Development and application of air-coupled GPR antenna for coal-rock interface detection in mines.

Rapid and high precision detection of coal-rock interface is one of the key problems in intelligent coal mining. In this paper, an air-coupled ground penetrating radar (GPR) antenna is developed for coal-rock interface detection in fully mechanized mining face, which can realize non-contacting, high precision, high-resolution detection during the mining process. The main features of the air-coupled GPR antenna are ultra-wideband, narrow beam, and high gain. For the vertical polarization pattern at 1200 MHz, the main lobe amplitude is 6.29dBi and the main lobe width (3 dB) is 108.3°, as well as the relative bandwidth of the antenna can reach 51%. For design validations, the novel air-coupled GPR antenna developed in this paper is tested in mine, the detection error and the average error percentage are ±1.2 cm and 8.6%, respectively, which shows the superior detection ability of the novel air-coupled GPR antenna and the applicability in complex geological environment, providing technical support for the identification of coal-rock interface in intelligent coal mining. • Development of a novel air-coupled radar antenna for coal-rock interface detection. • The non-contact detection with the antenna suspended in 30 cm off the target. • Application of the coal-rock interface detection in fully mechanized mining face. • The average error of coal-rock interface detection is ±1.2 cm (8.6%). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]