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Doon derailment cause

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Posted by Anonymous on Monday, July 23, 2018 9:20 AM

charlie hebdo
It is a threadbare strategy used by those members whose knee-jerk reaction to anything Euclid posts is animosity. Their desire is to flood the thread with inanity so that it gets locked. Is Euclid irritatingly obsessive, at times even arguing with himself? Sure. But he also seeks answers to questions that make some folks uncomfortable. And if all this were about was their irritation or boredom with his "yes, buts" they could simply ignore the thread or not respond to him. But it has a far more nasty goal - censorship.

Yes I know and agree.
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Posted by Anonymous on Monday, July 23, 2018 9:17 AM

cx500

 

 
Murphy Siding
Are you a soil engineer?

 

He very obviously isn't, to anybody who has had any even casual experience with their impact on the railroad.  However in his quoted link the phrase "have produced some confusion in usage and understanding" seems very fitting.

 

No need to be a soil mechanics and geotechnical engineer in view of the literature aimed to laymen. They are good enough to understandably describe the causes.

I, as a civil engineer (structural design) haven't seen anything wrong in Euclid's description. Soil liquefaction is one propable cause of the derailment. Others were mentioned in this thread.

The linked article explains the cause and its possible consequences. The quoted part refers to the inaccurate use of the terms, mixing up cause and consequences.
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Posted by charlie hebdo on Monday, July 23, 2018 9:07 AM

VOLKER LANDWEHR

For Yes, But you always need more than person. On side usually is one person, the other side a few. And a number of those are so preoccupied that they wouldn't admit or realize a good information or correct answer.

If you want to end it, why not stop answering?
Regards, Volker
Regards, Volker

 

It is a threadbare strategy used by those members whose knee-jerk reaction to anything Euclid posts is animosity.  Their desire is to flood the thread with inanity so that it gets locked.  Is Euclid irritatingly obsessive, at times even arguing with himself?  Sure.  But he also seeks answers to questions that make some folks uncomfortable.  And if all this were about was their irritation or boredom with his "yes, buts" they could simply ignore the thread or not respond to him.  But it has a far more nasty goal - censorship.

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Posted by Anonymous on Monday, July 23, 2018 8:55 AM

For Yes, But you always need more than person. On side usually is one person, the other side a few. And a number of those are so preoccupied that they wouldn't admit or realize a good information or correct answer.

If you want to end it, why not stop answering?
Regards, Volker
Regards, Volker

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Posted by BaltACD on Monday, July 23, 2018 7:52 AM

Yes, but!

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Posted by Euclid on Monday, July 23, 2018 7:23 AM

tree68

 

 
charlie hebdo
And the rest of us can read and learn something, maybe.

 

You may see it as providing more information - some see it as an attempt to cover all of the bases so if a cause is made public Bucky can say "see, I told you so!"

 

Often times hearing “See, I told you so!” is in the mind of the beholder.  Maybe you should work on that a little.  Just a thought from a non-soil engineer. 
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Posted by tree68 on Monday, July 23, 2018 7:12 AM

charlie hebdo
And the rest of us can read and learn something, maybe.

You may see it as providing more information - some see it as an attempt to cover all of the bases so if a cause is made public Bucky can say "see, I told you so!"

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Posted by Euclid on Sunday, July 22, 2018 11:18 PM

Murphy Siding
Are you a soil engineer?

I don't believe that I have made any claims that require me to be a soil engineer (which I am not).  I'm just touching the basics here, and you don't need to be a soil engineer to understand my points.  I thought the quote from the link raised an interesting and pertinent point about the confusion over liquefaction and its consequences.  That is why I directed it to Dave.  I tried to put it into non-soil engineering terms for all the non-soil engineers out there.  Are you a soil engineer?

As I recall, the PDF makes a distinction in which liquefaction is not ground movement even though it is often cited in cases of severe ground movement such as in earthquakes.  What liquefaction does is make ground movement possible.  I believe that this is the basic point of the quote citing some confusion about liquefaction and its consequenses.  By the way, are you a soil engineer?  Do you know a lot of soil engineers?

