What value does ZARR bring to network operations?
Zetica’s Advanced Rail Radar system (ZARR) is a proven system on ballasted track and which can provide the following immediate benefits:
- Reduction in the number of trial holes required to investigate a site
- Accurate mapping of the extent of track maintenance or renewals required
- Verification of the quality of renewals work carried out
- The ability to monitor change in the condition of trackbed
To deploy GPR cost-effectively, the information derived must be quickly reduceable from typically 80Mb of raw data per km of track in order that it can be easily handled like track geometry data in track management and work plan systems. This requires the knowledge and experience of integrated data capture systems and sophisticated data processing and interpretation software delivered by ZARR.
ZARR allows more efficient planning and execution of trackbed maintenance through monitoring of trackbed deterioration over time, identification of sites for renewal by ballast cleaning before degradation reaches the stage where costlier machine reballasting is required, and quality control of renewals through pre- and postrenewal scanning.
With ZARR, we have only touched the surface of realising the full potential of GPR surveys to monitor trackbed. We are currently introducing tools to facilitate output of trackbed quality indices and automatic recognition of features such as subgrade erosion. Combining this information with track geometry measurements is allowing novel metrics to be devised to extract maximum benefit from trackbed monitoring.
Our test site in Oxfordshire, UK incorporates known ballast and trackbed features, various sleeper types and cross-cutting services. The site is used to evaluate new antennas and to understand environmental influences such as recent heavy rainfall on the behaviour of GPR signal in clean and fouled ballast. The site is also used to certify data collection technicians prior to deployment to any site.
