TY - JOUR A1 - Klewe, Tim A1 - Strangfeld, Christoph A1 - Ritzer, Tobias A1 - Kruschwitz, Sabine T1 - Combining Signal Features of Ground-Penetrating Radar to Classify Moisture Damage in Layered Building Floors JF - Applied Sciences N2 - To date, the destructive extraction and analysis of drilling cores is the main possibility to obtain depth information about damaging water ingress in building floors. The time- and costintensive procedure constitutes an additional burden for building insurances that already list piped water damage as their largest item. With its high sensitivity for water, a ground-penetrating radar (GPR) could provide important support to approach this problem in a non-destructive way. In this research, we study the influence of moisture damage on GPR signals at different floor constructions. For this purpose, a modular specimen with interchangeable layers is developed to vary the screed and insulation material, as well as the respective layer thickness. The obtained data set is then used to investigate suitable signal features to classify three scenarios: dry, damaged insulation, and damaged screed. It was found that analyzing statistical distributions of A-scan features inside one B-scan allows for accurate classification on unknown floor constructions. Combining the features with multivariate data analysis and machine learning was the key to achieve satisfying results. The developed method provides a basis for upcoming validations on real damage cases. KW - Radar KW - Material Moisture KW - Non-destructive testing KW - Signal Features KW - Civil Engineering KW - Machine Learning PY - 2021 UR - https://nbn-resolving.org/urn:nbn:de:kobv:b43-533606 DO - https://doi.org/10.3390/app11198820 VL - 11 IS - 19 SP - 8820 PB - MDPI AN - OPUS4-53360 LA - eng AD - Bundesanstalt fuer Materialforschung und -pruefung (BAM), Berlin, Germany ER -