Geophysical Condition Assessment of Railway Earthworks (GEO-CARE)

英国铁路网的许多部分建于19世纪中期，远早于现代建筑标准的出现。拥有英国最大土方结构网络的Network Rail最近进行的一项研究显示，他们的土方工程网络中有50%（5000公里）被认为处于“不良”或“边缘”状态，因此需要进行大量维护。由于英国未来70年降水模式的预期变化可能对铁路土方工程产生重大影响，因此制定评估其稳定性的适当方法至关重要，这样维修工作可以更好地有针对性，尽可能避免故障。主要基础设施要素故障的后果是严重的，可能包括人员伤亡、大量更换费用、线路关闭和服务中断，这通常会持续几个月。土方工程的预先评估和补救总是比被动处理故障的成本低得多。这个项目的目的是研究一种快速、成本效益和非破坏性的方法来评估土方工程的失败风险。这涉及对最近开发的一种地球物理方法的敏感性的调查，即多通道表面波分析（MASW），用于测量由降雨引起的流体引起的压力变化的变化。这可能为评估土方工程的稳定性提供一种实用而相对可靠的方法。尽管MASW方法提供了优势，但在评估斜坡或土方工程中流体引起的变化方面，以前还没有对其进行过测试。因此，从科学计时的角度来看，目前有机会探索这一应用的新颖性。当考虑到当前和未来的工业需要，以改进因气候变化而对土方工程的评估时，进一步强调了这一机会的重要性。

Many parts of the UK's rail network were constructed in the mid-19th century long before the advent of modern construction standards. A recent study conducted by Network Rail, who own the largest network of earth structures in the UK, has revealed that 50% (5000km) of their network of earthworks are considered to be in a "poor" or "marginal" condition thereby necessitating significant maintenance. With the expected changes to the UK's precipitation patterns over the next 70 years likely to have a significant effect on railway earthworks, it is crucial that appropriate approaches for assessment of their stability are developed, so that repair work can be better targeted and failures avoided wherever possible. The consequence of failures of major infrastructure elements is severe and can include loss of life, significant replacement costs, line closures and major disruption to services which can often last for several months. Advance assessment and remediation of earthworks is always significantly less costly than dealing with failures reactively. The aim of this project is to investigate the potential use of a rapid, cost effective and non-destructive approach for assessing earthworks at risk of failure. This involves an investigation into the sensitivity of a recently developed geophysical method, the Multichannel Analysis of Surface Waves (MASW), for measuring variations in fluid induced pressure changes, resulting from rainfall. This potentially provides a practical and relatively robust means of assessing the stability of earthworks. Despite the advantages that the MASW method provides, it has not been tested previously for assessing fluid induced changes in slopes or earthworks. Therefore, from the point of view of scientific timing, an opportunity currently exists to explore the novelty of this application. The importance of this opportunity is highlighted further when consideration is given to the current and future industrial needs to improve assessment of earthworks as a result of climate variability.