Dust emissions developed during the handling of dry bulk products pose increased risks for health, safety and the environment. Legislation drives bulk handling facilities to face the challenge of maintaining dust emissions within limitations. At the bulk terminal of Verbrugge multiple bulk products are handled, making the dust control problem even more difficult. The aim of this research is to improve the dust control methods of bulk handling equipment handling various dry bulk products to further reduce the dust emissions.
A dust control strategy is developed based on the knowledge gathered through theoretical and practical research concerning the formation and control of dust emissions. The strategy provides a structural approach to identify the most suitable dust control methods, applicable for all types of bulk handling operations and bulk products. It incorporates the specifications of the dust source, investigates the feasibility of dust control measures, and creates and evaluates combinations through a weighted multi-criteria analysis.
The decision-making tool is implemented at three dust sources at Verbrugge and proposes dust control methods to improve the reduction of dust emissions. The strategy suggests providing transfer chutes between two conveyor belts with a flex-flap system to avoid dust dispersion within the installation. The proposed method offers a safer, more reliable, less expensive, and maintenance-friendly solution as opposed to the currently applied dust collector. The implementation of the dust control strategy at the transfer between a grab and hopper offers the valuable insight that the design of wind screens need to be optimised in order to improve the extent of dust control. The ship loader is best equipped with a cascade chute and dust skirt, as suggested by the strategy.
This study shows the developed dust control strategy not only substantively proposes the most suitable dust control methods, but also offers valuable insights into potential issues, provides possible solutions or improvements, and significantly reduces the time and effort invested in the decision-making process. To further enhance the findings of this research, it is recommended to include the effects of organisational dust control measures and a design aspect in the dust control strategy. Additionally, a more reliable assessment of dust control measures can be achieved by quantifying the generation and control of dust emissions.

An unfamiliar subject to the contemporary connecting options for cranes on pontoons is removability; Various difficulties and obstructions related to the heavy-duty nature of the equipment lead to a limited amount of practiced conventional connecting options for this purpose, which all have the absence of removability in common. Furthermore, the consideration of various types of efficiencies and performance aspects has not been common practice within this field. The aim of developing a removable and efficient crane-to-pontoon connection system is therefore set.
An initial literature research is performed in order to obtain a variety of connecting options which have the potential of forming the basis of a new removable connection system, optimized for crane-to-pontoon configurations. Subsequently, creating a unique rating system, specifically for crane-to-pontoon connection systems, led to a substantiated selection process for the most feasible option among the potential connecting options. The turnbuckle option obtained the highest ranking and was therefore selected to proceed the design process with.
Developing the turnbuckle option into a complete connection system and accomplishing all defined aims led to an encounter with various engineering challenges. An integral design process led to the discovery of a proficient combination of components, which overcome the challenges and provide satisfaction with respect to the aims of the project.
The parameters of the developed conceptual design are finally quantified in order to prove feasibility and efficiency. Applicable design parameters are found which pass the safety requirements, while minimizing the material consumption. With these parameters, the removable design is compared to conventional real case connection systems in terms of cost-efficiency, which resulted in the observation that multiple millions of euros in long-term savings are anticipated per deployed crane due to the removability feature.

This thesis focuses on a vertical farming system designed for growing crops. The system’s deficiencies were identified during a company visit where the system was operating. An analysis was conducted to see when all deficiencies would be resolved. It revealed that the vertical farm robot had to be redesigned to grab seven benches deep to eliminate the system’s shortcomings and significantly enhance its performance. Thus, a literature review was conducted to determine possible solutions. As a result, various alternatives were devised based on the requirements and constraints considering the available design space and a morphological chart. These alternatives were scored with a weighted criteria method, and the best view was elaborated in more detail. Subsequently, a computer-aided design of the best overall-looking design was created. After ordering all materials, a design prototype was built inside a climate cell in the research centre, and all sensors and drives were wired and controlled by a programmable logic controller to fully automate the prototype. A proof of concept was successfully obtained from the test results. Therefore, this redesign of the system’s performance was enhanced, and this thesis was successful.

