Reliability updating for slope stability: Improving dike safety assessments using performance information

Dikes are crucial for the protection against floods. One of the ways in which dikes can fail is by the instability of the inner slope. Credible probabilities of failure for slope stability are essential for the safety assessment of existing dikes and the design of dike reinforcements. This dissertation focuses on improving failure probability...

Ring of fire as a novel approach to study cycling aerodynamics

The research presented in this thesis introduces a new measurement concept for on-site aerodynamic measurements based on large-scale stereoscopic particle image velocimetry (stereo-PIV) measurements past an athlete, a vehicle or an object travelling through a quiescent environment. The analysis of the momentumdeficit past the transit poses the...

Disclosing Interstices: Open-ended Design Transformation of Urban Leftover Spaces

Leftover spaces are neglected and obsolete spaces within the city. As they are temporarily unoccupied by defined urban functions, leftover spaces provide unique “interstitial conditions” that open for wild species as well as different informal social activities, offering crucial complements to the formal and defined urban spaces. In this context...

Dykes and Embankments: a Geostatistical Analysis of Soft Terrain

This thesis presents an investigation of the use and applicability of statistical methods in site investigation and subsequent analyses of dykes and embankments. This comprises a comprehensive site investigation via Cone Penetration Tests (CPTs) and laboratory experiments on sampled material, a large scale field test, and statistical analysis of...

Multiple-site damage crack growth behaviour in Fibre Metal Laminate structures

Fibre metal laminates (FMLs)were developed and refined for their superior crack growth resistance and critical damage size that complimented the damage tolerance design philosophy utilized in the aerospace sector. Robust damage tolerance tools have been developed for FMLs. However, they tend to focus on the evolution of an isolated crack. There...

Fate and Transport of Nutrients in Groundwater and Surface Water in an Urban Slum Catchment Kampala, Uganda

This study investigates the generation, transport and fate of sanitation-related nutrients in groundwater and surface water in an urban slum area in sub-Saharan Africa. In excess, nutrients can cause eutrophication of downstream water bodies. The study argues that nitrogen-containing rains and domestic wastewater from slum areas were important...

On reducing piping uncertainties: A Bayesian decision approach

Dikes and levees play a crucial role in flood protection in deltaic areas such as the Netherlands. Internal erosion piping or under-seepage is a major cause of levee failures and a main contributor to the probability of failure of river levees due to the large (mostly geotechnical) uncertainties. The present thesis investigates how geotechnical...

Social quality in the conservation process of living heritage sites

The "UNESCO World Heritage Convention" was ratificated on November 16, 1972. Since then, both public and private sectors around the world have attached growing importance to the safeguarding and conservation of selected cultural and natural "objects", focusing on physical characteristics. World Heritage sites receive major publicity and as a...

Properties of immobilised penicillin G Acylase in beta-lactam antibiotic synthesis

The beta-lactam antibiotics are the most important class of antibiotics used today. In the last decade the production routes of these antibiotics have shifted from chemical routes to more environmentally benign routes using the enzyme penicillin G acylase. For both practical and economical reasons the enzyme is immobilised. As the kinetically...