Application of FDTD algorithm to highway technology

Discusses the suitability of pulse radar for measuring the depth of asphalt above cement, ensuring a highway surface to be even. In order to simulate the behavior of such wide-band radar systems, a two-dimensional finite-difference time-domain (FDTD) algorithm is presented in this paper, which models the scattering problem from a stack of two rough interfaces. The two boundaries are separating three media: air, asphalt and cement. As shown through numerical solutions, this versatile tool is well suited for the investigation of physical phenomena, especially the competition between surface and subsurface scattering.