Novel thin void-layer thickness determination method for lossy media using GPR

This paper presents a novel method to estimate void thickness with modified calculation formula in lossy media. Electromagnetic (EM) wave transmission character was first analysed in lossy media, and the seismic thin-layer theory was introduced to interpret GPR response of void layer. Then a calculation formula was deduced to express the relationship between dominant frequency amplitude and thickness. Finally, the original formula was modified by calibrated coefficient, which was estimated through least-square curve fitting method. Simulation results show that the proposed method extends the traditional thin-layer thickness determination method to lossy media, and improves the estimated accuracy greatly by the modified formula.