FDTD-based sensitivity analysis of GPR acquisition parameters for accurate detection of buried cylindrical objects

Ground-penetrating radar (GPR) is a non-destructive technique used to assess the subsurface and locate any buried objects such as subterranean utilities. It emits electromagnetic radiations and detects the reflected signals from underground objects. Nevertheless, many GPR acquisition factors cannot easily be accounted for in evaluating the performance of the GPR system. To ensure more correct and accurate detection of the GPR signals reflected by a buried cylindrical object in a homogenous medium, sensitivity analysis of GPR data is proposed in this work. The numerical simulator gprMax, which is based on finite-difference time-domain, is used to generate GPR data. The data analysis results showed that the GPR measurement accuracy is more sensitive to the incident signal waveform than the other parameters. Thus, one of the major characteristics of GPR that can affect its accuracy is the incident waveform.