State-of-the-Art Review of Ground Penetrating Radar (GPR) Applications for Railway Ballast Inspection

Review (2022)
Author(s)

Shilei Wang (China Academy of Railway Sciences)

Guixian Liu (China Academy of Railway Sciences)

Guoqing Jing (Beijing Jiaotong University)

Qiankuan Feng (China Academy of Railway Sciences)

Hengbai Liu (China Academy of Railway Sciences)

Y. Guo (TU Delft - Railway Engineering)

Research Group
Railway Engineering
Copyright
© 2022 Shilei Wang, Guixian Liu, Guoqing Jing, Qiankuan Feng, Hengbai Liu, Y. Guo
DOI related publication
https://doi.org/10.3390/s22072450
More Info
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Publication Year
2022
Language
English
Copyright
© 2022 Shilei Wang, Guixian Liu, Guoqing Jing, Qiankuan Feng, Hengbai Liu, Y. Guo
Research Group
Railway Engineering
Issue number
7
Volume number
22
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Abstract

In the past 20 years, many studies have been performed on ballast layer inspection and condition evaluation with ground penetrating radar (GPR). GPR is a non-destructive means that can reflect the ballast layer condition (fouling, moisture) by analysing the received signal variation. Even though GPR detection/inspection for ballast layers has become mature, some challenges still need to be stressed and solved, e.g., GPR indicator (for reflecting fouling level) development, quantitative evaluation for ballast fouling levels under diverse field conditions, rapid GPR inspection, and combining analysis of GPR results with other data (e.g., track stiffness, rail acceleration, etc.). Therefore, this paper summarised earlier studies on GPR application for ballast layer condition evaluation. How the GPR was used in the earlier studies was classified and discussed. In addition, how to correlate GPR results with ballast fouling level was also examined. Based on the summary, future developments can be seen, which is helpful for supplementing standards of ballast layer evaluation and maintenance.