Finite difference time domain modeling of dispersion from heterogeneous ground properties in ground penetrating radar

Ground Penetrating Radar (GPR) is a common technique for locating buried objects in the near surface. The near surface is never perfectly homogeneous due to different moisture levels, grain packing, and types of material that influence the properties in the subsurface. This dissertation examines the influence of heterogeneity on GPR measurements, its influence on spatial dispersion, and defining the GPR response from a range of standard deviations of different numerical models. Most modeling in GPR concentrates on antenna patterns or dispersion caused by complex permittivity in homogeneous blocks of material. The forward model developed in this dissertation incorporates heterogeneity by replacing the traditional homogenous spatial regions with a distribution of physical properties. The models in this dissertation maintain the major spatial model boundaries, but the physical model values within each boundary are determined by a statistical distribution. Statistical approximations of heterogeneity of the physical property distributions can provide an approximation of the geologic noise that influences GPR measurements.; This dissertation presents a numerical modeling analysis of random property variation, where the variations occur in one, two, and three directions. The models are developed for a half space and a two layered earth model where the input is a Ricker wavelet. Most of the visible spatial dispersion of the electrical field in both the half space and the layered earth models studied in this dissertation, occurred in the near region of the electromagnetic field. However, the largest average dispersion occurred in the far field at 1.0 m distance from a dipole source. The presence of horizontal layers increased the dispersive effects of the random distribution of electrical property values. There was also a measurable change in the dispersed field when the layers were vertical. There was more change with thin horizontal layers than with tubes or three dimensional variations of heterogeneous material. A practical conclusion of this study is that lateral variation in physical properties must be taken into account when interpreting GPR data.