EGU2020-20920, updated on 12 Jun 2020
https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-egu2020-20920
EGU General Assembly 2020
© Author(s) 2020. This work is distributed under
the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.

Incorporation of GPR data into characterization of the bitumen filled cracks in pavements: Lab and numerical study

Mezgeen Rasol1, Vega Pérez Gracia1, Mercedes Solla2, Jorge C. Pais3, Francisco M. Fernandes4, Caio Santos3, and Sam Roberts5
Mezgeen Rasol et al.
  • 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

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