This thesis investigates the physics of clay cutting, focusing on the challenges and complexities associated with mechanical excavation. The use of clay is inevitable as a sand replacement in the future. Clay is a fine grained soil with a dense structure that makes it relatively impermeable to water. It can act as a barrier which is beneficial in rivers. Clay can also obstruct constructions, so excavation is needed. By analyzing existing literature and
conducting extensive experiments, the study aims to shed light on the underlying mechanisms governing clay deformation and forces in linear cutting processes. Experiments are conducted using clay with a cohesion of 35 kPa and 60 kPa, while an adhesion ranging from 1.2 kPa to 12.5 kPa. For all parameters of the clay a test is conducted. Direct shear tests for cohesion, adhesion, internal and external friction angles. Tensile testing for the tensile strength of the clay. Cutting tests are conducted on clay with varying parameters, including cohesion, adhesion, cutting depth, blade length, blade angle, and cutting velocity.

The study identifies two primary cutting regimes: flow and curling. While other regimes are theoretically possible, they were not observed in the experiments. The other two regimes: shear and tear could be encounter when sand or silt is added to the clay. The main cutting force and the thrust force are made dimensionless in the analyse. The analysis revealed the relationship between the tested parameter and the cutting forces, highlighting its importance in the overall process. In the end a new model is presented for calculating the main cutting force and the thrust force. A key difference from existing literature is the use of the shear angle and the strengthening factor. The shear angle represents the inclination of the shear plane during clay deformation, while the strengthening factor quantifies the strain rate dependent increase in clay strength under faster deformation conditions. While the shear angle is generally overestimated, the strengthening factor is inaccurately applied. The main cutting force is primarily influenced by cohesion, shear angle, cutting depth and cutting velocity. In contrast, the thrust force is primarily affected by adhesion, external friction, cohesion, cutting depth, and blade angle.

Recommendations for further research include, exploring conditions that could lead to tear or shear failure in clay. The relationship between blade angle and cutting force for linear and non linear cutting. The non linear cutting is especially important in the field. While the experiments in this thesis involved linear cutting, field conditions involve circular blade movements with varying blade angles and cutting depths during the cutting process. This is attributable to the inherent characteristics of cutter suction dredgers. The strengthening factor should also be investigated for other types of clay.

Mammoet is developing a new type of system for the transportation of offshore power cables. With this system the cables can be spooled, stored, and transported both on land and on heavy transport vessels in a more efficient way. There are a few uncertainties for the system, mainly about the loads on the carousel and the behavior of the cable stack. These uncertainties resulted in some assumptions that have been used for the proposed design. Furthermore, there are a few challenges for the system that need to be addressed to compete with the current offshore power cable transportation methods. The main challenges include the structural strength and stability in combination with the self-weight, the used cylinder stroke of the hydraulic SPMT cylinders and other issues with the SPMTs. In this study these uncertainties and the challenges for the current design of the system are investigated, which resulted in more insight in the uncertainties and a new concept with improved performance against the challenges.

The use of petroleum-based fuels in the shipping sector creates harmful emissions that need to be reduced to reach climate goals. Ammonia is being considered as a possible fuel to reduce emissions, but there exist several challenges that prevent its implementation. Research into these several of these challenges is being done, but there is little research into the bunkering process of ammonia. Therefore, the purpose of this research is to identify an installation to bunker ammonia that is suitable for ports that handle sea-going vessels. In order to do this, requirements, functions and alternatives are proposed for this system. Subsequently, these alternatives are evaluated through an ordinal analysis and a decision is made on a configuration through the Best Worst Method (BWM). To do this, Stakeholders from the port of Rotterdam are surveyed and used as input for the BWM. A viable configuration is found that adheres to all requirements. Finally, it is concluded that the configuration is applicable to multiple ports due to the general prioritization of safety, robustness of the result and similar results between stakeholders with different secondary priorities. Furthermore, the effectiveness of mitigation strategies implies sufficiently small risk contours, to allow ports that are in close proximity to vulnerable objects to be able to build an ammonia bunker installation as well.

