GPR Attribute Analysis for Material Property Identification

Conservation of priceless cultural heritage is a pressing shared responsibility primarily assigned to archaeologists and materials scientists. Ironically, standard methods used to determine mechanical and material properties in these fields are actually destructive. Consequently, valuable non-destructive prospection methods, especially Ground Penetrating Radar (GPR), have been embraced and expanded by conservators in an attempt to determine these physical properties. Attribute analysis is sometimes conducted in addition to standard GPR post-processing for feature detection and to extract and clarify information about a site. However, attribute analysis has not been applied to consider subtle differences between materials. This work aims to empirically explore the relationships between materials and their GPR attributes by surveying 8 concrete and cement paste cores of variable mechanical properties and 2 bricks and calculating a variety of amplitude based attributes. The outcomes of this work are preliminary indications of relative properties and classifications of attributes better equipped for certain properties. These results are promising for continued study of additional classes of attributes to ensure successful conservation efforts.