Review Paper:
Forensic Analysis
of a Distressed Railroad Embankment
Divya Jyothi B., Ramya Krishna V. and B. Murali Krishna
Disaster Advances; Vol. 17(2); 46-54;
doi: https://doi.org/10.25303/172da046054; (2024)
Abstract
Land subsidence is becoming a prevalent worldwide occurrence, perhaps with a devastating
impact on civilian lives. Moreover, natural and man-made slopes formed are susceptible
to damage unless there is adequate stability. The bulk of the slope failures is
due to intensive rains. Examination of slope stability due to massive rains is an
important issue to inspect in the area with high precipitation. This study is aimed
at exploring the effects of severe flooding on the stability of the slope. A 30
m long railroad embankment failure that happened on May 25, 2011, in the city of
Ann Arbor, Michigan, is introduced. The collapse happened due to the rainy season
that brought about ponding water against the embankment and sufficiently high-water
pressures that brought about the instability of the railroad embankment.
The back investigation is a much more dependable and predictable strategy to evaluate
the shear parameters in situ. The back investigation of a slope is solved using
the Resistance Envelope method wherein the embankment is divided through a certain
number of slices. Forces on each slice are estimated and the potential failure surface
is identified. The shear parameters are extracted employing the resistance envelope
method for the actual failure plane and are verified with the initial condition.
This study aims to find the impact of precipitation on slope stability using Geostudio
2012 software.
