Tunnel and Underground Space ISSN:1225-1275(Print) 2287-1748(Online) 터널과 지하공간

As urban infrastructure is aging, the possibility of accidents due to the failures or breakdowns of infrastructure increases. Especially, aging underground infrastructures like sewer pipes, waterworks, and subway have a potential to cause an urban ground sink. Urban ground sink is defined just as a local and erratic collapse occurred by underground cavity due to soil erosion or soil loss, which is separated from a sinkhole in soluble bedrock such as limestone. The conventional measurements such as differential settlement gauge, inclinometer or earth pressure gauge have a shortcoming just to provide point measurements with short coverage. Therefore, these methods are not adequate for monitoring of an erratic subsidence caused by underground cavity due to soil erosion or soil loss which occurring at unspecified time and location. Therefore, an alternative technology is required to detect a change of underground physical condition in real time. In this study, the feasibility of a novel magnetic resonance based monitoring method is investigated through laboratory tests, where the changes of path loss (S21) were measured under various testing conditions: media including air, water, and soil, resonant frequency, impedance, and distances between transmitter (TX) and receiver (RX). Theoretically, the transfer characteristic of magnetic field is known to be independent of the density of the medium. However, the results of the test showed the meaningful differences in the path loss (S21) under the different conditions of medium. And it is found that the reflection coefficient showed the more distinct differences over the testing conditions than the path loss. In particular, input reflection coefficient (S11) is more distinguishable than output reflection coefficient (S22).