Ballast fouling inspection and quantification with ground penetrating radar (GPR). Issue 2 (4th March 2023)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Guo, Yunlong; Liu, Guixian; Jing, Guoqing; Qu, Jianjun; Wang, Shilei; Qiang, Weile
• Is Part Of: International journal of rail transportation. Volume 11:Issue 2(2023)
• Page Start: 151
• Page End: 168
• Publication Date: 2023-03-04
• Subjects: Ground penetrating radar -- GPR -- railway ballast -- track inspection -- ballast fouling -- track geometry; Railroads -- Periodicals; Railroads; Periodicals; 385
• DOI: 10.1080/23248378.2022.2064346
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 2324-8378

Abstract

ABSTRACT: Ground penetrating radar (GPR) has been applied for ballast layer inspection for two decades, mainly for the analysis of ballast layer fouling levels. However, some issues that affect the inspection quality remain unsolved, such as issues involving the GPR equipment quality (antenna) and the correlation between the GPR indicator and fouling index. With the aim of solving these two issues, in this paper, we investigated the difference between the results of two different antennas, the GPR data processing technique, indicators for the fouling level (by GPR signal processing) and the correlation between the indicators and fouling index (obtained by sieving). The results show that the antenna quality determines the inspection quality. The indicators can reflect the ballast layer fouling level, and they correlate the best with the fouling index (obtained by the percentage of particles passing through a 5 mm sieve size). This study is helpful for the future modification of railway ballast maintenance standards.