Locating Reinforcing Bars in Concrete Structures Using Generalized Hough Transform of Radar Image

Abstract

Locating reinforcing bars, in particular to know their accurate depths, is very important in radar inspection of concrete structures. By the way, an accurate depth estimation of reinforcing bars in concrete structures by the radar is not easy because the microwave propagation velocity in test area is generally unknown. This problem can be solved by generalized Hough transformation technique. Using this technique, the microwave propagation velocity in test area cen be detected from the radar image, which appear as hyperbolas conveying the velocity information in their shape. A developed speed-up technique for the computation of the Generalized Hough transformation is also investigated in this study. As a result, although it becomes difficult to locate reinforcing bars when multiple parallel bars lying too close together, there is a possibility of detecting accurate depths of reinforcing bars in test area by the proposed method