Railroad Structural Evaluation Using A Falling Weight Deflectometer (FWD): Lessons Learned And Required Transformations

Tuesday, June 30, 2026

3:15 PM - 3:30 PM East Coast USA Time

Primary Author(s)

Rami Chkaiban, PhD, PE

Team Lead - Senior Engineer
Applied Research Associates, Inc.
Champaign, IL, United States

Co-Author(s)

Abby Cisko, Ph.D.

Research Mechanical Engineer
U.S. Army Engineer Research and Development Center
Vicksburg, Mississippi, United States
Jeb S. Tingle, P.E.

Senior Scientific Technical Manager
U.S. Army Engineer Research and Development Center
Vicksburg, Mississippi, United States
Jeremy Beasley, n/a

ERDC Railroad Track Evaluation Program Team Leader
U.S. Army Engineer Research and Development Center
Vicksburg, Mississippi, United States
RL

Ryan Langlois, n/a

Senior Program Manager
Applied Research Associates, Inc.
Randolph, Vermont, United States
Erol Tutumluer, Ph.D.

Professor
University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign
Urbana, Illinois, United States

Submitter(s)

Rami Chkaiban, PhD, PE

Team Lead - Senior Engineer
Applied Research Associates, Inc.
Champaign, IL, United States

Abstract: Highway pavement evaluation has well-developed standards that make use of a spectrum of high-tech equipment to assess the functional and structural health of pavements. This is not always true for railroad where recent technologies and analysis tools are not consistently being adapted and used to evaluate the heath of the super- and sub-structures. To reduce this deficiency, A Falling Weight Deflectometer (FWD) was converted to the railroad world under the Advancing Power Projection through Lines of Communication (APPLoC) project funded by U.S. Army Engineer Research and Development Center (ERDC). Coupling the measured data with back-calculation methodology, the different moduli of the horizontal pavement layers can be calculated. This concept has been imported to evaluate railroad substructure and calculate the moduli of the different substructure layers (e.g., ballast, sub-ballast, and subgrade). Proof of concept testing was conducted confirming the applicability of this technology for railroads. Several challenges were observed during these testing which led to modifying the highway FWD into a railroad/highway FWD. This presentation will showcase the proof-of-concept tests and data analysis. Additionally, lessons learned and required modifications to “transform” the highway FWD into a hybrid railroad/highway FWD will be shared. The final FWD product will be used by the Army to assess the health of their railroad network.

Learning Objectives:

Attendees can expect to learn the following from this session:

Learn the new rail ballast evaluation technology and its challenges
Understand the gaps that are currently present in the rail ballast evaluation
Learn the benefits of this new technology and its applicability in various rail types