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News Release from: STATS | Subject: EPSRC grant
Edited by the Buildingtalk Editorial
Team on 28 March 2007
Auto-interpretation of GPR surveys
STATS has announced that a research proposal on GPR data interpretation has been awarded an EPSRC grant of GBP208k.
Consultancy company STATS Limited has announced that a research proposal on GPR data interpretation has been awarded an EPSRC grant of GBP208,000 The research project is entitled 'Inversion, Modelling and Analysis of GPR In Near-surface Environments' (IMAGINE)
This article was originally published on Buildingtalk on 14 Jul 2005 at 8.00am (UK)
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The research will be lead by Dr Nigel Cassidy of Keele University with collaboration from Dr George Tuckwell of STATS Limited and Dr Lorenzo Crocco at the Italian National Council of Research in Naples.
STATS project manager Dr George Tuckwell, says "The overall objective of the project will be to develop new and innovative approaches to Ground-Penetrating Radar (GPR) data interpretation, using numerical modelling and inversion techniques".
"The research will aim to provide a better understanding of the capabilities of GPR in complex ground conditions, and to develop a set of tools to aid the geophysicist in the interpretation GPR data and in the identification of subsurface features that may have otherwise been missed".
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Over the past couple of decades, GPR has evolved into one of the most popular and versatile non-invasive geophysical techniques with, arguably, the widest application range of all the geophysical investigation methods.
It is used for landmine detection, Non-Destructive Testing (NDT) evaluation of building structures and materials, groundwater and contaminant mapping, utility location, archaeological, forensic and environmental applications.
With an unrivalled ability to 'image' the shallow sub-surface at high-resolutions, the technique is the tool of choice for many geotechnical engineers and is the principal non-intrusive investigation method to determine the possible presence of buried services, voids and obstructions across large sites.
However, in "difficult" ground conditions, perhaps where the GPR signal is partially absorbed by electrically conductive ground such as clay, or where the upper few meters comprise heterogeneous made ground containing many different materials, the GPR signal can be weak or scattered making confident interpretations of subsurface obstructions difficult or impossible.
The focus of the research project will be the development of advanced inversion techniques, which attempt to 'automatically' determine the true shape, location and material properties of buried targets using knowledge of the expected results derived from real GPR surveys.
The expansion in cost-effective computing resources, numerical/computational techniques, such as forward modelling and inversion, have now become viable tools for the GPR user.
Forward numerical modelling (which numerically simulates the physics of the GPR survey) has been successfully applied to a range of GPR application areas including land mine detection, the characterisation of buried tanks and pipes, and Non-Destructive Testing (NDT) applications.
The project aims to build on these early successes, and to provide a tool set for geophysical engineers to obtain objective and reliable data from complex and difficult ground conditions.
The research will build on the numerical modelling and supercomputer-based research initially conducted by Dr George Tuckwell in 2001.
The project will utilise the new GRID-based CLUSTERVISION supercomputer at Keele, and includes a postdoctoral research post and a full time PhD studentship.
STATS will provide Dr Tuckwell's expertise in research, numerical modelling, and in the commercial planning and execution of large-scale geophysical site investigations.
STATS will also help keep the research grounded in the realities of real site GPR investigation and will provide the research team with data examples from their extensive database of past site investigation work.
Dr Nigel Cassidy is a Lecturer in Applied Geophysics within the School of Physical and Geographical Sciences at Keele University and is part of the Applied and Environmental Geophysics Research Group.
His research focuses on the application of physical and geophysical methods for the characterisation of environmental, hydrogeological and geotechnical phenomena and has specific expertise in numerical modelling, Ground Penetrating Radar (GPR) and Electric/Electromagnetic geophysics.
The Applied and Environmental Geophysics Group at Keele University is one of Europe's leading centres for near-surface geophysical research.
Lead by Professor Peter Styles, the principal research theme is the application of ultra-high resolution geophysical techniques and numerical modelling for geotechnical, engineering, environmental and geoscientific applications.
Dr Lorenzo Crocco is a Research Scientist at the Institute for Electromagnetic Sensing of the Environment at the Italian National Council of Research (IREA-CNR).
His research activity is mainly focused on the development of new and effective techniques for the solution of electromagnetic inverse scattering problems.
EPSRC the main UK government agency for funding research and training in engineering and the physical sciences, investing around GBP650 million a year in a broad range of subjects - from mathematics to materials science, and from information technology to structural engineering.
Commenting on the award, Dr Tuckwell said "At STATS we provide a comprehensive range of geophysical services for the geotechnical, geoenvironmental, structural and archaeological sectors and as such we are delighted to be involved in this research; if the project is successful it will improve the quality of GPR surveys and thereby compliment the consultancy and technical services that we provide." Geophysical site investigations, including GPR, provide the means to map entire areas efficiently and with a much greater probability of finding discrete objects or obstructions in comparison with intrusive investigations alone.
The principal constraints on the successful application of geophysics to a particular site relate to its complexity.
A large number of buried features recording a long and varied history of previous use yields complex and cluttered geophysical data sets that rely on the skill and experience of the geophysicist to interpret.
This project will pursue an important line of research that attempts to simplify some of the clutter and to enhance subtle signals within the data to aid the geophysicist in providing a clear interpretation to the client.
A successful system would greatly enhance the usefulness of GPR as a tool, making it a reliable method in situations and for sites that it, and other non-intrusive geophysical techniques, currently cannot tackle.
It will further increase the technical capabilities and expertise that STATS Geophysical can offer, and will provide clients with a rapid and efficient site investigation tool for situations that previously required a slow and disruptive programme of trial pits or bore holes.
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