Characterizing railroad ballast using GPR: Recent experiences in the United States

R. Roberts, A. Schutz, I. Al-Qadi, E. Tutumluer

Research output: Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceedingConference contribution

Abstract

Recent work has been conducted in the United States with 2 GHz horn antennas to characterize railroad ballast. There were a number observations made during the course of the project that derive from gaining a more thorough understanding of ballast and the interaction of GPR with the ballast matrix. The major observations from over 238 km of track data at four different geographical locations include; (1) it cannot be assumed that there will be a reflection from the bottom of clean ballast or that there will be a reflection from the ballast-subballast interface; (2) the presence of a strong reflection in the data generally, but not always, infers moderately-fouled to clean ballast above the reflecting boundary; and (3) no observable ballast-subballast interface reflections are generally, but not always, associated with gradational fouling or a fully-fouled ballast section.

Original languageEnglish (US)
Title of host publicationProceedings of the 2007 4th International Workshop on Advanced Ground Penetrating Radar, IWAGPR 2007
Pages295-299
Number of pages5
DOIs
StatePublished - 2007
Event4th International Workshop on Advanced Ground Penetrating Radar, IWAGPR 2007 - Naples, Italy
Duration: Jun 27 2007Jun 29 2007

Publication series

NameProceedings of the 2007 4th International Workshop on Advanced Ground Penetrating Radar, IWAGPR 2007

Other

Other4th International Workshop on Advanced Ground Penetrating Radar, IWAGPR 2007
Country/TerritoryItaly
CityNaples
Period6/27/076/29/07

Keywords

  • 2 GHz horn antennas
  • Ballast fouling
  • GPR
  • Void scattering

ASJC Scopus subject areas

  • Computer Networks and Communications
  • Geotechnical Engineering and Engineering Geology
  • Electrical and Electronic Engineering
  • Communication

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