A study on characteristic indexes of railway ballast bed under high-frequency radar

PurposeIn this paper, a high-frequency radar test system was used to collect the data of clean ballast bed and fouled ballast bed of ballasted tracks, respectively, for a quantitative evaluation of the condition of railway ballast bed.Design/methodology/approachBased on original radar signals, the time–frequency characteristics of radar signals were analyzed, five ballast bed condition characteristic indexes were proposed, including the frequency domain integral area, scanning area, number of intersections with the time axis, number of time-domain inflection points and amplitude envelope obtained by Hilbert transform, and the effectiveness and sensitivity of the indexes were analyzed.FindingsThe thickness of ballast bed tested at the sleep bottom by high-frequency radar is up to 55 cm, which meets the requirements of ballast bed detection. Compared with clean ballast bed, the values of the five indexes of fouled ballast bed are larger, and the five indexes could effectively show the condition of the ballast bed. The computational efficiency of amplitude envelope obtained by Hilbert transform is 140 s·km−1, and the computational efficiency of other indexes is 5 s·km−1. The amplitude envelopes obtained by Hilbert transform in the subgrade sections and tunnel sections are the most sensitive, followed by scanning area. The number of intersections with the time axis in the bridge sections was the most sensitive, followed by the scanning area. The scanning area can adapt to different substructures such as subgrade, bridges and tunnels, with high comprehensive sensitivity.Originality/valueThe research can provide appropriate characteristic indexes from the high-frequency radar original signal to quantitatively evaluate ballast bed condition under different substructures.