A novel method for FDTD numerical GPR imaging of arbitrary shapes based on Fourier transform

Ground penetrating radar (GPR) systems are very powerful tools with a wide range of advantages in non-destructive testing. Target detection is one of the serious results of GPR application. The landmine detection in the soil and reinforcement bars and holes in the concrete is some of the GPR object detection examples. In this research, the targets are modeled in different cases, an air hole or a conductive material. A cracked surface is also modeled for both conductive and dielectric media. For modeling, the three-dimensional (3D) finite difference time-domain (FDTD) method is applied. Perfectly matched layer (PML) absorbing boundary condition is used for simulating the physical absorbers and free space. The results were shown in time domain. The difference between results helps to distinguish the target depth and electrical properties. For better specification of the target shape, a transform in frequency domain is used. This transform contains a Fourier transform in a selected frequency. The results show a sudden change in the frequency response over the hole or target scanning. By this idea, the shape of any arbitrary hole or crack can be extracted.