Development of 2D subsurface site characterization by the fusion of geotechnical and geophysical data

Site characterization is indispensable in the design phase of geotechnical engineering projects. As a key factor in site characterization, the characterization of soil undrained shear strength (S_u) is always in the spotlight. Various methods, including laboratory and in-situ tests, have been developed to measure S_u....

Deeper piping erosion: Finding how to model it and what contributes to the emergence of a deeper pipe

The Netherlands is a country that is being threatened by water, both from the rivers and from the sea. The Dutch have built dikes to keep their lands from inundation. To ensure the strength and stability of these dikes, they are being assessed on the basis of several failure mechanisms. One of these failure mechanisms is...

Flood Risk Assessment Isiolo River Basin, Kenya: Feasibility of the SLAMDAM in the Isiolo River Basin using the FIS Tool

This report provides a flood risk assessment of the Isiolo River Basin, in collaboration with Nelen & Schuurmans (3Di, FIS Tool) and Zephyr Consulting (SLAMDAM). This flood risk assessment includes a study of the current flood risk management in Kenya, and in the Isiolo River Basin in particular, because the need for proper flood management...

Quality assessment of organic geotechnical samples

For certain geotechnical structures, such as dikes and levees, the design quality is heavily reliant on the sampling quality. In addition, the extent of consequences on geotechnical design of using parameters from samples with a certain degree of disturbance in laboratory tests is unclear. While the available literature has been mainly focussed...

The increase of dike stability due to unsaturated soil strength: A study of the spatially and temporally varying presence of matric suction

River dikes in the eastern part of the Netherlands are characterized by a relatively low daily water table. In the unsaturated zone above the water table, a negative pore pressure (matric suction) is present that binds the soil particles together. Suction can be especially large in soils with small grains, such as clay, and increases the...

Machine learning for prediction of undrained shear strength from cone penetration test data

The need of shear strength measurements of soil in the design phase of geotechnical engineering is almost indispensable. Many methods have been applied to estimate the shear strength of soil, including various laboratory test, in-situ test and analytical methods. As an in-situ test method, cone penetration test (CPT) is a powerful and cost...

A cohesive-frictional mechanical constitutive law for zero-thickness interface elements: Expanding the cohesive zone model by including friction to better model fracture development along discontinuities in geomaterials

Discontinuities have an important influence on the bulk behaviour of geomaterials. Discontinuities can be physical openings like fractures and joints, interfaces between different material types, or zones with different material behaviour like mortar or reinforcement material. Bulk material behaviour is often determined by the behaviour of the...

Reliability Analysis of Foundation Pile Designs from Eurocode 7

Risk-based and probabilistic reliability design methods are starting to be integrated into the daily geotechnical engineering practice, as shown by the current draft of EN1997 (Eurocode 7), which explicitly allows Reliability-based verification of limit states. The semi-probabilistic design methods in EN1997 are a compromise between ease of use...

Surrogate modelling framework for probabilistic assessment of slope stability of dikes on heterogeneous soils

Climatic conditions in uence peak discharges in rivers and change sea levels; therefore, attention to the safety of dikes is of ever growing importance. Macro instability is one of the dike failure mechanisms that can inundate the hinterland. Soil heterogeneity plays an important role in assessing dike safety, especially for slope stability,...

Verification, Validation and Application of the NorSand Constitutive Model in PLAXIS: Single-stress point analyses of experimental lab test data and finite element analyses of a submerged landslide

As the construction of sub-aerial and submarine geotechnical structures increase in amount, rate and size, so do their associated risks. Often, with use constitutive models, finite element analyses (FEAs) are performed in order to identify and mitigate these risks. NorSand, which is a consti- tutive model based on critical state soil mechanics...

Revision of the calibration equation for a river dike on macro stability

Two types of calculations are currently used to assess dikes for macro stability. These are the semi-probabilistic calculation and the probabilistic calculation. In practice, the semi-probabilistic calculation is currently mostly used. However, the probabilistic calculation is the most accurate calculation of the two methods resulting in the...

Integral Probabilistic Reliability Assessment for Flood Defences: The Impact of Correlations

Since 2017, Dutch flood defences are assessed according to new safety standards. These standards are based on flooding probabilities and rely on several assumptions and approximations. There are concerns that the combination of these assumptions leads to conservative results. Recently computed probabilities of failure are...

A Metamodelling Approach to Reliability Updating with Dike Construction Survival

The construction of a dike improvement often causes a decrease in reliability during construction. Raising a dike may give rise to excess pore water pressures in the subsoil, resulting in a temporal strength decrease. Observing the survival of such a loading condition might provide information on the strength of a dike. Therefore, this research...

The effect of climate change on the residual lifetime of the Haringvliet and Hollands Diep

A probabilistic approach to sheet pile driveability predictions by vibro hammers

During the design phase of a foundation installation aspects are easily overlooked. When this aspect is overlooked a foundation element risks not reaching its design depth or getting damaged during the installation process. As a result significant delays and/or costs could occur. A driveability study gives insight in the installation aspects of...