GPR Rail

Dynamic auscultation system for the assessment of ballast consolidation, GPR Rail is a R&D project developed during 2019-2020 between the companies Rover Maritime and Geozone Asesores, supported by IVACE within the Program of R&D Projects in Cooperation with co-financing from the ERDF funds of the Valencia Community 2014-2020. The project ends in November 2020.

The main objective or purpose of the project is to develop a methodology for determining the degree of ballast compactness by means of an exploration system based on geo-radar embedded in a maintenance wagon that allows identifying areas susceptible to local intervention and/or with associated geological risk.

This methodology will be based on a system of subsurface monitoring with one or more georradar antennas that will work in different inspection frequency bands. From the information collected, data will be processed in order to identify and characterize the ballast layer electrically to detect anomalies and estimate the degree of compactness of this layer and layers immediately below it up to a level at which its interaction is less relevant to such a ballast.

The project is still in development phase and no final results and conclusions are available.

To date, have been defined. In this phase, the operational specifications that the system must meet will be defined depending on the type of track platform and the functional technical specifications that the georadar system must observe and its suitability in a wagon maintenance. Subsequently, the georradar exploration systems were adapted and implemented in a conventional maintenance wagon.

On the other hand, validation measures are being carried out both in the laboratory, on a series of prepared specimens with a known level of ballast deterioration or soiling, and on sections of track in service, comparing the measurement before and after the batting procedure. In addition to developing a rapid ballast state measurement methodology with the project, it is also intended to establish clear performance criteria for track maintenance based on the results obtained from the measures.