Non-Destructive Technologies for a Sustainable Assessment and Monitoring of Railway Infrastructures: A Focus on GPR and InSAR Methods

Non-Destructive Technologies for a Sustainable Assessment and Monitoring of Railway Infrastructures: A Focus on GPR and InSAR Methods | Research Square window.SnipcartSettings = { analytics: { enabled: false } }; (function() { var accessVector = localStorage.getItem('access_vector') || ''; window.dataLayer = window.dataLayer || []; if (accessVector) { window.dataLayer.push({ user: { profile: { profileInfo: { snid: accessVector } } } }); } })(); (function(w,d,s,l,i){w[l]=w[l]||[];w[l].push({'gtm.start':new Date().getTime(),event:'gtm.js'});var f=d.getElementsByTagName(s)[0],j=d.createElement(s),dl=l!='dataLayer'?'&l='+l:'';j.async=true;j.src='https://www.googletagmanager.com/gtm.js?id='+i+dl;f.parentNode.insertBefore(j,f);})(window,document,'script','dataLayer','GTM-K279D39R'); Browse Preprints In Review Journals COVID-19 Preprints AJE Video Bytes Research Tools Research Promotion AJE Professional Editing AJE Rubriq About Preprint Platform In Review Editorial Policies Our Team Advisory Board Help Center Sign In Submit a Preprint Cite Share Download PDF Research Article Non-Destructive Technologies for a Sustainable Assessment and Monitoring of Railway Infrastructures: A Focus on GPR and InSAR Methods Chiara Ferrante, Luca Bianchini Ciampoli, Andrea Benedetto, Amir M. Alani, and 1 more This is a preprint; it has not been peer reviewed by a journal. https://doi.org/ 10.21203/rs.3.rs-216510/v1 This work is licensed under a CC BY 4.0 License Status: Published Journal Publication published 27 Nov, 2021 Read the published version in Environmental Earth Sciences → Version 1 posted 4 You are reading this latest preprint version Abstract Health monitoring of ballast in railway infrastructures is crucial to assure structural stability and efficiency of the operations. To this extent, an efficient and sustainable management of maintenance is fundamental for asset managers in setting up strategic and effective action plans. Amongst the available methods to assess the conditions of railway infrastructures, non-destructive technologies (NDT) are gaining popularity due to their capability to overcome main drawbacks of traditional routine methods, such as digging trenches and visually inspect locations assumed as critical along the track. The present paper presents an overview of the use of the Ground Penetrating Radar (GPR) and the Interferometric Synthetic Aperture (InSAR) technologies for a sustainable monitoring of railway infrastructures. Specifically, main traditional and non-destructive methods used for maintenance of railway ballast materials are presented with a special focus on their sustainability. A review about the research methods on the use of GPR and InSAR technologies for railway infrastructures also reported, including main investigations carried out in the laboratory and the real-life environments. Furthermore, a conceptual framework based on an integrated approach including satellite-based and ground-based investigations is proposed, where network and local level information can be merged for the detection of critical sections and the implementation of a more advanced predictive maintenance system. Environmental Engineering Railway Infrastructures Sustainable Assessment and Monitoring Non-Destructive Testing Ground Penetrating Radar (GPR) Interferometric Synthetic Aperture Radar (InSAR) Figures Figure 1 Figure 2 Figure 3 Figure 4 Figure 5 Figure 6 Figure 7 Figure 8 Figure 9 Figure 10 Figure 11 Figure 12 Figure 13 Figure 14 Figure 15 Full Text Due to technical limitations, full-text HTML conversion of this manuscript could not be completed. However, the latest manuscript can be downloaded and accessed as a PDF. Cite Share Download PDF Status: Published Journal Publication published 27 Nov, 2021 Read the published version in Environmental Earth Sciences → Version 1 posted Reviews received at journal 24 Feb, 2021 Reviewers invited by journal 16 Feb, 2021 Editor assigned by journal 10 Feb, 2021 First submitted to journal 06 Feb, 2021 You are reading this latest preprint version Research Square lets you share your work early, gain feedback from the community, and start making changes to your manuscript prior to peer review in a journal. As a division of Research Square Company, we’re committed to making research communication faster, fairer, and more useful. We do this by developing innovative software and high quality services for the global research community. Our growing team is made up of researchers and industry professionals working together to solve the most critical problems facing scientific publishing. Also discoverable on Platform About Our Team In Review Editorial Policies Advisory Board Help Center Resources Author Services Accessibility API Access RSS feed Manage Cookie Preferences © Research Square 2026 | ISSN 2693-5015 (online) Privacy Policy Terms of Service Do Not Sell My Personal Information {"props":{"pageProps":{"initialData":{"identity":"rs-216510","acceptedTermsAndConditions":true,"allowDirectSubmit":false,"archivedVersions":[],"articleType":"Research Article","associatedPublications":[],"authors":[{"id":12387445,"identity":"baa30fdb-9679-465d-9547-c752948f5724","order_by":0,"name":"Chiara Ferrante","email":"data:image/png;base64,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","orcid":"https://orcid.org/0000-0001-8294-634X","institution":"Roma Tre University: Universita degli Studi Roma Tre","correspondingAuthor":true,"submittingAuthor":false,"prefix":"","firstName":"Chiara","middleName":"","lastName":"Ferrante","suffix":""},{"id":12387446,"identity":"7caa18f4-62e0-44f2-9120-e94cde8728ce","order_by":1,"name":"Luca Bianchini Ciampoli","email":"","orcid":"","institution":"Roma Tre University: Universita degli Studi Roma Tre","correspondingAuthor":false,"submittingAuthor":false,"prefix":"","firstName":"Luca","middleName":"Bianchini","lastName":"Ciampoli","suffix":""},{"id":12387447,"identity":"525e2962-d2c3-441f-b166-5bad0cf38a1c","order_by":2,"name":"Andrea Benedetto","email":"","orcid":"","institution":"Roma Tre University: Universita degli Studi Roma Tre","correspondingAuthor":false,"submittingAuthor":false,"prefix":"","firstName":"Andrea","middleName":"","lastName":"Benedetto","suffix":""},{"id":12387448,"identity":"0c653833-d6f1-42f0-9add-71f9e10fccbd","order_by":3,"name":"Amir M. 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(a): the raw picture taken with a digital camera\nsuspended in the air above the centre of the formwork. 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To this extent, an efficient and sustainable management of maintenance is fundamental for asset managers in setting up strategic and effective action plans.\nAmongst the available methods to assess the conditions of railway infrastructures, non-destructive technologies (NDT) are gaining popularity due to their capability to overcome main drawbacks of traditional routine methods, such as digging trenches and visually inspect locations assumed as critical along the track.\nThe present paper presents an overview of the use of the Ground Penetrating Radar (GPR) and the Interferometric Synthetic Aperture (InSAR) technologies for a sustainable monitoring of railway infrastructures. Specifically, main traditional and non-destructive methods used for maintenance of railway ballast materials are presented with a special focus on their sustainability. 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