Train-track interactions over vulnerable railway turnout systems exposed to flooding conditions

Hamarat, Mehmet; Papaelias, Mayorkinos; Kaewunruen, Sakdirat

doi:10.1016/j.engfailanal.2021.105459

“…Each of these potential damages provide an environment for discussion of evaluation, maintenance, and repair costs. Thus, any signi cant interruption in rail service always attracts attention from the public and puts further pressure on the political and administrative establishment (Hamarat et al, 2021). Furthermore, since railroads are less spatially exible than other modes of land transportation, they are more susceptible to ooding (Changnon, 2009).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

A Comprehensive Flood Risk Assessment for Railroad Network: Case Study for Iowa

Cikmaz,

Alabbad,

Yildirim

et al. 2024

Preprint

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Climate-induced disasters, particularly floods, pose a substantial risk to human well-being. These risks encompass economic losses, infrastructural damage, disruption of daily life, and potential loss of life. This study focuses on understanding flood risks to critical infrastructure, emphasizing the resilience and reliability of essential services during such disasters. In the United States, the railway network is vital for the distribution of goods and services. This research specifically targets the railway network in Iowa, a state where the impact of flooding on railways has not been extensively studied. We employ comprehensive GIS analysis to assess the vulnerability of the railway network, bridges, rail crossings, and facilities under 100- and 500-year flood scenarios at the state level. Additionally, we conduct a detailed investigation into the most flood-affected counties, focusing on the susceptibility of railway bridges. Our state-wide analysis reveals that in a 100-year flood scenario, up to 9% of railroads, 8% of rail crossings, 58% of bridges, and 6% of facilities are impacted. In a 500-year flood scenario, these figures increase to 16%, 14%, 61%, and 13%, respectively. Further, our secondary analysis using flood depth maps indicates that approximately half of the railway bridges in the flood zones of the studied counties could become non-functional in both flood scenarios. These findings are crucial for developing effective disaster risk management plans and strategies, ensuring adequate preparedness for climate change impacts on railway infrastructure.

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“…A crossing nose is located at the intersection point of two rails of a turnout and ensures a clear passage for a rolling stock that is diverted from one route to another route via turnout switches. A large number of turnout research have increased in last few decades 5 – 13 and many of them have investigated the causes or effects of the damages associated with fatigue over a crossing nose 2 , 3 , 14 – 21 . The main motivation behind those research was to mitigate considerably high maintenance and procurement costs of turnout systems 22 , 23 .…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Fatigue damage assessment of complex railway turnout crossings via Peridynamics-based digital twin

Hamarat

¹

,

Papaelias

²

,

Kaewunruen

³

2022

Sci Rep

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21

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Railway turnouts are essential in the train traffic route management for modern railways. Despite significant devotion to railway turnout research, one of their most common failures has not been thoroughly investigated, which is a fatigue over the turnout crossing nose. At the crossings, wheel-rail discontinuity imparts high-frequency high-magnitude forces, which are the source of fatigue failure over the crossing nose. In this study, a novel approach built on “Peridynamics” (PD) has been developed to obtain new insights into the fatigue cracks. A recent approach using “crack on mid-plane” has also been employed in this study to enhance the limited capability of Peridynamics. This paper is the world’s first to investigate fatigue failures over a crossing nose from fracture mechanics perspective. This paper also introduces a novel adaptive time-mapping method as an alternative to earlier time-mapping methods for fatigue models proposed in the open literature. The new model has been verified against both Finite Element Method and experimental data. It reveals that our new approach can simulate fatigue damage, particularly in mode I crack propagation. The study has provided important insights on the fatigue crack development, which is not possible before by existing Peridynamics fatigue model. The new approach on the basis of “adaptive time-mapping” and “crack on mid-plane” is demonstrated to be effective and efficient in PD simulations.

show abstract

“…Each of these potential damages provide an environment for discussion of evaluation, maintenance, and repair costs. Thus, any significant interruption in rail service always attracts attention from the public and puts further pressure on the political and administrative establishment (Hamarat et al, 2021). Furthermore, since railroads are less spatially flexible than other modes of land transportation, they are more susceptible to flooding (Changnon, 2009).…”

mentioning

confidence: 99%

A Comprehensive Flood Risk Assessment for Railroad Network: Case Study for Iowa

Cikmaz,

Alabbad,

Yildirim

et al. 2023

Preprint

0

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Climate-induced disasters, particularly floods, pose a substantial risk to human well-being. These risks encompass economic losses, infrastructural damage, disruption of daily life, and potential loss of life. This study focuses on understanding flood risks to critical infrastructure, emphasizing the resilience and reliability of essential services during such disasters. In the United States, the railway network is vital for the distribution of goods and services. This research specifically targets the railway network in Iowa, a state where the impact of flooding on railways has not been extensively studied. We employ comprehensive GIS analysis to assess the vulnerability of the railway network, bridges, rail crossings, and facilities under 100- and 500-year flood scenarios at the state level. Additionally, we conduct a detailed investigation into the most flood-affected counties, focusing on the susceptibility of railway bridges. Our state-wide analysis reveals that in a 100-year flood scenario, up to 9% of railroads, 8% of rail crossings, 58% of bridges, and 6% of facilities are impacted. In a 500-year flood scenario, these figures increase to 16%, 14%, 61%, and 13%, respectively. Further, our secondary analysis using flood depth maps indicates that approximately half of the railway bridges in the flood zones of the studied counties could become non-functional in both flood scenarios. These findings are crucial for developing effective disaster risk management plans and strategies, ensuring adequate preparedness for climate change impacts on railway infrastructure.

show abstract

Train-track interactions over vulnerable railway turnout systems exposed to flooding conditions

Cited by 7 publications

References 30 publications

A Comprehensive Flood Risk Assessment for Railroad Network: Case Study for Iowa

A Comprehensive Flood Risk Assessment for Railroad Network: Case Study for Iowa

Fatigue damage assessment of complex railway turnout crossings via Peridynamics-based digital twin

A Comprehensive Flood Risk Assessment for Railroad Network: Case Study for Iowa

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