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CHAPTER 1
BACKGROUND STUDY
1.1 Introduction
Currently, engineering world nowadays has many advanced technologies that lead
construction industries to a better future. The purpose of developing these
technologies is to discover a good solution in managing the process of preferable
construction due to time saving, economical budget, and quality of the construction.
In the other hands, along with these advance technologies, engineers must be able to
think creatively on how to driven the technologies when it comes to finding the best
solutions regarding any problems towards construction or reconstruction. Although,
some advance technologies can not function beyond the expectations this is due to
the damaging of sub-surface when to relocate underground utilities.
Damages to sub-surface utility facilities during construction processes can incur
significant financial and non-financial losses. It is dangerous and expensive to
determine the buried utilities during construction and therefore it is best identify and
solve conflicts prior to construction (Jamil, 2012). Thus, to overcome such problem,
equipment namely Ground Penetrating Radar (GPR) has been created to avoid
damaging of the sub-surface when detected work of buried object underground.
Ground Penetrating Radar (GPR) is a non-destructive geophysical method that
produces a continuous cross-sectional profile or record of subsurface features
without drilling, probing, or digging (Aswini, 2012).
GPR can be used in a variety of media, including rock, soil, ice, fresh water,
pavements and structure. It can detect objects, changes in material and voids, and
cracks. It also can be used for evaluating the location and depth of buried objects and
to investigate the presence and continuity of natural subsurface conditions and
features (Indhumati, 2013). Besides, GPR is a high frequency electromagnetic
technique that has been developed to investigate the shallow subsurface using the
contrast of dielectric properties. The method operates on the simple principle that
electromagnetic waves that emitted from a transmitter antenna are reflected from
buried objects and detected at another antenna which is acting as receiver. It is
sensitive to changes in all three electromagnetic characteristics of a medium, electric
permittivity, electric conductivity, and magnetic permeability (Al-dami, 2012).
The purpose of this study is to calibrate the relationship of weather effect to the
GPR result. Along with improvement in engineering sciences, natural occurrences
such as rainfall and heat can affect the technological expertise. An appreciation of
the dielectric properties of water enables electromagnetic wave propagation to be
assessed in a range of earth materials (Gunton. et al., 1988). These techniques are a
part of the geophysical method that can be conducted using appropriate equipment to
gained data, such as depth of beneath materials from the ground sub-surface.
special tools and techniques. Therefore, advanced geophysical tools such as Ground
Penetrating Radar (GPR) are largely used to detect underground facilities.
Electromagnetic detection techniques are unable to detect non-metallic buried
services including plastic, water and gas-pipes and clay drainage pipes. Besides,
GPR has the advantage of detecting virtually anything below the surface. It also
gives an indication of the location and depth of buried utilities, but does not identify
them. Thus, the depth of buried object detected is not always accurate depending on
the conditions of the site and the GPR data will be influenced by the water content of
the soil which is effected of the weather condition. So, the study of assessment of the
weather effect on GPR result will be conducted to overcome such problem.
The aim of this project is to assess the weathering effect on the Ground Penetrating
Radar (GPR) result. In order to achieve these aims, the objective of the study is
formulated as follows:
In order to achieve these aims, the objectives of the study are formulated as
follows:
i.
ii.
This research will focus on the assessment of weather effect on Ground Penetrating
Radar (GPR) data which depends on the calibration of the weather condition in order
to investigate the depth of the buried metal plate. This system should be applied to
the material and soil, thus to evaluate the electromagnetic wave that produced by the
Ground Penetrating Radar (GPR). This research will be conducted at the Research
Centre of Soft Soil (RECESS), UTHM which involve the process of excavating of
the soil in a certain depth and cultivation of the buried metal plate.
CHAPTER 2
LITERATURE REVIEW
2.1 Overview
Frequency
Frequency (f) is a measurement of the variation in amplitude occurring in an
electromagnetic signal as a function of time. This variation can be considered
sinusoidal for single-frequency signals or a convolution of a number of sinewaves where an electrical pulse is used.
2.2.2
Conductivity ()
Conductivity is a measurement of the degree to which a soil allows the passage
of electrical charge through it. In most soils the conductivity is ionic and so
dependent on the prevalence and mobility of ions in the pore water.
