Numerical simulation and mechanism analysis of GPR-based reinforcement corrosion detection

Abstract

Ground penetrating radar (GPR) has been used to detect reinforcement corrosion in some studies, but some of the conclusions obtained were that corrosion enhanced the reflected signal, and some conclusions were completely opposite, which restricted the further research of this method. In this study, the experimental setups and their corresponding signal variations of previous research were reviewed, and the effects of corrosion-induced changes on a GPR signal were analyzed through numerical modeling. The results indicated that the reduction of the rebar diameter and the widening of the corrosion-induced crack width resulted in a decrease of the reflected wave amplitude, while the filling of the corrosion product in the corrosion-induced crack increased the amplitude of the reflected wave, which were in reasonable agreement with the experimental observations in previous research.