• Journal of the Korean GEO-environmental Society
• /
• v.18 no.4
• /
• pp.13-21
• /
• 2017

Ballasted track has been used as track system for more than 100 years. Ballasted track has advantages of low construction cost, flexible maintenance, low noise and vibration, and so on. However, ballasted track leads to continuous settlement which causes maintenance. Recently, increase in speed, traffic volume, and weight of train requires more frequent maintenance. Fouling, well-known phenomenon of accumulation of fine materials due to intrusion of subgrade and breakage of ballast materials, expedites the settlement (i.e., irregular settlement) of track. Ground Penetrating Radar (GPR) can be one of non-destructive tools that can evaluate fouling level of ballast. In this paper, a gain function based on the attenuation characteristics of ballast material is suggested in conjunction with Hilbert transform. Lab box tests and full-scale tests indicate that the suggested method reasonably classifies clean, fouled layers, and subgrade. However, additional study to eliminate effect of sleeper and to include the scattering features of the electromagnetic wave in ballast voids should be required in order to enhance the accuracy.

• Geophysics and Geophysical Exploration
• /
• v.4 no.2
• /
• pp.25-33
• /
• 2001

Loop-loop electromagnetic (EM) survey in frequency domain has been carried out in order to provide basic solution to geotechnical applications. Source and receiver configuration may be horizontal co-planar (HCP) and/or vertical co-planar (VCP). Three quadrature components of mutual impedance ratio for each configuration are used to construct the subsurface image. For the purpose of obtaining the model response and validating the reasonable performance of the inversion, we obtained each responses of two-layered and three-layered earth models and two-dimensional (2-D) isolated anomalous body. The response of 2-D isolated anomalous body has been calculated using extended Born approximation for the solution of 2.5-D integral equation describing EM scattering problem. As a result of the least-squares inversion with variable Lagrangian multiplier, we could construct more resolvable image from HCP data than VCP data. Furthermore, joint inversion of HCP and VCP data made better stability and resolution of the inversion. Resistivity values, however, did not exactly match the true ones. Loop-loop EM field data was obtained with EM34-3XL system manufactured by Geonics Ltd. (Canada). Electrical resistivity survey was conducted on the same line for the comparison in advance. Since the constructed image from loop-loop EM data by 2-D inversion algorithm showed almost similar resistivity distribution to that from electrical resistivity one, we expect the developed 2.5-D loop-loop EM inversion program can be applied for the reconnaissance site survey.

• Proceedings of the Korean Vacuum Society Conference
• /
• 2010.02a
• /
• pp.276-276
• /
• 2010

Localized surface plasmon resonance (LSPR) has been explored recently as a promising approach to increase energy conversion efficiency in photovoltaic devices, particularly for thin film hydrogenated amorphous silicon (a-Si:H) solar cells. The LSPR is frequently excited via an electromagnetic (EM) radiation in proximate metallic nanostructures and its primary con sequences are selective photon extinction and local EM enhancement which gives rise to improved photogeneration of electron-hole (e-h) pairs, and consequently increases photocurrent. In this work, high-dielectric-constant (k) $ZrO_2$ (refractive index n=2.22, dielectric constant $\varepsilon=4.93$ at the wavelength of 550 nm) is proposed as spacing layer to enhance the LSPR for application to the thin film silicon solar cells. Compared to excitation of the LSPR using $SiO_2$ (n=1.46, $\varepsilon=2.13$ at the wavelength of 546.1 nm) spacing layer with Au nanoparticles of the radius of 45nm, that using $ZrO_2$ dielectric shows the advantages of(i) ~2.5 times greater polarizability, (ii) ~3.5 times larger scattering cross-section and ~1.5 times larger absorption cross-section, (iii) 4.5% higher transmission coefficient of the same thickness and (iv) 7.8% greater transmitted electric filed intensity at the same depth. All those results are calculated by Mie theory and Fresnel equations, and simulated by finite-difference time-domain (FDTD) calculations with proper boundary conditions. Red-shifting of the LSPR wavelength using high-k $ZrO_2$ dielectric is also observed according to location of the peak and this is consistent with the other's report. Finally, our experimental results show that variation of short-circuit current density ($J_{sc}$) of the LSPR enhanced a-Si:H solar cell by using the $ZrO_2$ spacing layer is 45.4% higher than that using the $SiO_2$ spacing layer, supporting our calculation and theory.