2.2.3
Permittivity ()
Permittivity is a measurement of the signal energy that can be stored in a
material, through separation of charges such as ions, protons and electrons in a
material. Permittivity is divided between a real part representing the storage of
energy () and an imaginary part representing loss mechanisms that degrade
energy storage (). The permeability of a material is generally expressed in
terms of its ratio to the permittivity of a vacuum and then known as the relative
permittivity or dielectric constant (I).
2.2.4
Magnetic Permeability ()
Magnetic permeability is a measure of signal energy stored in a material due to
the lining up of atomic and sub-atomic particle spin directions. As with
permittivity, magnetic permeability can be divided into real () and imaginary
() aspects, although in practice most soils are considered to have simple
magnetic properties and so loss mechanisms are often ignored. It is also
commonly referred to as a relative property based on its ratio to the magnetic
permeability of a vacuum (I).
object. Figure 2.3 below shows a sketch of the basic components of a GPR
system and principle of it operation.
Ground Penetrating Radar (GPR) uses high-frequency that usually polarized radio
waves and transmits into the ground. When the wave hits a buried object or a
boundary with different dielectric constant the receiving antenna records variations
in the reflected return signal. The principle involved is similar to reflection
seismology except that electromagnetic energy is used instead of acoustic energy and
reflection appears at boundaries with different dielectric constant instead of acoustic
impedances (Victor Pinto, 2000).
The most accurate way of determining the velocity of the material being scanned is
to use the hyperbola-fitting method because it extracts the velocity using data
collected in the area. This method may not work in all situations because it depends
on having a good quality hyperbola (or inverted U) in the data. A hyperbola is the
characteristic of Ground Penetrating Radar (GPR) that response from a small point
target like a pipe, rock or even a tree root. This phenomenon occurs because radar
energy does not radiate as a pencil-thin beam but more like a 3D cone (Sven, 2010)..
Reflections can appear on the record even though the object is not directly
below the radar system. Thus, the radar system will see the buried object before and
after going over top of it and forms a hyperbolic reflection. Besides, if the hyperbola
has long tails on it, the shape of the hyperbola can be match and the velocity of the
material in the area can be determine. Figure 2.5 below shows the hyperbolas pattern
that form from detected buried material.
10
Figure 2.5. Hyperbola pattern form from detected buried material (Sven,
2010)
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Material
Porosity
Water
Dielectric
Electrical
Velocity
Attenution
Skin
(%)
Saturation
Constant
Conductivity
(m/ns)
(Np/m)
Depth
(%)
(mS/m)
(m)
Air
0.300
Water
81
0.033
0.021
47.7
3.7 4.0
Ice
Dry
30
0.1
0.150
0.009
106
30
100
17.2
2.1
0.072
0.97
1.0
25
10
0.060
0.38
2.6
Sand
Wet
Sand
Dry
30
10
0.150
0.94
1.1
30
100
17.7
31.3
0.071
1.40
0.7
16
100
0.075
4.71
0.2
16
20
0.075
0.94
1.1
Clay
Wet
Clay
Average 30
Soil
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Title
Technique
Detection of Buried
GPR
M.P.
Buried Object
Priyadarshini
Discrimination in a
and Dr. G.
Ground Penetrating
Indumathi
Radar Radargram
Hubbard, and
Y. Rubin
Penetrating Radar
reflection Data
J.A. Huisman,
S.S. Hubbard,
Penetrating Radar
A.P. Annan
Nigel J.
Cassidy, Tim
Difference time-domain
M. Milington
assessment of GPR in
(FDTD) approach.
magnetically lossy
materials.
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2.8.1
This research proposed the use of Stepped Frequency Continois Wave (SFCW)
GPR in the detection of land mines beneath the earths surface. Besides, for the
detection, Kirchoff Migration (KM) algorithm is used. The hyperbolic
defocusing of an object in Bscan image can be corrected for in the data
processing, which is called migration or SAR processing. Based on the research
study, the aim of migration technique is to focus target reflection in the recorded
data back into their true position and physical shape. In the other hand, in Bscan
GPR imaging the antenna will be moving in one direction and at each point of
the reflected data is collected to generate 2D space frequency matrix. This
frequency domain GPR has been applied to focusing the technique based on
SAR to mitigate the undesired hyperbolic effects in the Bscan GPR image.
