Preference-Based Decision Support for Quay Wall Assessment: Determining the preferred configuration of structural adjustments using the optimisation method of Preferendus

In response to the European Commission's initiative to shift freight transport from road to inland waterways, there is a need to expand the capacity of inland ports to accommodate larger cargo ships. This expansion requires lowering the water bottom, which will increase the forces exerted on the quay walls. The quay walls should therefore be...

An Experimental and Numerical Study on Decayed Azobé Sheet piles

Given the desire to construct more structures using sustainable building materials, demand for wood and other bio-based building materials has risen dramatically over the decade. While timber itself is a carbon-neutral material and can sometimes even be carbon-negative, reusing wooden structural members made that have been in service for several...

The sheet pile behaviour for hole weakening

The evolution of ships requires larger depth or larger terrain loads in ports. Therefore, the existing quay walls require reinforcements. An effective way of reinforcing the structure are underwater anchors, requiring holes in existing sheet piles at the location of significant bending moment. Since this is a new area of expertise, the influence...

Geogrid-anchored sheet pile walls: a small-scale experimental and numerical study

The use of geogrids to anchor Sheet Pile Walls (SPW) is relatively new. A series of small-scale tests was performed to investigate the behaviour of geogrid-Anchored SPWs subjected to strip footing surcharge loading. Particle Image Velocimetry (PIV) techniques were used to measure soil displacement and analyse the global failure mechanism and...

Quays Rather Than Boilers: Extracting Heat From Water and Soil Through Energy Sheet Piles

As part of the effort to make the Dutch waterways CO2-neutral, a consortium consisting of, among others, CRUX Engineering BV and Delft University of Technology, initiated a case study in which the thermal and mechanical performance of an energy sheet pile wall is studied. This technology allows for the extraction of energy from the water and...

Analysis of the behaviour of geogrid-anchored sheet pile walls: Small-scale experiments and 2D PLAXIS analysis

Geogrids are commonly used for reinforcement of soils in construction of railway and road embankments and bridge abutments. A relatively new application of geogrids is the anchorage of sheet pile walls, in which one or more layers of geogrid are attached to the sheet pile wall. This type of anchorage is particularly suitable for projects with...

Reliability Updating of Sheet Pile Walls: An analysis on the parameter updating process

Throughout the years the requirements of sheet pile walls have changed. Therefore reassessment of these structure's reliability is of importance. In this thesis, Bayesian updating is used for the reliability updating task. Updating processes require measurements of the structure under known conditions. Although for practical and economical...

Ship collision on temporary structures: Combi-walls under collision loading

When designing a construction pit adjacent to a navigation channel, the event of a ship colliding with the structure is something to take into account in the design of the pit. However, several aspects regarding ship collisions, i.e. the probability of occurrence of a collision, the magnitude of the collision force and the influence on the...

Evaluation of sheet pile behavior based on Eemdijk monitoring data

From the 3500 kilometers of primary flood defenses in the Netherlands, a third does not comply with the current standards. As a result, over 700 kilometers will be strengthened in the upcoming years. Traditional strengthening of dikes consists of strengthening with soil and requires space that is often not available. Further strengthening of...

Impact of the Eemdijk full-scale test programme (Impact du programme d'essais à grande échelle Eemdijk)

Levees in the Netherlands have traditionally been constructed from soil. Climate change and land subsidence require heightening and/or reinforcing these existing levees. Traditional reinforcements demand additional space, which in some cases conflicts with existing buildings. Applying sheet pile walls in levees allows for strengthening while...

Test Loading of Quay Structures using FEM: A case study to determine the load capacity of the old Amazonehaven and the SIF quay structures

Quay structures play an important role in society. How much load these structures can withstand however is not certain. This MSc thesis contains insight into the load capacity of the old Amazonehaven and the current SIF quay structures. Both are quay structures which use a combined sheet pile wall, a reinforced concrete relieving platform, M.V....

Structural reliability analysis of a dike with a sheet pile wall: Coupling Reliability methods with Finite Elements

Some dike sections in the Netherlands failed to comply with the safety standards and one of the most promising countermeasures is the construction of retaining walls inside the dike. The Dutch design codes for dikes with retaining walls rely on Finite Element Analysis (FEM) in combination with partial safety factors. However, this can lead to...

Would Risk Management Have Helped?: A Case Study

To reduce the costs of unexpected geotechnical events in construction projects in Sweden, the Swedish Geotechnical Society has adopted a general methodology for risk management. In this paper, we exemplify how the proposed risk management philosophy could have been applied on a sheet-pile wall, which failed in 1992 in Stockholm because the...

Centrifuge modeling of an adaptive foundation system for embankments on soft soils

Centrifuge tests are conducted to analyze the behavior of a new adaptive foundation system for embankments on very soft soils. The embankment is constructed in-flight in three stages. Various measurements are taken during the test, which are used for the calibration and verification of a numerical model. This paper describes the new adaptive...

Parametric Analysis of Quay Walls with a relieving platfrom, by means of Elastic Supported Beam and Finite Element Method

In cases where the sheet pilling is allowed, when great retaining heights have to be achieved a combined quay wall structure is normally used. This structure consists of a sheet pile wall, a relieving platform, an anchor and a pile foundation system. The content of the present MSc thesis is divided into two major parts. The first part (Part A0...

Einspannungsverhältnisse bei Bohlwerken und deren vereinfachte Berechnung mit Hilfe 'ideeller' und 'stellvertredender' Belastung

Der Zweck dieser Arbeit ist, die in der Praxis am häufigsten vorkommenden Belastungsformen von Bohlwerken zu untersuchen: Wie ist der Belastungsverteilung, wie sind die Einspannungsverhältnisse und wie können sie leicht und doch genügend genau rechnerisch erfasst werden? Alle Systeme lassen sich auf das erste, Belastung mit Einzelkraft,...