VQLS Read the Fine Print: Practical Challenges for Solving the Poisson Equation by Means of a Variational Quantum Linear Solver

The need of computational power for engineering applications has been ever increasing and with classical computers approaching their physical limits, new ways of improvement have to be investigated. One of the promising solutions is quantum computing. Most engineering problems require solving a system of linear equations of higher dimensions and...

Preference based decision support system for Waelpolder: An a priori design optimization approach (PDOA) as decision support system, applied to the urban development of Waelpolder

Negotiations in urban development projects can take a long time, going back and forward to the designer many times, even leading to stalemate situations. Requirements can be set intuitively, without knowing what the side effects of the constraints will be for the urban development. On top of that, approval of all stakeholders is needed to be...

Optimal Rehabilitation of Urban Drainage Systems: Application of single-objective optimisation for the implementation of Green-Blue-Grey Infrastructures in changing climate

Urban Drainage Systems (UDS) are one of the most vital yet, complex infrastructures that support people's livelihood in urban areas. However, due to their mainly underground infrastructure and complexity, the planning and management of UDS are usually associated with high investment, which stakeholders sometimes overlook. As long-lived...

Synthesis of 1-DOF hinging rigid panel structure kinematic transmissions using evolutionary algorithms

Origami structures are found in mechanical technology more and more often. A less strict derivative of origami are Hinging Rigid Panel Structures, which are not bound to be developable from a single flat sheet of planar material. These Hinging Rigid Panel Structures can be applied to many fields of mechanical design, and moreover are interesting...

An Evolutionary Algorithm for the Train Unit Shunting and Servicing Problem

The Train Unit Shunting and Servicing (TUSS) problem is an NP-hard problem encountered by the Dutch railway operator, Nederlandse Spoorwegen (NS). It considers trains at a shunting yard when they are not transporting passengers. It consists of four subproblems, involving assigning the trains at the yard to a transporting timetable (Matching),...

Finding the optimal set of parking locations for maintenance trains in the Dutch railway network: An optimisation approach using a combination of discrete-event simulation and simulated annealing

The Dutch railway system is subject to maintenance, which is carried out by a group of rail contractors who need parking space to park and prepare trains in between projects. The objective of this study is to minimise the total costs as a result of the distance travelled by maintenance trains and the preservation of the included parking...

Seakeeping Analysis and Hull Optimisation on Wet Deck Slamming of Fast Ferry Catamarans

The present research performed a design exploration of fast ferry catamarans with hard chined demihulls sailing in irregular head waves, to analyse the influence of the demihull shape (without appendages) on wet deck slamming, and identify the geometrical properties and their trends to reduce it. Wet deck slamming is a phenomenon known to cause...

Improving applicability of a parametric model for breakwater layout design

During a previous research project, a parametric model for conceptual layout design has been developed. The model uses optimisation using genetic algorithms to approach the optimal breakwater layout for specific locations. <br/>The developed model serves as a successful proof-of-concept. In the model, several aspects of design have been...

Computational toolkit for early-stage cost assessment and optimisation of BIPV façades

Reduction of energy consumption and to increase its generation is necessary, as the population lives in urban settlements consume three-quarters of global resources, and these numbers are continually growing. Building-integrated photovoltaic panels (BIPV) which would assist for the resolution of the problem can be applied by replacing the façade...

Breakwater layout optimisation using a parametric model: Development of a decision-making tool for the conceptual design of breakwaters

Nowadays, conceptual breakwater layout design mostly relies on experience and expert judgement, making it complicated to demonstrate that an economic optimum has been reached. This stresses the need to develop a tool that is able to establish the economically most attractive breakwater layout for a certain set of requirements and site-specific...

Performance Assessment of Global Optimization Algorithms in Automatic Calibration of Groundwater Models

Calibration of groundwater models can be done manually by comparing the measured and computed groundwater heads or automatically using algorithms which do the work for you. Modules for this purpose are included in or linked externally to traditional groundwater modelling software and used. One such module PEST (Parameter ESTimation) uses the...

Insight into trading limits in financial algorithms

In this project we aimed to create a post-trading day safeguard system that allows for the identification of bugs in the primary and secondary risk control systems at Optiver. These systems are needed to prevent undesirable exposure to the market from happening, and to ensure that they know exactly what this exposure is. The amount of input data...

Breaking Barriers: A parametrically optimised bridge design crossing the Nieuwe Maas

This research is aimed at the necessity and the design of a new city bridge in the city of Rotterdam, the Netherlands, and how this design could be parametrically optimised using the modern digital tools that are available. Through analysis of the issues regarding the connection of Rotterdam South over the Nieuwe Maas, the city’s plans and...

Ranking items: Is solving a seriation problem a good alternative for existing methods?

In this dissertation we look at the seriation problem and the applications of this problem. Given a set of items, we try to find an ordering based on the similarity between the items. We start by explaining the mathematical theory behind the seriation problem. Then we describe a couple of different methods that can be used to find a solution for...