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ARS Home » Midwest Area » Columbus, Ohio » Soil Drainage Research » Research » Publications at this Location » Publication #143549
Title: DRAINAGE PIPE DETECTOR: GROUND PENETRATING RADAR SHOWS PROMISE IN LOCATING BURIED SYSTEMS

Author
item Allred, Barry
item Fausey, Norman
item PETERS, LEON - OHIO STATE UNIV.
item CHEN, CHI-CHIH - OHIO STATE UNIV.
item DANIELS, JEFFREY - OHIO STATE UNIV.
item YOUN, HYOUNG-SUN - OHIO STATE UNIV.

Submitted to: Resource Engineering and Technology for a Sustainable World
Publication Type: Trade Journal
Publication Acceptance Date: 10/20/2002
Publication Date: 12/20/2002
Citation: Allred, B.J., Fausey, N.R., Peters, L., Chen, C., Daniels, J.J., Youn, H. 2002. Drainage pipe detector: ground penetrating radar shows promise in locating buried systems. Resource Engineering and Technology for a Sustainable World.

Interpretive Summary:

Technical Abstract: One of the more frustrating problems confronting farmers and land improvement contractors in the Midwestern United States involves locating buried agricultural drainage pipes. Conventional geophysical methods, particularly ground penetrating radar (GPR), presently being used for environmental and construction engineering applications, can potentially provide a solution to this problem. Scientists and engineers from the USDA-Agricultural Research Service, The Ohio State University (OSU) ElectroScience Laboratory, and the OSU Department of Geological Sciences collaborated in an extensive study funded by the Ohio Agricultural Research and Development Center. They found that GPR was quite successful in detecting clay tile and corrugated plactic tubing drainage pipe down to depths of around 3 feet (1 meter) in a variety of different soil materials. GPR grid surveys were conducted in Ohio at 11 test plots containing subsurface drainage systems. The technology proved to be 81 percent effective in locating the total amount of pipe present.