Influence of pipe filling, geometry and antenna polarisation on GPR measurements

The number of buried cables and pipes in urban areas has increased tremendously over the last decades. As the precise documentation of their layout is often missing, damage occurs frequently during construction work. Consequently there is urgent need for non-destructive methods providing reliable and fast prediction of their location. The Applied Geophysics Section of Frankfurt University takes part in the DETECTINO Project(Hildesheim, Germany) which aims at the development of an all-inclusive utility locating tool. The appraisal of GPR reflection patterns requires profound knowledge of the underlying physical processes. This is best achieved by deploying the locating tool on well defined objects, such as the Frankfurt utility detection test site providing a large variety of pipes and cables in different geotechnical settings. The exact knowledge of the geotechnical data allows the comparison of theoretical and observed data by adequate modelling. In this contribution we present modelled and measured data for pipes with varying depth, diameter and filling, for parallel and perpendicular source polarisation.