MODELING OF SUBSURFACE PULSED RADAR FOR NONDESTRUCTIVE TESTING OF STRUCTURES

The use of pulsed radar for investigating the integrity of structural elements is gaining popularity and becoming firmly established as a no ndestructive test method in civil engineering. Difficulties can often arise in the interpretation of results obtained, particularly where in ternal details are relatively complex. One approach that can be used t o understand and evaluate radar results is through numerical modeling of signal propagation and reflection. By comparing the results of a nu merical modeling with those from field measurements, engineers can gai n valuable insight into the probable features embedded beneath the sur face of a structural element. This paper discusses a series of numeric al techniques for modeling subsurface radar and compares the precision of the results with those taken from real field data. It is found tha t more complex problems require more sophisticated analysis techniques to obtain realistic results, with a consequential increase in the com putational resources to carry out the modeling.