IIT Mandi to study climate change impact on rail embankments

Researchers at the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Mandi along with Durham University in the UK, developed a suction monitoring setup for soil cyclic triaxial testing which investigates the impact of climate change on several railway embankments.

The study had been conducted by IIT Mandi School of Engineering Assistant Professor, Dr Ashutosh Kumar, and co-authored by the University of Portsmouth, UK Assistant Professor Dr Arash Azizi and UK Durham University Department of Engineering Professor David Geoffrey Toll, IIT Mandi stated in an official statement.

The trackbed is the main component of the railway infrastructure which is supported by earthworks. It is mainly utilised to provide support to the track infrastructure and carry the load imparted by mobilising the traffic.

The current design protocols just consider the load developed because of the moving train and lead to ignoring the real case scenario of changing the natural condition of the soil because of ingress and egress of water.

Often, soil that is utilised in earthworks is compacted thereby remaining unsaturated in its lifetime. Seasonal variations regarding the precipitation and drought have the capability of altering the amount of water present in this compacted soil mass capable of altering the strength of the embankment.

It is important to understand the coupled impact of train and environmental loading for designing and maintaining the railway embankment against changing climatic conditions.

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