Repeated Load Saturated Soil Behavior Linked to Two Derailment Case Studies

According to Hay (Railroad engineering, Wiley, New York, 1982), the support of railway track is a critical requirement to achieve the potential of railway track to serve as one of the most cost-effective types of infrastructure in terms of long-term maintenance cost. Uniform resilient support provided to the track structure (rails and ties) is needed to maintain stresses in the track structure that result from the applied train loading within an acceptable range. Excessive track deflection due to poor track support contributes excessive stress to track components. The shallower the support deterioration, the more severe the effect on the track structure and the deeper the support deterioration the more difficult it can be to locate and repair. Saturated-undrained soil conditions would not be expected to compromise track support in railway track built using commonly specified materials. However, changes in track drainage patterns and contamination of open-graded aggregate ballast has been known to result in roadbed saturation and associated softening that is listed in the FRA Railway Accident/Incident Reporting System as derailment cause code T001 Roadbed Settled/Soft. The technical cause of deterioration is often a moisture content increase associated reduction in strength. Repeated load behavior of saturated undrained soils is known to cause specific types of problematic failures that might be mitigated with operational limitations or maintenance. The potential for saturated-undrained repeated load soil failure modes in track can only be assessed if situations susceptible to these conditions can be identified. In this paper, the classic conditions related to these soil failures are discussed as a basis for review of two case studies illustrating the field conditions associated with two distinct failure scenarios.

• Record URL:
  https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-77238-3
• Availability:
  • Find a library where document is available. Order URL: http://worldcat.org/isbn/9783030772376
• Supplemental Notes:
  • © The Editor(s) (if applicable) and The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2022.
• Corporate Authors:

  Springer International Publishing

  ,    
• Authors:
  • Sussmann, Theodore
• Conference:
  • 4th International Conference on Transportation Geotechnics (4th ICTG)
  • Location: Chicago Illinois, United States
  • Date: 2021-5-23 to 2021-5-26
• Publication Date: 2021-9-17

Language

• English

Media Info

• Media Type: Web
• Features: References;
• Pagination: pp 889-904
• Monograph Title: Advances in Transportation Geotechnics IV: Proceedings of the 4th International Conference on Transportation Geotechnics Volume 3
• Serial:
  • Lecture Notes in Civil Engineering
  • Volume: 166
  • Publisher: Springer Singapore
  • ISSN: 2366-2557
  • Serial URL: https://www.springer.com/series/15087

Subject/Index Terms

• TRT Terms: Ballast (Railroads); Crash causes; Derailments; Railroad tracks; Saturated soils; Structural deterioration and defects; Track components
• Subject Areas: Geotechnology; Hydraulics and Hydrology; Railroads; Safety and Human Factors;

Filing Info

• Accession Number: 01878864
• Record Type: Publication
• ISBN: 9783030772376
• Files: TRIS
• Created Date: Apr 10 2023 11:58AM