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PIERS Proceedings, Xian, China, March 2226, 2010

Underground Diseases Identication of Airport Runway Using GPR

Xuejing Song, Renbiao Wu, and Jiaxue Liu Tianjin Key Laboratory of Advanced Signal Processing, Civil Aviation University of China, China

Abstract The identication method of airport runway diseases using GPR presented in this
paper has two steps. First, Hough transform is introduced to classify the two kinds of GPR Bscan images. In this method, the crack images are focused on one point after being transformed to parametric space. The hyperbolic equation with a time-delay factor is introduced in void images, in order to locate the position of the hyperbolic vertex accurately. Then a curve tting method is used to identify the void type. The simulation results demonstrate that the method has advantages of small calculation quantity, fast-speed and high-accuracy. It is good at real-time predicting tracking. 1. INTRODUCTION

Cracks and voids are the most common diseases in airport runway. By far the widely used target detection methods relying on manual intervention are divided into two kinds: One is on-site detection, that is, the operator taking the data directly at the scene to make judgments based on experience; the other is o-line detection, that is based on the results of imaging to determine whether there is objective. Clearly, both of these methods have a fatal disadvantage the dependence on human subjective experience, which has led to the instability of the detection result and low eciency, especially when dealing with massive amount of data. Therefore, the domestic and foreign scholars have done a lot of research in the GPR [1, 2] automatic target detection and put forward a variety of methodssignal energy-based detection method [3] for its small amount of calculation is used to on-site rough target detection; detection methods based on image pattern [4], such as, ANN, fuzzy clustering and other pattern recognition methods, which require a lot of samples to be training before they can attain better detection quality; the automatic detection method depended on imaging results, which is not only limited by the image quality, but also has very large amount of calculation. The identication method of airport runway diseases using GPR presented in this paper has two steps. First, Hough transform is introduced to classify the two kinds of GPR B-scan images. Then a curve tting method is used to identify the void type. The simulation results demonstrate that the method has advantages of small calculation quantity, fast-speed and high-accuracy. It is good at real-time predicting tracking.
2. CHARACTERISTICS OF THE DISEASE ECHO

In the airport runway, the dielectric constants are dierent supposed to surface layer, base layer, air void, water void and crack. As the electromagnetic wave would generate reected wave in dierent media interface, so the A-scan data and B-scan data recorded by GPR are directly used for diseases identication.
2.1. A-Scan Characteristic

It requires a certain degree of permeability between the base layer and the sub-base under concrete slab. When the base layer has bad quality of permeability, the water will be accumulated between concrete slab and base layer, where gradually developed to water void. Sometimes, the quality of permeability is good, but the grain size ratio is inappropriate, so the ne particles will be taken away by inltrative rain water, forming air void. Where there is a void, the reection coecient at the interface is as follows: Rdb = ( d b )/( d + b ) (1) in which d presents the dielectric constant of rigid surface layer, and b presents the dielectric constant of void. The dielectric constant of ordinary cement concrete is 6 to 12, and the dielectric constants of pure water and air are 80 and 1. According to Equation (1), we can learn that the reection coecient is negative when water void occurs, otherwise when air void exists, the reection coecient is positive.

Progress In Electromagnetics Research Symposium Proceedings, Xian, China, March 2226, 2010 2.2. B-Scan Characteristic

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When a point scatterer appears under the ground, due to the impact of transmitting and receiving antenna beam width, its reected waveform in the B-scan pattern shows hyperbolic structure. Assuming the wave velocity in uniform medium is v , and the distance between the transmitting antenna and receiving antenna is small enough to be approximated as single-base case. As is shown in Fig. 1(a), a point scatterer is located in (x0 , z0 ), and the coordinate of the antenna is (x, 0), so 2 . From the data A(x, t) recorded in the distance between the antenna and target is (x x0 )2 + z0 2 /v . Fig. 1(b) we could read the reection time of the point scatterer in each A-scan is t = 2 x2 + z0 In B-scan image, the relationship between the delay time of target echo and the horizontal position of the antenna is as follows: 2 2 t2 /t2 (2) 0 4(x x0 ) /(vt0 ) = 1 in which t0 = 2z0 /v . After discretization, tj = jdt, xi = idx, x0 = i0 dx, t0 = j0 dt, tj = jdt, xi = idx, x0 = i0 dx, t0 = j0 dt. Equation (2) turns to: 2 j 2 /j0 4(i i0 )2 (dx)2 /(j0 vdt)2 = 1 (3) in which (i0 , j0 ) presents the coordinate of the hyperbola apex. We could calculate the accurate position of the target with the help of hyperbola apex coordinate and the echo velocity.
Z=0
Vertical Direction z

