Modular Saddle System for female cyclists

Selecting the perfect cycling saddle can be a long and painful process trying and buying multiple saddles. Riding on the wrong type of saddle can cause various irritations and can even result in erectile dysfunction (Goldstein, 2007) and may in the end spoil the fun of cycling.<br/><br/>A direction in the design of female saddles was chosen...

Vulnerability of cities to soil moisture and groundwater droughts

Due to climate change, extreme phenomena like droughts are going to be intensified. Even though droughts in agriculture have been studied, regarding urban environment their consequences are rather unexplored. Cities are susceptible to droughts and the estimation of their vulnerability is the first step for their protection. The objective of this...

Modelling the transport and fate of buoyant macroplastics in coastal waters

As a result of the unabated growth in plastic usage worldwide, their abundance in the marine environment has steadily increased over the last few decades. Nowadays, plastic litter is observed across all oceans and shores. Due to their wide spread and adverse effects on ecology, economy and potentially human health, plastic pollution has been...

Sensitivity and control of a pneumatic force transducer: A proof of principle

Current upper-limb prostheses are often rejected as a result of high activation forces that are needed for control. Another reason for rejection is the absence of appropriate proprioceptive feedback. In this study, a pneumatic control system was designed that decreased the activation forces and where proprioceptive feedback was provided. The...

Empathy as a Design Skill: Practicing Six Key Attention Points

Empathy is an essential part of a collaboration and is often referred to in the design field. Not only it helps designers to step into their users’ shoes, but it also smoothens the communication between the designer and their stakeholder, client and, team members. If empathy is so important for collaboration in design and establishing human...

Electromagnetic & Seismoelectric sensitivity analysis using resolution functions

In the field of exploration geophysics various methods are applied to determine the physical properties of the subsurface of the Earth. Some of the methods most widely used are seismic and electromagnetic surveys, which are each used according to the type of information that is being sought and their ability to provide that information. The...

Reconstitution of sensitive clays

In this thesis a method is developed to regain the geotechnical behaviour of undisturbed quick clay by reconstitution of remoulded natural quick clay samples. Quick clay is characterised by a high sensitivity; the ratio between the undisturbed and remoulded strength is very high. Because of the high water content they behave fluid-like after...

Development of a generic automated instrument for the calibration of morphodynamic Delft3D model applications

The numerical flow model Delft3D simulates the flow of water and movement of submerged sediment by means of solving simplified equations that describe these processes. Because of these simplifications, parameterizations are introduced. These parameters represent amongst others the processes that take place on scales smaller than the spacing of...