Maritime ports are key components of global logistics networks, with steel quay walls providing berthing capacity and operational continuity. Their long-term structural performance is governed by corrosion driven by interactions between salinity, hydrodynamics, microbiological activity, and climatic conditions. Given that across Europe, many twentieth-century structures have exceeded their design life, reassessment of safety and residual capacity is essential. Conventional assessments typically use deterministic, uniform corrosion profiles based on simplified environmental classifications. In practice, however, field data show that corrosion is spatially variable, has short correlation lengths, and involves co-existing uniform and localised mechanisms. The scarcity of long-term, spatially detailed measurements has limited of site-specific deterioration models to be validated and included in design codes. This study analyses corrosion in steel quay walls at the Port of Rotterdam using ultrasonic thickness measurements and laboratory surface-morphology data. The database quantifies mean wall-thickness loss and spatial variability, enabling systematic comparison with design prescriptions. To interpret the observed variability, the study develops a stochastic corrosion representation based on random-fields, allowing explicit incorporation of spatial heterogeneity into structural assessments. The outcomes highlight the limitations of uniform corrosion assumptions and provide a basis for improved reliability evaluations and lifecycle-management strategies for ageing port infrastructure.

Large-diameter driven piles are widely used as foundations for offshore wind turbines and platforms. During installation, unexpected pile running can result in rapid, uncontrolled penetration of the pile into the seabed due to the large self-weight. This paper assesses the risks of pile-running for large diameter driven piles in spatially variable soils using a procedure based on the American Petroleum Institute bearing capacity guidelines combined with Newton’s Second Law of Motion. This differs from conventional static bearing capacity analyses by calculating the pile velocity with depth. One-dimensional random fields are implemented to simulate downward spatially variable shear strengths. While fluctuations in shear strengths do not provide sizable impacts to pile shaft resistance at larger depths, end-bearing resistance variability can provide appreciable changes to pile running velocities and penetration depths. Results of the spatially variable formulation are compared with Large Deformation Finite Element simulation, providing strong agreement. Of particular importance is the conclusion that pile running analyses where soil variability is ignored can lead to unconservative estimates of velocity and depth profiles. The simplified probabilistic method for assessing heterogeneous soil properties is especially important, given that unexpected weak layers are one of the primary factors contributing to pile running.

Extensive research has focused on quantifying the loading behaviour of 1g (g, gravitational acceleration rate) installed open-ended piles using centrifuges. However, the influence of installation stress level on loading behaviour is often ignored, with ramifications for the accuracy and validity of results. In this paper, a loading apparatus is developed to allow in-flight jacking of piles followed directly by vertical or lateral loading, without needing to stop the centrifuge, which facilitates maintaining the installation-related stress state. Model piles are installed at 50g and 1g, and the vertical and lateral responses are analyzed. The effect of pile installation stress level on the initial stiffness, resistance, and soil plug behaviour, is investigated. Results indicate that installation stress level has a more significant and non-uniform effect on pile vertical behaviour than lateral behaviour. Piles that are not fully installed at 50g can mobilize the same vertical resistance as those fully installed at 50g, provided they experience a minimum of 2D (D, pile diameter) in-flight installation length. The arching effect caused by soil plugging, and the denser sand state surrounding the pile toe, may provide higher vertical and lateral resistance for piles installed at 50g compared to those installed at 1g.

Evaluating long-term building reconstruction is essential to strengthen resilience to earthquakes. Field investigations provide detailed and accurate information for building assessments, but are often labour intensive, costly, and time consuming, particularly when considering the regional-scale impact of earthquakes. In contrast, satellite Remote Sensing (RS) techniques provide frequent data across vast areas, making them ideal for regional-scale post-earthquake assessments, which can complement field surveys. Despite this, most RS studies have relied on manual change detection of satellite data before and after the event, limiting their potential for automated assessment and reducing their support for field investigations. In this study, we developed a novel RS method designed to assist field investigations of post-earthquake building reconstruction on a regional scale. The method automatically identifies target buildings for field teams to investigate, locating collapsed structures or buildings that have changed due to post-earthquake reconstruction efforts. We applied Multi-Temporal Synthetic Aperture Radar Interferometry (MT-InSAR) for the first time to evaluate post-earthquake building reconstruction. The proposed method involves a two-stage analysis: first, a grid-level assessment on a regional scale to detect areas with reconstruction activities following an earthquake, and then a detailed building-level analysis to identify individual buildings that have undergone changes as part of the reconstruction process within these areas. The method was used to assess building reconstruction efforts in Nepal after the 2015 Gorkha earthquake. For the MT-InSAR analysis, we acquired two stacks of 3-m-resolution SAR images, one before and one after the earthquake. The grid-level analysis detected multiple urban areas with significant changes, which were then subjected to a building-level analysis. This analysis pinpointed the locations of affected buildings and determined the extent of changes related to reconstruction activities. A comparison of the building-level results with field observations confirmed that the method successfully identified buildings that have undergone changes. These changes included buildings that were left in a collapsed state, demolished, under construction, or fully reconstructed. The MT-InSAR-based approach introduced in this study has the potential to serve as a valuable tool to guide future field surveys related to post-earthquake reconstruction, significantly reducing the time and effort needed for such assessment.

Driven pipe piles are used extensively in coastal and offshore projects. Traditionally piles with diameters of 2–3 m were common in the offshore wind industry, however the diameter of monopiles to support a 10 MW wind turbine is more commonly 10 m. Offshore wind projects are being developed at sites with very low seabed strengths and pipe pile weights are increasing significantly. Self-weight penetration occurs when the pile is first placed on the seabed. A combination of low strength seabed conditions and increased pile self-weight leads to the risk of pile run (uncontrolled self-weight penetration) during installation at some sites. Predicting pile run risk, run velocities and penetration depths is challenging due to inherent rate effects and the large strains involved. While rapid penetration processes can be considered using both analytic methods and Large Deformation Finite Element simulations, the role of soil rigidity is seldom taken into account, despite known implications from static pile assessments. This study uses large deformation simulation with the Coupled Eulerian Lagrangian method to simulate the pile running process for five well-studied fine-grained soils with varying elastic stiffnesses. Results are compared with analytic methods, highlighting the limitations of current predictive techniques in terms of both the end tip and shaft resistance. As a corollary, a linear trend for the final penetration depth with respect to the logarithm of the soil rigidity index is incorporated in an existing analytic code based on results obtained from large deformation simulations.

As the offshore energy industry begins to develop wind farms in areas of deeper water, the use of traditional foundations such as shallow foundation and driven hollow steel tube piles becomes uneconomical. The deployment of floating turbines and continued development of novel/efficient anchoring systems for these structures will be an important factor in the continued growth of the sector. This paper presents an investigation carried out as part of a proof-of-concept for a novel “bi-wing anchor”. This design will allow a plate anchor to be dropped through the water column and then penetrate the seabed under its own weight. The anchor will then be dragged causing it to embed further into the seabed and provide a greater holding capacity. This paper focuses on experimental as well as analysis of the drag embedment behaviour during the installation and pullout phases. The physical modelling investigations were carried out in a transparent clay-surrogate which enabled observation of the anchor’s orientation during installation. The predictions using analytical modelling showed good agreement with the observed behaviour at varying embedment ratios.