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Posted by cx500 on Sunday, July 22, 2018 10:23 PM

Murphy Siding
Are you a soil engineer?

He very obviously isn't, to anybody who has had any even casual experience with their impact on the railroad.  However in his quoted link the phrase "have produced some confusion in usage and understanding" seems very fitting.

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Posted by charlie hebdo on Sunday, July 22, 2018 10:20 PM

Murphy Siding

Euclid: Because of the critical effect liquefaction has on the safe performance of engineered construction and the stability of certain geologic formations, considerable study has been devoted to this topic in recent years. Significant progress has been made in understanding the liquefaction phenomenon and the factors controlling it; however, ambiguity in present definitions of the term liquefaction and lack of clear distinction between liquefaction and ground-failure conditions associated with this phenomenon have produced some confusion in usage and understanding of liquefaction and its consequences.”   

Are you a soil engineer?



Are you?  He's not a soild engineer, but his quote is from people at the USGS who are.  And the rest of us can read and learn something, maybe.

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Posted by Murphy Siding on Sunday, July 22, 2018 9:17 PM

Euclid

 

 
dehusman
 
Euclid
If the slope failed during the passage of the train, I would call that liquefaction, which is the type of failure that I believe occurred.

 

Liquifaction is one thing, a slope failure is another.  Liquifaction the material in the fill changes from behaving like a solid to behaving like a liquid and flows.  Slope failure the structure of the slope "mechanically" fails and the slope shifts.

 

 

 

I assume that slope failure can occur without liquefaction, but references say that it can also be caused by liquefaction. In most cases, it is the weight of the soil and effect of gravity that causes ground movement when liquefaction occurs.  With railroads, it is the weight of the soil, the effect of gravity, and the loading of the train that causes ground movement when liquefaction occurs.  The train also provides the ground shaking that triggers saturated soil to achieve liquefaction. 

 

I believe the Doon derailment was caused by liquefaction of the roadbed fill which had become saturated by the high water.  Then the soil was subjected to the loading of the train, and at the same time, it was also shaken by the train. Then the shaking triggered liquefaction to cause a sudden loss of support.  Maybe the slope was involved in this collapse of soil support, or maybe not.  The fill is relatively narrow, so it could have failed across its entire width.    

Here is a reference to liquefaction and ground movement including slope failure:

https://pubs.usgs.gov/circ/1973/0688/report.pdf

From the link:

“Because of the critical effect liquefaction has on the safe performance of engineered construction and the stability of certain geologic formations, considerable study has been devoted to this topic in recent years. Significant progress has been made in understanding the liquefaction phenomenon and the factors controlling it; however, ambiguity in present definitions of the term liquefaction and lack of clear distinction between liquefaction and ground-failure conditions associated with this phenomenon have produced some confusion in usage and understanding of liquefaction and its consequences.” 

 

Are you a soil engineer?

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Posted by Euclid on Sunday, July 22, 2018 8:13 PM

dehusman
 
Euclid
If the slope failed during the passage of the train, I would call that liquefaction, which is the type of failure that I believe occurred.

 

Liquifaction is one thing, a slope failure is another.  Liquifaction the material in the fill changes from behaving like a solid to behaving like a liquid and flows.  Slope failure the structure of the slope "mechanically" fails and the slope shifts.

 

I assume that slope failure can occur without liquefaction, but references say that it can also be caused by liquefaction. In most cases, it is the weight of the soil and effect of gravity that causes ground movement when liquefaction occurs.  With railroads, it is the weight of the soil, the effect of gravity, and the loading of the train that causes ground movement when liquefaction occurs.  The train also provides the ground shaking that triggers saturated soil to achieve liquefaction. 

I believe the Doon derailment was caused by liquefaction of the roadbed fill which had become saturated by the high water.  Then the soil was subjected to the loading of the train, and at the same time, it was also shaken by the train. Then the shaking triggered liquefaction to cause a sudden loss of support.  Maybe the slope was involved in this collapse of soil support, or maybe not.  The fill is relatively narrow, so it could have failed across its entire width.    