2.8.2
This research work is about the propose techniques for buried object
discrimination for the images generated by using GPR frequency-domain
spectral features. Based on the research work, there are two stages of proposed
techniques that have been implemented to carry out this study which are Preprocessing Stage and followed by Discrimination. Stage one is about to eliminate
the ground bounce and background clutter to get an enhanced image.
Enhancement is followed by Landmine or clutter Discrimination using Energy
Density Spectrum (EDS).
According to the journal, the Discrimination stage is about the GPR
signal from a landmine is dependent on the mines size, shape, and composition
which is as its burial depth and orientation. In addition, electrical characteristics
of the soil also play an important role on the signature of landmines and clutter.
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2.8.3
Based on this research, the GPR reflection travel time data were used to estimate
changes in soil water content under a range of soil saturation conditions
throughout the growing season at that research area. During three data
acquisition campaigns over an 180 m area, the data were collected by using
100MHz surface GPR antennas. Furthermore, the GPR reflections were
associated with thin, low permeability clay layer which is located at 0.8-1.3 m
below the ground surface that was identified from borehole information across
the study areas.
In addition, this study has focused on assessing the utility and accuracy of
surface GPR reflection travel time for volumetric water content (VWC)
estimation under natural conditions and throughout the growing seasons.
According to the research data result, it show that the common-offset GPR
reflection method can be used to estimate the average of VWC of the soil. This
method has an accuracy that is comparable with existing conventional method
such as neutron and capacitance probe.
2.8.4
This research is about the determination of soil water content that get from four
techniques which is reflected wave velocity, ground wave velocity, transmitted
wave velocity between boreholes, and surface reflection coefficient. From these
techniques, GPR is the one of the possible tools that can measure the soil water
content in different type of wave velocity. The GPR technique is similar to the
principle of seismic and sonar. There are two classes of methods to estimates the
soil water content from reflected wave travel time data can be distinguished
where the first class is single antenna separation for soil water content estimation
and the second class is method of required multiple measurement with different
antenna separations. Then, for ground wave velocity technique, the ground wave
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is the part of the radiated energy that travels between the transmitter and receiver
through the top of the soil. For borehole GPR application, the transmitting and
receiving antenna are lowered into a pair of vertical access tubes. The arrival
time of the direct wave between the boreholes and the known borehole
separation is used to calculate the velocity and soil permittivity. The last
technique to measure water content in this research is by surface reflection where
GPR antennas are operated at the some distance above the ground by mounting
them on a vehicle or a low-flying air platform. Although there are different
techniques used, the soil water content can still obtained.
2.8.5
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CHAPTER 3
METHODOLOGY
3.1 Introduction
In this research, there are few things that need to be considered and well planning in
order to achieve a good methodology. This study is required to have one site research
where the survey of the GPR result can be conducted. Thus, it will be conducted at the
Research of Soft Soil Centre (RECESS) UTHM. RECESS is established to conduct
research and development (R&D) in engineering of soft soil technologies. Located in
UTHM, Parit Raja Johor it becomes a reference in both national and international levels
for soft soil information.
RECESS UTHM is located at Batu Pahat approximately 20 km from town and near
Air Hitam. The topography of the test area is relatively flat with the height above mean
sea level of 3.5 meter to 1.8 meter and the soil condition in that area are soft soil. The
water table readings are 0.5 meter-0.65 meter from ground surface. The site possesses a
good drainage system considering it was previously planted with oil palms (Rashidi,
2014). Other than that, planning of methodology on how to conduct this study has been
developed. Therefore, to perform the result of the study, the GPR equipment used is
provided by Geology Laboratory.
3.2 Research Flow Chart
Flow chart of the research study is developed as shown in the Diagram 3.2 below. It
consists of several works include the Site Preparation, Laboratory Test, Field Test,
Data Analysis and Obtain Result.
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Start
Site Preparation
Laboratory Test
Permittivity Test
Field Test
GPR Survey
Data Analysis
and
Obtained Result
Finish
18
Based on the flowchart above, this study required a site area to carry out the survey.
The research site area has been selected where it will be conducted at RECESS,
UTHM which is using the existing test site that fill with sand soil. Site preparation
for this research study will be include the cultivation of metal plate at the existing
test site.
