Experimental evaluation of the antenna sub-system of the ORFEUS surface GPR

Within ORFEUS (Optimized Radar for Finding Every Utility in the Street) project a novel antenna system for a SFCW GPR has been developed for detection and location of buried utilities. The antenna system consists of two cavity-backed resistively loaded bow ties and has been designed to cover the frequency range from 100 MHz to 1 GHz with a reasonably high radiation efficiency. The characteristics of the whole system in terms of the impedance matching to the feeding line, radiation level from the individual antenna, parasitic coupling between the transmit and receive antennas and scattering from buried objects have been experimentally investigated in realistic scenarios for different soils.

I. Introduction

Utility pipes are located under almost every street. However, their location is not always known due to reasons like: ground movement caused by nature or near-by excavation works, avoiding of other pipes buried in the same location, archive loss, etc. An effective way to determine the exact location of these buried pipes in a non-destructive manner is to use a Ground Penetrating Radar (GPR) [1].