Pavement-distress detection using ground-penetrating radar and network in networks. (10th February 2020)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Tong, Zheng; Yuan, Dongdong; Gao, Jie; Wei, Yongfeng; Dou, Hui
• Is Part Of: Construction & building materials. Volume 233(2020)
• Publication Date: 2020-02-10
• Subjects: Pavement distress detection -- Nondestructive testing -- Network in network -- Ground penetrating radar -- Signal analysis; Building materials -- Periodicals; 624.18
• DOI: 10.1016/j.conbuildmat.2019.117352
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 0950-0618

Abstract

Highlights: A study using GPR signals and NINs for pavement distress detection is presented. The NIN-based method detected pavement distresses with high precision. The NIN stability was not affected by GPR transmitting frequencies. The NIN-based method had a distinct superiority in detection effectiveness. Abstract: This study proposes a nondestructive testing technique for pavement distress detection using ground-penetrating radar and network in networks. Ground-penetrating radar signals are imported into two network-in-network structure as input data directly. The network in networks are used as deep learning models to distinguish abnormal signals, recognize distress types, and measure distress locations and sizes. A database with information from four highways is generated by a ground-penetrating radar with different transmitting frequencies and numbers of samples per trace. Then, the database is used to train, validate, and test the network in networks. The results show that the proposed method detects cracks, water-damage pits, and uneven settlements with 85.17% accuracy, 2.15 mm location errors, and reasonable stability. The proposed method was superior to other state-of-the-art techniques in terms of classification accuracy, location error, and stability. Additionally, the results show that this method overcomes the negative effect of transmitting frequencies in pavement distress detection using GPR data.