3.3.1
2m
2m
2m
Figure 3.3.1. Dimension of the Existing Test Site
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3.3.2
1.5m
30cm
50cm
20
3.5.1
GPR Survey
In this research, the GPR Survey consists of few components of GPR system which
is that emits an electromagnetic wave into ground and receives the response as
shown in Figure 3.5.1. If there is a change in electrical properties in the ground, a
part of the electromagnetic wave is reflected back to the receiver. The system scans
the ground to collect the data at various locations. Then GPR profile can be
constructed by plotting the amplitude of the received signal as a function of time and
position, representing a vertical slice of the subsurface. The time axis can be
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22
23
5. The velocity of sub-surface is set. For object location measurement, the exact
velocity is not really important except for the determination of the depth.
6. The object or metal plate will be cultivated under the existing test site which
fills with sand soil at 1.5 meter from the sub-surface.
7. The Smart Cart system is ready to be used by simply pushing the cart along
the survey line.
8. The data of successful result that recorded by the Smart Cart system is
analyze in the laboratory by using WinPXFER software.
9. Obtain result are recorded.
As an experimental work, the data analysis is done simply by pushing the Smart Cart
system along the survey line. This is usually done with the odometer used as the
triggering device. For this research, as the Smart Cart system moves, the odometer
triggers the system to collect a data trace at fixed distance intervals. For Noggin 250,
the normal station interval is 5 centimeters. Velocities are measured by fitting
hyperbolic curves to point diffractions. In addition, the Smart system can normally
collect data at a very fast walking pace. Then, the data will be collected by the
Noggin 250 system that can be used to scan into many different materials including
soil, rock, concrete, snow, ice and wood. (Takahashi. et al., 2007). The scanned
material will appear in the Digital Video Logger (DVL) as graphic images which
have a removable compact flash drive for data storage. Data collected then will
analyze by using WinPXFER software. It is use to transfer data from the DVL to the
external computer to allow the view of the data and runs on the PC in a Window
environment.
3.6.1
Obtained Result
After the data has been analyzed, result of material being scanned is obtained. The
quality of the obtained result for this study may be different slightly because of the
different of water content during wet and dry weather condition. This is due to the
24
radio wave emitted by a Noggin system will travel at different velocities depending
on the material being scanned (T. Shanmugapriyan, 2013). Besides, the data of depth
of metal plate that cultivated will be detected, but may be not in accurate depth.
Therefore, the data analysis of GPR result is depending on the water content of the
sand.
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CHAPTER 4
EXPECTED RESULT
26
CHAPTER 5
CONCLUSION
The study of electromagnetic wave technique has been carried out and discussed in order
to determine the calibration of weather condition on GPR result. Therefore, to achieve
the purpose of this work, several objectives should be received. First, to study the
weathering effect on the GPR result and the second is to understand the quality of GPR
result based on weather condition. Hence, for this study, the first objective was
accomplished. The other aim will be demonstrated and achieved in the next research
where the experimental work shall be carried out at the real test site.
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REFERENCES
4. J.A. Huisman, et al., (2003). Measuring Soil Water Content with Ground
Penetrating Radar. Soil Science Society, Res. 2:476-491.
5. L.A. Lunt, et al., (2004). Soil moisture estimation using ground-pentrating radar
reflection data. Journal of Hydrology, 307, pp. 254-269.
6. D.J. Daniels, et al., (1998). Introduction to subsurface radar. IEE PROCEDINGS,
135(4), pp. 278-320.
7. N.J. Cassidy, et al., (2007). Advanced forward modeling and tomographic
inversion for leaking water pipes monitoring. Near-Surface Geophysics, 5(1, )pp.
127-131.
8.
N.J.
Cassidy
(2007).
Frequency-Dependent
Attenuation
and
Velocity
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11. W. Al-Nuaimy, et al., (2000). Automatic detection of buried utilities and solid
objects with GPR using neural networks and pattern recognition. Journal of
Applied Geophysics Vol. 43, pp. 157-165.
12. T. Shanmugapriyan (2013). Smart Cart to Recognize Objects Based on User
Intention. International Journal of Advanced Research in Computer and
Communication Engineering 2(5), pp. 2049-2053.
13. Robinson M. et al., (2013). Ground Penetrating Radar. Geomorphological,part 1,
Sec 5.5.
14. Takashi. Et al., (2007). Basic Application of Ground-Penetrating radar as a Tool
for Monitoring Irrigation Process. Geophysics, pp. 155-181.
15. Jamil
ITS