A well posed inverse problem for automatic pavement parameter estimation based on GPR data

• We present a method for solving the inverse problem of properties determination in pavements using GPR data.
• We express the inverse problem as well-posed under practical situations.
• The method taken into account the physical characteristics of the multilayer problem.
• The method has been tested in a simple pavement and a flexible pavement and it has shown its accuracy.

This work presents a methodology for solving the inverse problem of thickness and permittivity determination in multilayer problems by using ground penetrating radar (GPR) data. Its main contribution is to express the inverse problem as well-posed or, similarly, to formulate an error function with only one global minimum under practical conditions. This result is achieved by establishing the maximum allowed GPR operation frequency. With the analysis shown in this paper, the complex inverse problems of multilayer parameters estimation are better understood and the algorithm for minimization of the error function can be better selected. Therefore, it can reduce results error and decrease the time for obtaining a solution. The new methodology is tested on two typical situations showing the accuracy of the proposed method.