Archives of Civil Engineering

Abstract

From the construction made in the "white box" technology, first of all tightness is required -on the structural elements there should not be any cracks or scratches, through which water could penetrate, which in consequence may lead to deformation of structural elements and even loosing of their load-bearing capacity.Among the methods enabling the location of weakened places in watertight concrete, the ground penetrating radar (GPR) method is effective because the local occurrence of water in the structure evokes a clear and unambiguous anomaly on the radargram. In addition, the GPR method allows you to indicate places where water flows without the necessity of excluding the object from use and interference in the construction layers. The designation of such locations will make it possible to undertake technical activities that can facilitate the takeover of water and thus ensure the desired load-bearing capacity and usability of the object. Using the GPR method, you can also designate places that have already been deformed -discontinuities or breaking. The article presents a case study of investigations that determine the causes of leakage of tunnels made in the "white box" technology in: twice within the bottom slab of the tunnel (1 GHz air-coupled and 400 MHz ground-coupled antenna) and once in the case of tunnel walls (1.6 GHz ground-coupled antenna).