An effective approach for road maintenance through the simulation of GPR based pavements damage inspection

Nowadays, the effective and efficient management of pavement is a very crucial issue, and the prevention of damaging through high performing inspections is strategic. In this context, nondestructive techniques are increasingly being used both for rehabilitation and construction processes of road infrastructures. Among them, ground-penetrating radar (GPR) can be considered as one of the most powerful to perform effective and efficient inspections of the pavement conditions. In fact with GPR it is possible to retrieve information on the physical and geometrical properties of the pavement, therefore the main causes of road structural damages can be identified. On the other hand, the current processes of pavement operability evaluation are still performed through visual inspections, on the basis of specific distress identification manuals, wherein only the effects and not the causes of faults are generally considered. In that respect, this study is mainly focused on the improvement of driving safety issues through the proper management and application of maintenance processes. In particular, the specific objective of this paper is to provide a GPR-based reference framework for the assessment of typical road damages. The main causes of damages have been investigated through the simulation of GPR measurements on the basis of the finite-difference time-domain (FDTD) method. The GprMax 2D numerical simulator for GPR has been used on three different types of flexible pavements, and three types of pavement faults have been analyzed: rutting, edge cracking, and potholes. Results show the high potential of GPR in detecting the causes of such damages.