Applications of GPR in association with other non-destructive-testing methods in building assessment and in geological/geotechnical tasks. State of the art and open issues

Abstract

Geophysics is the study of the earth’s interior, using measurements based on physics principles. A part of this, geophysics is also used to explore the interior of construction materials of buildings and Monuments. The major advantage of this science is its absolute non-destructive character. However, despite geophysics exist since the beginning of the 19th century the Ground Penetrating Radar (GPR) method is recently introduced in this domain, counting almost 50 years of active contribution. During these years, GPR was proved very effective in the building assessment. In the field of geotechnical tasks and especially in geological tasks, its efficiency was limited and strongly dependent on the site conditions, mostly due to its limited in-depth penetration and relative target discrimination. Future research must be oriented to the improvement of these two major milestones, mostly into the antennas design and related instruments electronics design.