COMPARISON OF LABORATORY AND SIMULATED DATA FOR RADAR IMAGE INTERPRETATION

It has been shown that the output from in-house ray-tracing simulation software provides a means by which the impulse radar response of a st ructural system can readily be simulated. Radar simulations were under taken of re-bar targets in a tank. A 900 MHz commercial antenna was si mulated. The simulations undertaken have shown the effects that target spacing and depth have on the radar signature shapes and the results compare well with real-case survey plots. Simulation data have been us ed to assess the output specification from a commercial antenna, with interesting findings. It is expected that simulation will allow the in terpretation of actual surveys to be more readily understood, which wi ll in turn allow a better engineering assessment to be made of a struc ture under investigation. (C) 1998 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights re served.