A research project is being conducted to identify methods of using ground penetrating radar (GPR) to improve railway track condition assessment and enhance track inspections and safety. The safety of passing traffic can be improved if better indicators of problematic track conditions can be developed and utilized to better inspect the track for safety and to guide maintenance. The research effort has included evaluation of data collection techniques including testing a variety of GPR systems, identification of data interpretation techniques, and comparison of GPR data to track condition information. One limitation that has been identified is a lack of information on the electrical properties of track materials. Although data from geologic materials is well documented, the specific characteristics of railway track materials are different. For example, granite is documented widely as an intact rock mass and is used as ballast for track. However, in the railway ballast application, granite is used as crushed stone. During this research, tests were conducted to measure the dielectric permittivity of a variety of track materials to verify and supplement field measurements and to provide reference data for data interpretation. This paper describes the research project and the results of the testing and analysis.

Date Published: 12 April 2002
PDF: 6 pages
Proc. SPIE 4758, Ninth International Conference on Ground Penetrating Radar, (12 April 2002); doi: 10.1117/12.462259

Published in SPIE Proceedings Vol. 4758:
Ninth International Conference on Ground Penetrating Radar
Steven Koppenjan; Hua Lee, Editor(s)