Experimental investigation of overflowing over river groyne exposed to primary ship-induced waves

Groynes in the Lower Elbe estuary in Germany are subject to attack from overflowing long-period primary ship-induced waves. Damage can occur on the crest and lee side of the structure due to the high turbulent overflowing flow velocities. An actual design tool for groynes exposed to overflowing primary ship waves is not yet present. Therefore,...

Development of a framework to estimate the condition of mechanical, electrical and plumbing systems with Bayesian Networks

As the Western European building stock ages, attention is increasingly allocated to the maintenance of building components, particularly mechanical, electrical and plumbing (MEP) systems. Although the latter are essential in ensuring the correct operation of a building and the safety of its occupants, they remain the crafts where the most...

Investigating the dependencies of individual overtopping volumes on vertical wall breakwaters under non-breaking waves

Wave overtopping of coastal structures is generally expressed in terms of average discharge and maximum overtopping volume. While substantial research can be found on the relationship of such variables with incident spectral characteristics and other geometrical dimensions, limited research has been done to identify the conditions for which...

Thermal shrinkage cracking in steel fibre reinforced underwater concrete floors: A probabilistic finite element approach

This thesis explores a suitable method and appropriate input to determine the failure probability of thermal shrinkage cracking in a steel fibre-reinforced underwater concrete floor by examining the factors that influence this failure probability.<br/><br/>An underwater concrete (UWC) floor is a common construction type in the Netherlands that...

Characterizing the soil uncertainty in the Port of Rotterdam for the probabilistic design of a pile foundation

The Port of Rotterdam (PoR) is the largest port in Europe and in order to maintain its status, it would need to expand. For the expansion, an extensive survey of the subsurface is needed for the construction of new port areas and its geotechnical structures. As part of designing the geotechnical structures, the subsurface is often modelled as...

New breakwater of Genoa: Application of a vine-copula model in probabilistic design

The authorities of the Port of Genoa have requested the construction of a new vertical breakwater for the Sampierdarena canal, as well as the subsequent demolition of part of the existing breakwater. The reason for this project is the need to expand the size of the canal, to allow larger vessels to safely use it. A choice is made for a vertical...

Climate-analogy mapping as a tool to develop a temporally-adaptive hydrological model of the Meuse basin for more reliable predictions under change

The future hydrological response of a river system is often predicted using hydrological models that are calibrated on past observations. By using static model parameters it is assumed that hydrological systems do not change in time. For long-term predictions, this is in clear contrast with the notion that vegetation actively adapts its root...

A systematic approach to characterize consecutive events in the Netherlands: From extremely dry to extremely wet

Floods and droughts, also known as hydro-hazards, are phenomena that generally involve detrimental consequences to society and environment. Traditional practices for risk assessment consider flood and drought independently. However, they are two opposite extremes of the same hydrological cycle. Omitting their interaction might lead to an under-...

Inferring rare events: The role of the length of observations

Extreme value analyses (EVA) are often used to determine the frequency of extreme events. The length of the available observations is an important aspect when performing EVA. It is generally known that more available data results in better estimates with less uncertainties. The main objective of this research report was to assess what the...

Validation of a Newly Proposed Global Factor Method Applied in the Assessment of Reinforced Concrete Structures Modelled by NLFEA: Verifying the new Global Factor Method as a safety format in assessing the structural capacity of reinforced concrete structures with non-linear finite element analysis in the case of clustered failure modes

Nowadays, one of the main requirements from civil engineering structures is the level of reliability and safety that they must provide to the users. In structural analysis, the exponential application of numerical methods, as the nonlinear finite element analysis (NLFEA), is due to the increasing growth of computational power. These powerful...

The probabilistic assessment of trench sedimentation in sand wave fields: Based on a case study at the Borssele Wind Farm Zone

For the transportation of the produced energy at offshore windfarms to the onshore grid, export cables have to be installed in the sea bed. Usually, at first trenches are dredged, in which approximately one month later the cables are installed. During this period the trench should remain sufficiently open to install the cables, fulfilling the...

Forecasting river discharge using machine learning methods: with application to the Geul and Rur river

The objective of this study is find out whether maximum daily discharge of the Geul and Rur catchments can be forecast using machine learning (ML) methods, and if so, to what extent. In addition, these ML models are compared to a conceptual model to see which performs better. A second objective is to test whether soil moisture content (SMC) and...

Modelling of storm surge due to hurricanes in Mississippi (USA)

The existing hydrodynamic models consider full physics approaches to calculate storm surge at coastal regions. However, due to the complexity of the equations that model these processes, the computational time and power required to run them can be large, compared to models that consider simplified equations. By contrast, simplified hydraulic...

Stochastic Beach Width Prediction at a Recently Nourished Beach

This study examines a method for a stochastic beach width prediction with a process-based morphodynamic model. This is carried out by a case study at the Hondsbossche Dunes, after a beach nourishment in March 2018. Stochastic forcing conditions are generated for the location of the Hondsbossche Dunes. These stochastic forcing conditions consist...

The influence of different characteristics on the probabilities of failure of sewer pipes

Sewer assets face a great challenge for being underground assets and for experiencing constant deterioration and aging. Reactive decisions are no longer technically nor economically viable, and hence asset managers are migrating to the implementation of proactive strategies. Despite this, managers are making decisions that are poorly justified,...

Operation & Maintenance of offshore wind farms: Model validation and expansion