Forensic Analysis of a Distressed Railroad Embankment

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.