Abstract:
A high-resolution dataset of digitally scanned railway ballast
(HRSBallast) is presented, consisting of 108 individual, digitised samples. The ballast samples were sourced from both a
railway test track section located on a heavy haul coal export
line in South Africa and a local quarry. The sampled ballast
from the field installation represent angular, semi-angular
and rounded geometric features depending on the sampled
location. The fresh ballast sourced from the quarry was iteratively tested using a hydraulic actuator in a small-scale
box test which forms part of a separate research project. The
ballast samples were scanned before and after every test to
ascertain the changes in geometry, in addition to the loss
of material due to attrition. The field and laboratory samples were digitised using a high-resolution, commercial (Visual Simultaneous Localization and Mapping) VSLAM-based
scanner with a 40-micrometre accuracy. Samples which were
fractured by the hydraulic actuator are also included in the
dataset. HRSBallast serves as a reference dataset for granular media (GM) simulations utilizing DEM (discrete element
method), degradation or wear modelling, digital assets for the creation of synthetic datasets for deep learning applications, embedded railway instrumentation and video games
requiring high-resolution geometry.
