Georadar acoustic method and equipment for measuring of the strength characteristics of roads
Purpose
A new perspective georadar acoustic method and special equipment intended for express monitoring of the quality of road coatings and improvement of the road safety.
Characteristics
The physical basis of the equipment for measuring of the strength characteristics of the road coatings is based on a fundamentally new measurement method, which is a combination of georadar and acoustic sensing techniques.
Advantages of the method:
A new perspective georadar acoustic method and special equipment intended for express monitoring of the quality of road coatings and improvement of the road safety.
Characteristics
The physical basis of the equipment for measuring of the strength characteristics of the road coatings is based on a fundamentally new measurement method, which is a combination of georadar and acoustic sensing techniques.
Advantages of the method:
- Non-contact method of determination of the strength characteristics of each layer of the road
- Non-contact method of determination of the heterogeneity, latent disturbances and abnormal zones in the road layers.
The instrumental implementation of the method is based on measuring of the characteristics of resonant vibration-acoustic vibrations in the layers of the road coatings. These vibrations
are formed in the presence of excitatory acoustic impulse effects of artificial or natural origin (e.g. caused by passing cars).The equipment of the complex includes an antenna assembly and a measuring unit.
The antenna assembly contains two horn antennas: transmitting and receiving. Both antennas are identical, and their design provides high energy efficiency, narrow radiation pattern and low level of phase dispersion required for receiving and transmitting broadband pulsed microwave signals in the frequency band of 1 ÷ 7 GHz..
The measuring unit includes high-speed georadar with high temporal resolution, supplemented with units of radiolocating signal processing, digital spectral processing and analysis of the parameters of the selected vibration-acoustic signal, which ensures determination of the elastic (strength) characteristics of the road coatings.
The software of the complex implements multichannel high-speed measurements of acoustic vibrations of several layers of the road by emitting, receiving and processing of broadband radar signals. It provides almost simultaneous measurement of the vibrations at the boundaries of all layers of the road, and an express monitoring of the strength characteristics of the road coating.
Main technical characteristics of the equipment:
| sounding pulse pulse frequency | ~ 1.3 GHz |
| radiation power in the frequency band of | 0.5 ÷ 22.0 GHz – 1 W |
| number of analyzed layers | up to 4 |
| thickness of the analyzed layers | up to 70 cm |
| resolution while determination of the layers boundaries | (0.7 ÷ 1.0) cm |
An experimental set of equipment was developed and tested on the roads of Belarus and China.
Production and operation of the equipment are environmentally friendly.
There is no similar equipment on the market.
Legal protection of the intellectual property
Patent of the Republic of Belarus No. 19008, dated February 28, 2015, “A method for assessment of the strength characteristics of asphalt concrete roads.
The certificate of compliance with the requirements of ISO 9001-2009 No. 0123916, registered in the Register No. BY/112 05.01.002 03341 dated July 4, 2014 (confirmation on April 7, 2017).
Application
Road construction and road maintenance
