Detecting three types of contaminated soil with Ground penetrating radar

In this paper, three types of sandy soil were contaminated with landfill leachate, salt solution or diesel oil respectively in laboratory, then, they were detected with Ground penetrating radar(GPR). On the basis of experiment results, the measured GPR image character of different contaminated soil was analyzed and the relationship formula between dielectric constant of contaminated soil measured using GPR reflection method and pollutant content in it would be set up. Research results showed that with the content of pollutants in soil increasing, GPR profile of different contaminated soils would show different characteristics: travel times increasing and wave energy attenuating in leachate contaminated soil; travel times no changing obviously, wave energy decreasing rapidly and reflection axes appearing discontinuously in salt solution contaminated soil; travel time increasing slightly and energy increasing obviously in diesel oil contaminated soil. water content of uncontaminated soil and leachate content of contaminated soil can be evaluated by dielectric constant measured with GPR, whereas no obvious changes in GPR-measured dielectric constant of soil contaminated with diesel oil.