Development of a Nondestructive Method for Measuring Concrete Cover Thickness and for Identification of Reinforcement and Dowel Bar Location

P.I.: Dr. Yazdani
Grad. Research Asst.: Li Hong Mao


A project at the University of Texas at Arlington aims to develop a Nondestructive Method for Measuring Concrete Cover Thickness and for identification of reinforcement and dowel bar location.

Ground Penetrating Radar(GPR) is proposed as the main Non-destructive device. However, due to inherent difficulties within the GPR data, such as the unknown time zero, the existence of strong noise, and the blurry signals, accurately determining the rebar & dowel bar location is a challenging task. To improve the accuracy of GPR in locating rebar location, the following methodologies are proposed:

  • An additional antenna receiver will be applied to improve GPR time zero estimation accuracy.
  • A lab experiment will be conducted to find the relationship between GPR electromagnetic wave velocity and moisture content in a concrete structure.
  • A machine learning-based algorithm will be developed to subtracting the effects of background noise and moisture content on the GPR signal.