W-band MIMO GB-SAR for Bridge Testing/Monitoring

• Main Authors: Lapo Miccinesi, Tommaso Consumi, Alessandra Beni, Massimiliano Pieraccini
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: MDPI AG 2021-09-01
• Series: Electronics
• Subjects: ground-based synthetic aperture radar; radar interferometry; radar remote sensing; synthetic aperture radar; W-band
• Online Access: https://www.mdpi.com/2079-9292/10/18/2261

Interferometric radars are widely used for static and dynamic monitoring of large structures such as bridges, culverts, wind turbine towers, chimneys, masonry towers, stay cables, buildings, and monuments. Most of these radars operate in Ku-band (17 GHz). Nevertheless, a higher operative frequency could allow the design of smaller, lighter, and faster equipment. In this paper, a fast MIMO-GBSAR (Multiple-Input Multiple-Output Ground-Based Synthetic Aperture Radar) operating in W-band (77 GHz) has been proposed. The radar can complete a scan in less than 8 s. Furthermore, as its overall dimension is smaller than 230 mm, it can be easily fixed to the head of a camera tripod, which makes its deployment in the field very easy, even by a single operator. The performance of this radar was tested in a controlled environment and in a realistic case study.