Here is a reference to liquefaction and ground movement including slope failure:

https://pubs.usgs.gov/circ/1973/0688/report.pdf

From the link:

“Because of the critical effect liquefaction has on the safe performance of engineered construction and the stability of certain geologic formations, considerable study has been devoted to this topic in recent years. Significant progress has been made in understanding the liquefaction phenomenon and the factors controlling it; however, ambiguity in present definitions of the term liquefaction and lack of clear distinction between liquefaction and ground-failure conditions associated with this phenomenon have produced some confusion in usage and understanding of liquefaction and its consequences.” 

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Posted by tree68 on Sunday, July 22, 2018 6:43 PM

dehusman

Wow, Bucky's so determinded to have the last word that he is moving his posts around.

Yes, but...

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Posted by dehusman on Sunday, July 22, 2018 3:12 PM

Euclid
If the slope failed during the passage of the train, I would call that liquefaction, which is the type of failure that I believe occurred.

Liquifaction is one thing, a slope failure is another.  Liquifaction the material in the fill changes from behaving like a solid to behaving like a liquid and flows.  Slope failure the structure of the slope "mechanically" fails and the slope shifts.

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Posted by Euclid on Sunday, July 22, 2018 2:34 PM

dehusman

.... or most likely, none of the above, #4 a plain old slope failure.

 

Do you mean a failure of the fill bank slope while submerged in flood water?  I suppose that is possible to have occurred before the train arrived without being seen by the constant track inspections during the flood. 

However, if it did happen before the arrival of the train, it seems most likely that it would have derailed the head end of the train as soon as it encountered the unsupported track.  But that did not happen. 

If the slope failed during the passage of the train, I would call that liquefaction, which is the type of failure that I believe occurred. 

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Posted by Murphy Siding on Sunday, July 22, 2018 1:53 PM

dehusman

.... or most likely, none of the above, #4 a plain old slope failure.

 

No way! You want us to believe that the derailment was caused by a relatively common issue and that there's not a conspiracy to hide the sinister real cause? Next you'll tell me that the NTSB is in on it too!Surprise

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Posted by Murphy Siding on Sunday, July 22, 2018 1:37 PM

dehusman

Wow, Bucky's so determinded to have the last word that he is moving his posts around.

 

Laugh That makes you look like a clairvoyant genius and him look like something else.

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Posted by dehusman on Sunday, July 22, 2018 9:34 AM

Wow, Bucky's so determinded to have the last word that he is moving his posts around.

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Posted by Euclid on Sunday, July 22, 2018 8:48 AM

I can see three different types of flood-related defects that may have caused the derailment:

  1. Soil erosion on the surface around the track structure.

  2. Soil erosion inside of the fill bank supporting the track structure.

  3. Soil liquefaction inside of the fill bank supporting the track structure.

 

I would say that the least likely is #1 and most likely is #3.  All three causes could allow an entire train to pass without causing a derailment; or allow part of the train to pass before passage of the train accentuates the water-caused defect sufficiently to derail the train.  All three causes could also derail the train just as the locomotive encounters the defect.

Cause #1 would be spotted by all of the monitoring and inspections under way as we have been told always happens.  That is why I believe that #1 is the least likely.  Cause #2 could produce an effect similar to cause #3.  Both could lead to a collapse of the roadbed. 

One difference is that #2 could collapse the roadbed without a train passing over it, and thus be found by inspection like cause #1.  Whereas cause #3 would not collapse the roadbed unless a train were passing over it.  So cause #3 would not be detected by any inspection. 

Also, of the three causes, #3 is the least likely to derail the head end because the liquefaction site has to be developed by the train passage.  With liquefaction, the train shakes the soil over enough time to produce the soil condition that derails the train.  So it will be unlikely to derail the train until after the head end has passed the saturated soil site where liquefaction can be triggered. 

