Identification of density of earth-fill dam using muography
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In recent years, the high probability of large-scale earthquakes occurring in Japan has become a major social concern; and thus, it is urgent that countermeasures and maintenance be implemented for the protection of large-scale societal infrastructures from damage due to these earthquakes. When large-scale societal infrastructures are inspected, in order to see what countermeasures should be planned ahead of the occurrence of any earthquakes, an internal diagnosis is required to evaluate the damage condition of the structures. However, conventional methods of diagnosis, such as ground-penetrating radar, have their limitations. Namely, they provide high-precision results in shallow areas, but results with reduced resolution in deeper regions. To overcome the shortcomings associated with these conventional methods of exploring depths out of the investigation range, one approach is to use muography1). This paper investigates the applicability of muon exploration techniques, using cosmic-ray muons, to probe the density of structures inside an earth-fill dams.