slab surveys: A rapid means of determining general slab construction detail, including reinforcement distribution and slab thickness. Ground Penetrating Radar can also detect voids below slabs and map their extent, thereby identifying potential problems in heavily trafficked slabs, such as warehouses before failure occurs.
- Embedded steel location: surveys to locate embedded steel in masonry. Particularly suitable for the characterisation of historical and listed buildings due to the survey being non-intrusive.
- Roads, runways and pavement surveys: GPR can determine pavement thickness (asphalt and concrete), detect voids underneath the road pavement, identify de-bonding between layers and determine layer thickness.
- Buried object location: Ground Penetrating Radar survey can locate underground storage tanks (UST), grave location, forensic investigations and a wide variety of other buried objects.
- Utility surveys: Ground Penetrating Radar is the only non-destructive technology that can identify non-metallic as well as metallic subsurface utilities. It is suitable for the location of services including water, sewer, gas, electric, telephone and fibre optic.
- Hazardous waste: Having successfully located buried pipes, drums and underground storage tanks, Ground Penetrating Radar can, under the right conditions, be used to identify the extent of any leakage and contamination.
- Foundation investigation surveys: Ground Penetrating Radar is a useful tool for the location, investigation and determination of the extent of footings and foundations.
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