As railway ballast crushing and refining progress with time, and the content of fine grains increases, the saturation of ballast increases during rainfall. The decrease in drainage and strength increase the likelihood for ballast to settle. Grain-size analysis is necessary to quantitatively evaluate the ballast condition at field spots by sampling the field ballast, and currently, the ballast condition is generally checked visually. Ballast renewal is based on the visual check results and track repair frequency. Therefore, we investigated the ballast conditions for different track repair frequencies in field-ballasted tracks and evaluated the grain-size distribution of the ballast sample. Moreover, we developed an inspection method using sound transmission to quantitatively evaluate ballast conditions. The proposed inspection method leverages the fact that it becomes difficult to transmit sound in the ballast as the ballast progresses to be crushed and refined from a new condition. We performed measurements using a full-scale model to examine the relationship between the fouling condition of the ballast and the sound that is transmitted. Furthermore, we verified the feasibility of evaluating the transmitted sound through field tests.
Field survey and evaluation method for fouled ballast using transmitted sound characteristics
2025
Article (Journal)
Electronic Resource
Unknown
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