x0 Horizontal Direction x

x0 t0

( x0,z0 )

2z0 /v

t (a) a point scatterer at (x0 , z 0) (b) the data A(x,t) recorded by GPR

Figure 1: Scattering model of point target. 3. DISEASES IDENTIFICATION ALGORITHM 3.1. Pre-Processing

In the beginning of disease identication, the clutter should be suppressed in original B-scan images. As the airport runway is layered structure which contain the surface layer and base layer, so the surface echo and layer interface are main clutter echo components. Either surface echo or layer interface echo in B-scan images is distributed at some lines nearby, so the mean method is used to suppress background clutter. Most background clutter could be removed after mean ltering. But there are still some clutter and noise, and the connectivity of disease part has also been inuenced. Hence, morphological ltering is used to eliminate noise and clutter, and the target connectivity in original image is restored.
3.2. Diseases Classication

The reected wave group in B-scan will leap (presenting as linear) when there are cracks in the runway. From the characteristics of GPR two-dimensional echo, the clear hyperbolic structure is existed in B-scan images due to the dier of dielectric constant between the void and surrounding. Based on the characteristics of two diseases in B-scan images, Hough transform is used to classify diseases. Flow chart is shown in Fig. 2. Hough transform is an eective way of detection, location and analytical curve. It is not sensitive to random noise and some covering, and has strong anti-interference capability. The basic principle of Hough transform is mapping a given curve in original image space into a parameter space point

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PIERS Proceedings, Xian, China, March 2226, 2010

Yes Extract Parameters of The Straight Line (crack)

B-scan image after Pre -processing

Detect Straight Line Using HT

Whether there is a obvious peak in HT space

No Detect Hyperbola using HT

Extract Parameters of The Hyperbola (void)

Figure 2: The diseases classication ow chart.

by using duality property between the point and line. This puts given curve identication problem in original image into peak detection problem in parameter space. Algorithm is shown as follows: (1) Initialize an array of transform domain space; (2) Searching all non-zero pixel point in images Sequentially. For each non-zero pixel point, the corresponding point in the transform domain plus 1; (3) Finding the maximum point in the transform domain and recording it. The location coordinate of maximum point is the curve parameters in original image. Building model for cracks in B-scan images, the equation of straight line is as follows: Ax + By + C = 0, Polar equation of straight line as follows: = x cos + y sin (5) (A2 + B 2 = 0) (4)

The line detection process of Hough Transform is to transform the image from (x, y ) space to space (, ). A straight line in rectangular coordinate system corresponds to a point in polar coordinate system. Modeling for hyperbola in void image with the equation given by Equation (2), which is used to extract hyperbola in most identication methods [5]. But the antenna is not close to the ground in actual detection process, so a starting time variable is introduced in this equation. The relationship between the time-delay and antenna horizontal position as follows:
2 2 (t t )2 /t2 0 4(x x0 ) /(vt0 ) = 1

(6)

The equation after discretization is:

2 (j d)2 /j0 4(i i0 )2 (dx)2 /(j0 vdt)2 = 1

(7)

Here the image space (i, j ) is known, and the parameter space is three-dimensional space (i0 , j0 , d), in which (i0 , j0 ) is the hyperbolic apex coordinate. Hough transform obtains the hyperbolic parameters by detecting the peak through mapping space (i, j ) to space (i0 , j0 , d), then obtains the void position.
3.3. Void Identication

Hough transform can accurately conrm the void apex in B-scan image, but it couldnt recognize the void type. In order to identify the void type, a section of A-scan signal is intercepted by extracting typical Road echo data in void B-scan image. The signals are shown in Fig. 3. As known from the one-dimensional GPR echo signal analysis in Section 2.1, the reection coecient is negative in water void, while reection coecient is positive in air void is positive. As shown in Fig. 3, water void signal and air void signal have opposite phases. The former has a negative peak, while the later is positive. In this paper, the maximum peak of absolute value in intercepted signal is searched. With this peak point as the center, the data in neighborhood area is selected and is tted by least square method. Then the void type is determined by the sign of tted quadratic coecient. As the wave peak is relatively sharp, so the absolute value of quadratic coecient is considered to be authentic when it exceeds a certain threshold.

