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 comparison of risk analysis approaches: Performance assessment of cost and time estimating on a real project

Risk management is undoubtedly a precious component of the overall project management field. It assists in identifying, assessing and mitigating the uncertainties that are present in a project. These uncertainties affect important measures of a project, of which cost and schedule are the most prominent, and consequently put project success under...

‘The economic potential of deep, direct use geothermal systems in the Netherlands’

For this thesis, a probabilistic techno-economic model is developed for deep, direct use geothermal projects in the Netherlands. As a case study, data from the future DAP doublet (TU Delft) is inserted wherein multiple scenarios are researched that model variations in well capacity, energy prices, project design, government policies, brine gas...

Load testing of a quay wall: Evaluating the use of load testing by application of Bayesian updating

The design and reassessment of quays is subject to uncertainties. Examples of these uncertainties are the soil parameters, soil behavior and the current state of the structural parts. Especially in the reassessment of existing structures it is hard to prove a quay to be safe. In this thesis Bayesian updating is used as a method to reduce this...

Robust Flood Defence in response to Climate Change: Westkapelle Case

In the Netherlands flood protection is immensely important for the safety of the nation. The shocking outcome of the 1953 flooding proves this point. In modern days, the development of socioeconomic and climate change factors casts doubt on the effectiveness of conventional approaches to flood risk management. Consequently, this project explored...

Impact of spatial variability of subsoil stiffness on immersed tunnels

Due to increased traffic density, there is a tendency to construct larger immersed tunnels with larger tunnel elements both in transversal and longitudinal direction resulting in a more critical design of the joints. Especially for those tunnels with relatively soft foundation and high siltation, there is no mature experience for reference. This...

Reliability of Ultimate Limit State Design in Finite Elements and Compliance with Eurocode 7

Geotechnical design problems may be characterized by a certain degree of uncertainty, due to insufficient soil data and transformation of test results in soil parameters. In common practice, engineers perform deterministic analyses according to design standards as Eurocode 7, where the uncertainties are taken into account through partial factors...