A Machine Learning Method for the Fast Simulation of the Scattering Characteristics of a Target Under a Planar Layered Medium

TL;DR

This paper introduces a machine learning method to speed up ground-penetrating radar simulations by predicting scattering signals more efficiently.

Contribution

The novel cyclic nested deep learning network improves prediction accuracy and efficiency for GPR simulations.

Findings

The cyclic nested network outperforms traditional methods in predicting scattering characteristics.

PCA reduces echo data dimensionality, improving learning efficiency.

The method is validated using FDTD simulations for rebar detection in concrete.

Abstract

Numerical simulation of ground-penetrating radar (GPR) has been widely used to enhance the interpretation of GPR data and serves as a key component in Full Waveform Inversion (FWI). In response to the time-consuming numerical computation of layered medium and buried targets, which leads to inefficiency in full-wave inversion, this paper proposes a machine learning-based forward scattering rapid solution method. Using the detection of rebar buried in concrete under sand as the GPR application scenario, with scene parameters such as concrete moisture content, rebar radius, and burial depth, scattering echo signals are obtained via Finite Difference Time Domain (FDTD) simulation. Principal component analysis (PCA) is applied to reduce the dimensionality of the echo data, and the first 40 principal component weight coefficients are selected as the output of the deep learning network. An innovative cyclic nested deep learning network architecture is designed, which not only fully explores the intrinsic causal relationship between the scene parameters and the principal component weight coefficients, but also refines and corrects each predicted principal component. The numerical results demonstrate that, compared with traditional machine learning methods, the cyclic nested machine learning network architecture offers higher prediction accuracy and learning efficiency, validating the effectiveness of the proposed method.

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