Progress In Electromagnetics Research Symposium Proceedings, Xian, China, March 2226, 2010 4. SIMULATION RESULT 4.1. Classication Result of the Diseases

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After pre-processing, the Hough transform for line detection is introduced in B-scan images. The images after Hough transform are as in Fig. 4. From the Hough transformed images we can draw a conclusion: the crack image is focused on one point after being transformed to parametric space, while there is no obvious peak in the transformed image of void. According to the focused crack image, we can obtain the coordinates of the peak point, so as to extract the crack, as shown in Fig. 5(b). Since the void image cant focused in the parametric space of straight line, then it is transformed to the hyperbolic parametric space dened by Equation (7). If there is a hyperbola in initial B-scan image, there is an obvious peak point in the hyperbolic parameter space. From the coordinates of the peak point (i0 , j0 , d), we could get the hyperbola apex (i0 , j0 ). The dot in Fig. 5(d) shows the hyperbola apex detected using Generalized Hough transformation.
4.2. Void Type Recognition

In simulation, the dielectric constants of concrete, base layer, water void and air void are 10, 15, 22 and 1.2. Ricker pulse is transmitted by GPR with the center frequency of 900 MHz. Those data in Table 1 are all intercepted at echoes of interface where voids exist. Analyze the curve shape in Fig. 3, the echo reected at the interface between concrete and water void could be tted to a quadratic curve with positive quadratic coecient. In contrary, the echo
1 Normalized amplitude 0.5 0 -0.5 -1 Normalized amplitude 0 200 400 Sampling points 600 1 0.5 0 -0.5 -1

200 400 Sampling points

600

(a)

(b)

Figure 3: (a) A section of A-scan signal with water void. (b) A section of A-scan signal with air void.

(a)

(b)

(c)

(d)

Figure 4: (a) Crack image after HT (2-D view). (b) Void image after HT (2-D view). (c) Crack image after HT (3-D view). (d) Void image after HT (3-D view).

(a)

(b)

(c)

(d)

Figure 5: (a) Binary image with crack after pre-processing. (b) Crack extracted by HT. (c) Binary image with void after pre-processing. (d) Apex locating using generalized Generalized Hough transform.

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PIERS Proceedings, Xian, China, March 2226, 2010 Table 1: Void type recognition. Group of A-scan 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 Quadratic Coecient Fitting Results 21.5502 19.3954 22.9984 23.4832 18.7237 19.3351 20.5202 23.3275 21.5502 21.0425 Recognition Results Water void Water void Air void Water void Air void Air void Water void Water void Air void Air void Real Type Water void Water void Air void Water void Air void Air void Water void Water void Air void Air void

reected at the interface between concrete and air void could be tted to a quadratic curve with negative quadratic coecient The experimental results showed in Table 1 are basically consistent with the theoretical analysis. Analysis of statistical results, the absolute values of those tting quadratic coecients are in the range of 15 to 40. The tting quadratic coecient intercepted from the echo of good runway section is 9.5955. In this paper we set 15 as the threshold. When the absolute value of tted quadratic coecient goes up to the threshold, there could be void, the type of which depending on positive or negative of the coecient. The simulation results demonstrate that the method has advantages of small calculation quantity and reliable recognition results.
5. CONCLUSIONS

This paper analyzes the characteristics of GPR echo in airport runway, and based on this, puts forward a disease identication algorithm aiming to classify the most common diseases crack and void in the airport runway. The simulation results demonstrate that this algorithm can classify the two kinds of disease accurately.
REFERENCES

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