Journal of the Korean Geo-Environmental Society ISSN:1598-0820(Print) 2714-1233(Online) 한국지반환경공학회 논문집

To minimize the cost of maintenance, repair and over-design of track substructure, an accurate evaluation of strength and stiffness of the track substructure is necessary. In this study, a cone penetrometer with impact penetration rod (CPI) is developed for the evaluation of track substructure. For applicability test, the chamber and field tests were performed. As the experimental results of the CPI, dynamic cone penetration endex (DCPI), cone tip resistance (qc), friction resistance (fs) and friction ratio (Fr) were obtained. In the chamber test, the experimental results show reasonable values for the simulated track substructure. In the field test, the CPI clearly detects the interface between the ballast and the subgrade. Also, discontinuous layers are detected in the subgrade. It is expected that the developed CPI may be an effective tool for the evaluation of track substructure by evaluating the ballast layer by dynamic penetration and the subgrade by static penetration of the inner rod.