Development of fragility curves for railway embankment and ballast scour due to overtopping flood flow

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 singletrack 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.