ABSTRACT
Railway infrastructures, mainly the ballasted tracks, require systematic maintenance and a proper planning for track interventions. On the one hand, the railway lines have more traffic and loads circulating on them and, on the other hand, the increased traffic speeds on railways require restrictive safety measures during inspection and maintenance. An important part of the railway inspections is represented by non-destructive tests. A brief presentation of the geophysical tools adequate to railway investigation is presented herein, highlighting their applicability. The main areas of their use are addressed with special emphases on the Ground Penetrating Radar application, as it is nowadays the most used geophysical method for railway inspection at network level. The main applications addressed here are the layer thickness measurement, detection of changes on track geometry, fouling level of ballast, as well as other track defects and assessment of layer characteristics, mainly at the infrastructure level.
