The Benefits of Making use of Ground Penetrating Radar to Establish Concrete Slab Thickness
Ground penetrating radar is actually a valuable tool for identifying concrete slab thickness easily and accurately. Determining slab thickness is important in seeing how concrete pavements may perform over their service life. Note that even a decrease in the thickness of the slab simply by less than one inch may cut in half its service life. Measuring the thickness of concrete slabs is additionally important in determining if contractors have complied with the project specifications whenever making concrete pavements.
GPR is technology that's already being widely used in numerous states as part of their pavement evaluation systems, which includes North Carolina, Texas, Florida, Michigan as well as Louisiana, plus many European nations like the UK, Finland as well as Denmark, with much success. The radar sends quick pulses of radio waves into the concrete and then uses the arrival time and durability of the returning echoes to calculate thickness along with properties like moisture content. Even so, GPR may not be able to make precise measurements if there is insufficient contrast in between the concrete and the underlying base.
What are the benefits of using GPR in calculating concrete slab thickness?
1. Thickness data from the GPR can end up being instantly imported directly into pavement management systems to enable them to determine the remaining life of the concrete pavement and also figure out the right maintenance along with repair actions. Radar readings may end up being transformed into visual representation for straightforward interpretation or as ASCI file output.
2. Measurements may end up being carried out by GPR equipped cars with small disruption to typical traffic since there's no longer any need to shut down lanes while measurements usually are being taken. Cars may cover around two hundred miles per day of pavement at normal highway speeds. And automated data collecting substantially cuts down on the time necessary to complete the survey.
3. The price of GPR is more affordable compared with traditional methods of determining slab thickness for example taking core samples. Concerned agencies have the option of buying their own equipment along with training personnel to man it or perhaps contracting services from providers, with respect to the spending budget available to them for these functions.
4. Highway personnel tend to be completely safe whenever taking measurements because they are no longer subjected to dangerous situations such as high-speed traffic, bad weather or even pollution.
5. GPR enjoys a higher range of precision within its measurements of concrete slab thickness. Depending on the type of layer being assessed, you can enjoy accuracy and reliability within range of 3 % to 5 % (for new asphalt). But actually measuring thick granular base may provide results accurate to inside range of 8 % to 15 %.
