Development of a time–frequency approach to quantify railroad ballast fouling condition using ultra-wide band ground-penetrating radar data

This paper discusses the use of ground-penetrating radar (GPR) to assess railroad track substructure conditions. An ultra-wide band (UWB) GPR system, having a centre frequency at or higher than 2 GHz, can be used to detect the scattering pattern and to predict air void volume in railroad ballast. A time–frequency technique was implemented to characterise the signal in time and frequency domains simultaneously. Because electromagnetic energy attenuation is highly frequency dependent, the frequency sub-bands of the reflected UWB GPR signal can be analysed separately to quantify the fouling material and quantify moisture content. Additionally, to validate the GPR system capability, a ground truth field survey was conducted. Using ballast samples collected from the field for validation, this paper shows that a time–frequency analysis may provide a new method to measure the thickness of clean ballast, detect the trapped water and assess the ballast fouling and moisture content along the track.