Laboralory and field experimenls were carried oul in order lo invesligale lhe causes of GPR refleclions inside non-consolidaled sand samples. In lhe sand samples, the content of water, heavy minerais grain size were varied and the velocity of propagation of GPR pulses were measured using antennas of 400 MHz and 900 MHz. In alaboratory experiment, it was verified the increase of the dielectric constant due to the increase in water content. Wyllie & Gregory (1953) and Topp et al. (1980) models furnish good previsions of experimental data, specially lhe first one when it is considered the enlire data set (two frequencies). However, it was verified that the velocity estimates are systematically greater for the higher frequency (900 MHz), afact which is not predicted by both models. For dry sand samples, it was verified arelatively minor increase of the dielectric constant with the increase in heavy minerais. Also for dry sand samples, no dependence of the dielectric constant was observed with grain size variation. On the other hand, for afield in situ experiment, where samples of sand were taken to perform grain size characterization, it was verified that the grain size might has an indirect influence on the dielectric constant because it may control water adsorption.
causes of GPR reflections; non-consolidate sand bodies; heavy minerais
