Principles of the Georadar.

Georadar is a relatively new technique. At the beginning of the 20th century, Christian Hülsmeyer obtained
the first patent in radar technology, in 1904. Six years later Gotthelf Leimbach and Heinrich Löwy applied
this technology to locate buried objects underground.

Already in 1926 Dr. Hülsenbeck introduced the pulse radar system, which allowed for a marked
improvement in depth resolution. A technique that is still widely used today. One of the first surveys using
the georradar technique was carried out in Austria in 1929, where W. Stern measured the depth of a
glacier.

After this milestone, the georadar technique has been abandoned for many years, and it is not until after
the Second World War that this technology is resumed, especially for military applications, such as locating
tunnels in the demilitarized zone between Korea North and South Korea.

Soon after, public utilities and construction companies began to be interested in georadar as a practical tool
for locating driving lines under city streets. Other applications that appear around 1980 were the use of this
ground penetration radar technology to explore, among others, water tables and salt deposits.
The first GPR systems were sold in 1985 and the first global reference books were written in the 1990s.
Today there are several companies that produce GPR systems while others provide measurement
services. On the other hand, universities carry out worldwide research in the field of ground penetration
radar systems

Introduction
The Georadar (Ground Penetrating Radar) is a non-destructive geophysical technique that provides a
subsoil image measuring differences in the electromagnetic properties of materials. These properties are
defined by a series of parameters that, together with the characteristics of the emitted wave, determine the
propagation of the electromagnetic pulse energy through the medium. The result is the generation of an
image of the subsoil with a very high vertical and lateral resolution allowing to characterize the
environment. The subsoil radar offers the best investigation solution with the best possible resolution. High
frequency antennas offer a reliable and non-destructive method of collecting subsoil information in real time
efficiently and accurately.
 Theoretical fundament.
The georadar technique is an electromagnetic system for the detection and location of elements,
formations and / or anomalies in the subsoil, constructions or material objects. The georadar is based on
the emission of electromagnetic pulses of very short duration (between 0.6 ns and 10 ns) in the UHF-VHF
frequency band (normally between 100 millihertz and 1.5 gigahertz) and on the principle of reflection of
electromagnetic waves that They spread in a medium.

The propagation of these electromagnetic pulses by means can theoretically be defined from Maxwell's
equations for electromagnetic waves. Its theoretical foundations are the same as those that a conventional
radar uses to detect an object, but the georadar uses a wider bandwidth, and the receiving and transmitting
antennas are directed towards the medium to be studied (subsoil, structure or object).

Each medium has its own electromagnetic characteristics which are: the permittivity or relative dielectric
constant ε, the relative magnetic permeability µ and the electrical conductivity σ. The calculation of the
propagation speed in a medium and the depth of the formation or object to be studied is determined by the
expressions:
 2ℎ
Δt=
𝑣
𝑐
v=
√𝐸´

Where;

• v is the propagation speed of the electromagnetic wave in the middle,

• ∆t is the registration time
• c is the speed of light in a vacuum
• ε ′ is the real component of the dielectric constant

System.
The GPR uses high frequency electromagnetic pulses from a transmitter inside the antenna. The
transmitted pulse is reflected in the different subsoil interfaces and its reflections are detected by the
receiver. The interfaces of the reflections can be ground, rock, buried objects or any other interface that
has a contrast of the dielectric properties. The radar signal is directed to the basement through an
antenna placed on the study surface. The reflected signals are detected by a transmitter located in the
same antenna body. The received signal is processed and displayed graphically on a monitor. Because
the antenna moves along the study surface. The GPR has a very short wavelength in most materials,
so the resolution obtained from the different interfaces of the subsoil materials is very large.

Resulted.
The objective of the GPR studies is the characterization of the most superficial part of the subsoil, so
the main uses within the construction can be summarized as follows:

• Determination of firm thicknesses.

• Concrete inspection: location of metallic and non-metallic objects on ceilings, floors and
partitions.
• Inspection of concrete structures: depth of shoes, determination of thicknesses of projected
concrete coatings in tunnels, inspection of balconies, garages, columns, etc.