New Analysis of Ground Penetrating Radar Testing of a Mixed Railway Trackbed

The overall aim of this project was to relate Ground Penetrating Radar (GPR) to ballast fouling. The 10-year old University of Edinburgh full-scale trackbed was revisited and the fouling of the ballast was recalibrated following environmental changes, using the Ionescu fouling index. A series of GPR experiments were undertaken on the trackbed using a range of bowtie antennas from 500MHz to 2.6GHz. Scatter analyses of the GPR waveforms included area analyses, axis crossing analyses and inflexion point analyses. When predicting Fouling Index, a correlation coefficient greater than 0.9 was obtained by using a 500 MHz bowtie antenna in the parallel orientation in conjunction with a scan area analysis. This paper will outline the recent work of other researchers and the detailed experimental program at the University of Edinburgh.

• Corporate Authors:

  Transportation Research Board

  500 Fifth Street, NW
  Washington, DC  United States  20001
• Authors:
  • Forde, Michael Christopher
  • De Bold, Robert
  • O’Connor, Gerard
  • Morrissey, John
• Conference:
  • Transportation Research Board 89th Annual Meeting
  • Location: Washington DC, United States
  • Date: 2010-1-10 to 2010-1-14
• Date: 2010

Language

• English

Media Info

• Media Type: DVD
• Features: Figures; References; Tables;
• Pagination: 18p
• Monograph Title: TRB 89th Annual Meeting Compendium of Papers DVD

Subject/Index Terms

• TRT Terms: Antifouling coatings; Ballast (Railroads); Ballastless track; Ground penetrating radar; Maintenance of way; Railroad tracks
• Uncontrolled Terms: Railroad track beds
• Geographic Terms: Edinburgh (Scotland)
• Subject Areas: Maintenance and Preservation; Railroads; I61: Equipment and Maintenance Methods;

Filing Info

• Accession Number: 01157089
• Record Type: Publication
• Report/Paper Numbers: 10-3142
• Files: TRIS, TRB
• Created Date: May 24 2010 2:08PM