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Posted by dehusman on Sunday, July 22, 2018 7:59 AM

.... or most likely, none of the above, #4 a plain old slope failure.

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Posted by Euclid on Saturday, July 21, 2018 7:30 PM

Coffee

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Posted by Euclid on Saturday, July 21, 2018 7:29 PM

.

 

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Posted by jeffhergert on Saturday, July 21, 2018 6:02 PM

Just because Acting Governor Reynolds* says something in her proclamation doesn't mean it's gospel.

*She was elected Lt. Governor of Iowa.  The Iowa Constitution says the Lt. Governor takes on the duties and responsibility of the office of Governor when the Governor can't finish out the term.  It does not say that they are elevated to the actual position of governor.  (Former Governor Branstad resigned to become ambassador to China.)  I am in this camp, that she is still actually  the Lt. Governor discharging the duties of Governor.  

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Posted by dehusman on Saturday, July 21, 2018 4:26 PM

Before you get too excited.  

Liquification is a very specific thing.  There are numerous other types of failures that could have happened, that could have been accelerated by the rain, that could have been triggered by loading as well as vibration, other than liquification.

We still don't know what the actual cause of the subgrade failure was.

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Posted by Euclid on Saturday, July 21, 2018 2:55 PM
Here is a report that says Iowa Governor Kim Reynolds issued a disaster proclamation that places the blame on rain-fueled flooding.
 
 
It says this:
 
“About 31 cars derailed after the tracks reportedly collapsed due to saturation from flood waters from the adjacent Little Rock River.”
 
 
Here is the link to the disaster proclamation:
 
 
In the disaster proclamation, it says this:
 
“WHEREAS, one significant impact from this storm was the derailment of approximately thirty tanker cars hauling crude oil on a Burlington Northern Santa Fe train in Lyon County; and…”
 
 
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Posted by Anonymous on Saturday, July 21, 2018 12:41 PM

blue streak 1
That vibration by earthquakes is exactly what happens to cause the liquefaction damages that are so destructive on fill and settlement soils.

Earthquakes are one probable cause for soil liquefaction. Other vibrations, like heavy trains, can have the same effect. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Rd6W2aP2dkA

Wiki explanation "Soil liquefaction": Soil liquefaction occurs when a saturated or partially saturated soil substantially loses strength and stiffness in response to an applied stress such as shaking during an earthquake or other sudden change in stress condition, in which material that is ordinarily a solid behaves like a liquid.

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Posted by blue streak 1 on Saturday, July 21, 2018 10:20 AM

Euclid
  This is because the final key to a liquefaction failure is vibration of the soil, and that is provided by the train passage.   
 

That vibration by earthquakes is exactly what happens to cause the liquefaction damages that are so destructive on fill and settlement soils.

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Posted by Euclid on Friday, July 20, 2018 7:27 AM

Cotton Belt MP104
If there was such horrible damage due to the flooding issue, which has been documented and discussed in GREAT detail  (btw..... that's why I started this thread) ......... how come they got back to operating so quickly, without delay due to all the work that would be needed to repair ROW undermined by flooding?

If the roadbed fill had been undermined, it would not necessarily have occurred over the entire length of the fill.  It may have just been confined to the area where the derailment occurred.  Regardless of whether undermining occurred there, that spot would have needed a lot of earthwork repair just due to being dug up by the pileup of cars. 

Also, if an area were undermined to the point where it would derail the train, there would be a high probability that the locomotives would have derailed when they hit that weak spot.  

With liquefaction, there is no undermining or removal of supporting soil.  Instead, the soil remains in place, but loses its ability to carry a load.  And it does not lose the supporting ability prior to the arrival of a train.  Instead, it develops its loss of support as the train passes.  This is because the final key to a liquefaction failure is vibration of the soil, and that is provided by the train passage.   

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Posted by Deggesty on Thursday, July 19, 2018 11:23 AM

zardoz

Round and round we go.....

 

...and where we will stop, nobody knows.

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Posted by zardoz on Thursday, July 19, 2018 11:19 AM

Round and round we go.....

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