Rail Defect Detection using Matrix Pencil Method-Based Radar Target Identification

This paper presents a method of rail defect detection. The method is based on a radar target identification system by transmitting a short pulse to the rail and receiving the reflected one to characterize the rail property. A matrix pencil method is employed to extract poles used as a signature of individual railway. Simulations are conducted to investigate the performance of the proposed method used to identify the rail detect. Results in term of time-domain response and extracted poles are shown to verify that the radar target identification can distinguish the normal rail out of the defected rail.