Lowering ECI/MPG value by implementing sustainable foundations for houses

This research addresses the environmental impact of foundations in lightweight housing units, focusing on BAM's timber house concept, FLOW. While the engineered timber superstructure is environmentally conscious, the foundation's contribution is often overlooked. The study aims to minimise the Environmental Cost Indicator (ECI) of FLOW houses by...

Implementing Dynamic Boundary Conditions with the Material Point Method

The material point method (MPM) is gaining an increasing amount of attention due to its capacity to solve geotechnical problems involving large deformations. Large deformations in geotechnics usually involve the failure process and therefore dynamic analyses are often carried out. However, simulating the (infinite) continuous domain using...

Deep learning-based design model for suction caisson foundation in clay

Suction caissons have been used extensively for anchoring and supporting the offshore installations like oil platforms and wind turbines. These foundations are normally subjected to complex combinations of the vertical, horizontal and moment loads (i.e. V, H, M) from the self-weight, wind, wave and currents. In the past decades, extensive...

Implementing dynamic boundary conditions with the material point method

The material point method (MPM) is gaining increasing amounts of attention due to its capacity to solve geotechnical problems involving large-deformations. While some problems require dynamic analysis, simulating the (infinite) continuous domain using typical Dirichlet (fixed) boundary conditions induce spurious reflections causing (1)...

Evaluation of settlement models for sand under the influence of cyclic loads induced by automatic stacking cranes

Six cyclic settlement models for sand are evaluated to analyse the settlement of automatic stacking crane (ASC) rail tracks at the Rotterdam World Gateway (RWG) container terminal. During Phase 1 of the RWG container terminal settlement of the rail tracks occurred at multiple locations after the ASCs became operational....

Geotechnical Seismic Design Code Calibration: A probabilistic study of seismic design code safety

Seismic design codes are currently moving from a force-based design approach to a performance-based design approach. For example, in a performance-based design approach it could be specified how many lanes must be available during the lifetime of a bridge...

Design of Shallow Foundations for Tidal-Stream Energy Structures

Tidal-stream (tidal) energy is a renewable form of energy produced by harnessing the kinetic energy of marine currents created by the rise and fall of the tides and converting it into electricity. To-date, tidal energy development remains largely in the demonstration stage and the development community has not rallied behind any one foundation...

Probabilistic analysis of immersed tunnel settlement using CPT and MASW

Settlement data of the Kiltunnel and the Heinenoordtunnel show that immersed tunnels in the Netherlands have been experiencing much larger settlement than expected when designing the tunnels causing cracks in the concrete and leakages in the joints. Settlements of 8 - 70 mm have been measured at the Kiltunnel and of 7 - 30 mm at the...

Finite Element analysis of soft boundary effects on the behaviour of shallow foundations

The response of a shallow foundation has been investigated by numerical simulations in a series of 1g small scale tests using the Finite Element Method. In this numerical study, special attention has been given to the influence of soft boundaries as a measure to counteract boundary effects, since limitations of space were present in the...

Three-dimensional finite element analysis of offshore jack-up structures accounting for non-linear soil-structure interaction

Jack-up structures are widely used in the offshore industry. Not only in the field of oil and gas, but also in the installation for offshore wind turbines. These jack-up structures typically consist of three trusswork legs, where the foundation is formed by inverted conical cones that are penetrated into the soil, called spudcans. The spudcans...

Shallow foundations for subsea structures: a comparison between design codes and numerical analysis

Subsea structures such as pipeline end termination (PLET) structures are currently designed according to the ISO:19901-4 and API RP 2A-WSD design codes by Allseas. It has become interesting to investigate the embedded conservatism in these design codes as not only the increasing demand of installations in larger water depths and/or on poor soil...

Soft Boundary Effects (SBE) on the Behaviour of a Shallow Foundation

The increase in complexity of geotechnical problems demanded for more advanced physical modelling and instrumentation approaches. Physical modelling under normal gravity (1g) or in centrifuge has been an important instrument to overcome various scale issues that govern soil related experiments. However, limitations in the size, especially for...

Implementation and inspection of a high-cycle accumulation model

The prediction of permanent deformation accretion in granular materials as a result of long-term cyclic loading is a complex challenge that receives great attention in engineering fields, including infrastructural design and design of offshore wind turbines. Many models have been proposed in the past which aim to predict this cyclic deformation...

Monitoring Analysis of Foundation Deformations of the Botlek Lifting Bridge

A new lifting bridge is being constructed crossing the river Oude Maas in the Rotterdam harbour area in the Netherlands. Since foundation deformations of the main piers have a large influence on the performance of the superstructure, extensive deformation analyses have been performed during the design phase. In order to minimise the risks and...

Reliability of API and ISO Guidelines for Bearing Capacity of Offshore Shallow Foundations

The safe bearing capacity for offshore shallow foundations has been traditionally assessed using working stress design (WSD) methods (e.g. the API RP 2GEO guideline). Other codes of practice such as the ISO standard strive to provide designs achieving a desired target reliability level in the form of the Load and Resistance Factor Design (LRFD)...

Modelling the Interaction between Structure and Soil for Shallow Foundations -A Computational Modelling Approach

Designing and modelling foundation structures crosses two engineering disciplines. The structural engineer who designs the structure and the geotechnical engineer who determines the bearing capacity of the soil. When modelling large shallow foundations, it is not always clear how to determine the stiffness of the soil and how it should be used...

Centrifuge modelling of liquefaction-induced effects on shallow foundations with different bearing pressures

Liquefaction-induced effects are a major threat to shallow foundations built on saturated sand deposits, in seismically active regions. This type of structure is frequently used to support different structures, namely bridges, buildings, gravity walls, etc. Currently, there are few procedures in practice with limited scientific basis for...

Use of centrifuge modelling to improve lessons learned from earthquake case histories.

Current procedures relate potential liquefaction induced settlements to foundation size and liquefiable depth. However, the analysis of field case histories suggests that the influence of foundation bearing pressure may also be a significant factor influencing such phenomena. Data from 24 buildings that suffered settlement and tilting as a...