An experimental and numerical approach to combine Ground Penetrating Radar and computational modeling for the identification of early cracking in cement concrete pavements

Abstract Road pavements are subject to traffic and temperature variations producing cracks that propagate to the pavement surface, which reduces its life and decreases circulation comfort. Early identification of pavement cracks allows for suitable maintenance and rehabilitation decreasing life cycle cost and increasing pavement life. For the development of an approach to identify early cracking using Ground Penetrating Radar (GPR), a laboratory simulation of different types of cracking was carried out, using a GPR system equipped with a ground-coupled antenna with a 2.3 GHz central frequency. Additionally, numerical simulations were elaborated using a Finite-Difference Time-Domain (FDTD) method-based software package (gprMax2D). Field GPR measurements were also carried out on a cracked rigid pavement of a road section overlaid with an asphalt layer. The results of this work proved the capability of the GPR method to detect cracks in rigid pavements and allowed to develop an approach for application in the identification of early cracking in rigid pavements.