Incorporation of GPR data into characterization of the bitumen filled cracks in pavements: Lab and numerical study
- 1POLYTECHNIC UNIVERSITY OF CATALUNYA, EEBE School, RMEE, BARCELONA, Spain (mezgeen.rasol@upc.edu, vega.perez@upc.edu)
- 2Defense University Center, Spanish Naval Academy, Pontevedra, Spain (merchisolla@cud.uvigo.es)
- 3University of Minho, Department of Civil Engineering, Guimarães, Portugal ( jpais@civil.uminho.pt, caiorubensgs@gmail.com)
- 4University Lusíada – Norte, Largo Tinoco de Sousa, Vila Nova de Famalicão, Portugal (francisco.fernandes@fam.ulusiada.pt)
- 5Met Consultancy Group, Southgate House, Leeds, United Kingdom (sam.roberts@metconsultancygroup.com)
Road pavements are subject to a range of problems due to traffic and temperature variations
producing cracks that propagate to the pavement surface. Cracks need to be assessed to avoid
deterioration and provide confidence in the functioning of the road system. Cracks are usually
maintained after visual inspection by filling with bitumen as a first rehabilitation technique to
avoid further deterioration and absorbing water leakages. Although this temporary solution does
not extend the pavement life cycle it can help to avoid additional problems occurring within the
pavement. This work is proposed to aid the development of understanding and characterization
of cracks filled with bitumen in both rigid and asphalt pavements.
This study reports on the results of several laboratory experiments that were performed to
explore the capability of Ground Penetrating Radar (GPR) in the assesment of bitumen-filled
cracks in both rigid and asphalt pavements, respectively. These tests were focused on the
analysis of cracking filled with bitumen using a GPR system equipped with a ground-coupled
antenna with a 2.3 GHz central frequency, and varying the antenna orientation with respect to the
crack axis.
Results showed the variation in characterization and changes in amplitude that could be expected
when analysing bitumen-filled cracks in concrete and asphalt specimens, dependent upon the
antenna orientation being used; GPR B-scans were compared to images from computational
models using a Finite-Difference Time-Domain (FDTD) method-based software package
(gprMax2D). Additionally, a field survey carried out provided images consistent with the
comparable conditions of the lab tests. The results of this work proved the capability of the GPR
method to detect and characterize cracks filled with bitumen in pavements across a range of
crack dimensions and pavement types.
Keywords
GPR, NDT, Rigid pavements, Asphalt Pavements, Cracks, Computational models, Target orientation,
Pavement assessmen
How to cite: Rasol, M., Gracia, V. P., Solla, M., Pais, J. C., Fernandes, F. M., Santos, C., and Roberts, S.: Incorporation of GPR data into characterization of the bitumen filled cracks in pavements: Lab and numerical study , EGU General Assembly 2020, Online, 4–8 May 2020, EGU2020-20920, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-egu2020-20920, 2020
