Abstract
Abstract. Fragility curves evaluating a risk of railway embankment fill and track ballast scour were developed. To develop fragility curves, two well-documented events of single-track railway washout during floods in Japan were investigated. Type of damage to the railway was categorized into no damage, ballast scour, and embankment scour, in order of damage severity. Railway overtopping water depth for each event was estimated based on well-documented hydrologic and hydraulic analyses. Normal and log-normal fragility curves were developed based on damage probability derived from field records and the estimated overtopping water depth. A combined ballast and embankment scour model was validated by comparing the results of previous studies and the spatial distribution of railway damage type records.
Highlights
1.1 Vulnerability of railways to floodsRailway lines consist of components including tracks, power supply, and signaling infrastructure (Railway Technical Research Institute, 2007), all of which can suffer damage during river floods, hurricane storm surge, and tsunamis (e.g., Japan Railway Civil Engineering Association, 2000–2011), leading to interruption of transportation service
The difference between H and the elevation z of the railway track is overtopping water depth h, namely H = z + h, and h was correlated with the recorded types of damage categorized into “no damage”, “ballast scour”, and “embankment scour” in Sect. 3.2, and listed in Tables A2 and A3
Fragility curves were developed to relate damage probability to overtopping water depth, itself calculated via the use of a hydraulic flood model
Summary
Railway lines consist of components including tracks, power supply, and signaling infrastructure (Railway Technical Research Institute, 2007), all of which can suffer damage during river floods, hurricane storm surge, and tsunamis (e.g., Japan Railway Civil Engineering Association, 2000–2011), leading to interruption of transportation service (see Fig. 1 for two examples of damage due to surge in the USA). Railway damage is a common occurrence during flood (e.g., Changnon, 2009; Kaneko, 2010; Polemio and Lollino, 2011; Tsubaki et al, 2012a) and storm surge (e.g., Steers et al, 1979; Bunya et al, 2010) events. Many examples exist of such bridges collapsing during large river flood and tsunami events (e.g., Wardhana and Hadipriono, 2003; Reed, 2004; Kaneko, 2010)
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