The worlds awareness of our emissions and the effect it has on our surroundings is increasing. This influences efforts to put new agreements into place to reduce emissions and the effects on global warming. Along with the Paris agreements, the International Maritime Organisation also came with measures to achieve these needed reductions of emissions for the maritime industry. The set goal for 2050 is a reduction of 50% of greenhouse gas emissions. To achieve this new fuels need to be used and research need to be done on these fuels.

In this thesis the workings of a liquid bulk terminal are analysed, with the use of ammonia as fuel for ships in the maritime industry. The current liquid bulk terminals need to change with the future increase in demand and use of ammonia. This thesis focusses on how this can take place. The transport and bunkering methods of ammonia need to be researched and used to formulate a model to investigate the various options.

It is opted to develop a Discrete Event Simulation model of a liquid bulk terminal. The bunkering operations and supply of ammonia within a terminal are modelled. Various bunkering and supply methods are modelled for different sizes of terminal and at various levels of supply and demand.

The model is implemented using python and a Discrete Event Simulation package Salabim. With the models simulations it is investigated how bunker and supply methods at the terminal perform at different levels of scale. This is to gain insights for the future transition to the less polluting bunker fuel ammonia. The model is verified and validated with the use of data from literature on similar terminals using LNG.

The simulation results show that using pipeline bunkering and supply options are the most suitable. This option gives the shortest time that a ship has to spend on average at the terminal. The use of pipeline bunkering is therefore more efficient and this increases with the increasing scale of size, supply and demand of ammonia at a liquid bulk terminal.

The costs of all the facilities needed for the different sizes of terminal and the various scenarios of methods are analysed. The costs show that for smaller scales, bunker vessels and train supply, are more cost efficient. For large scale supply, demand and terminal size, using pipeline supply and bunkering is the most cost efficient.

Recommendations for future research includes the use of hybrid terminals using multiple bunkering methods at the same time. Investigating the safety risks for each method of bunkering and supply. And to use the proposed model for a case study at a location to investigate the suitability of the bunkering and supply methods for such locations.

This master thesis focuses on the effect of variabilities in a Power & Free conveyor system on the flow continuity by an analysis on the product, process and production level (3P), a discrete-event simulation model and the theory of Cyber-Physical Production systems (CPPS) to control the product flow. Scenarios were evaluated with this model and the results show the effect of performance increase when variability decreases. Requirements are set to come to real-time control by developing this model into a digital twin as part of a CPPS. It can be concluded that the discreteevent model can be used to predict the performance and take control measures accordingly, subsequently real-time control is possible by implementing real-time sensor measurements in the model, thereby developing the model into a digital twin.

One of the biggest challenges of the century is the fight against global warming. In all sectors people are doing their best to reduce their carbon footprints and their impact on the environment. In the energy sector this is done by making use of renewable energy sources (RES), such as wind turbines, instead of fossil fuels. This transition to RES and the growing demand of energy results in extensive off-shore wind farms containing large wind turbines. During the installation of these wind turbines, the monopile (MP) foundation is driven into the seabed using an impact hammer, which dissipates a high amount of energy into the water in the form of sound pressure waves. The intensity of these sound pressure waves can be expressed in sound levels and is used to quantify the effects of such waves in underwater environment.

These high underwater noise levels have a large impact on its marine life as marine mammals rely on sound waves, particularly low-frequency wave. The noise from pile driving damages their auditory systems and can lead to multiple injuries making them more vulnerable to predators. For this reason, it is crucial to research methods for predicting underwater noise and reducing the noise during off-shore pile driving operations.

The mitigation techniques currently in use or in development lack the ability to filter the sound pressure peaks at a specific frequency band. For this reason, an elastic meta material-based structure, called Meta Cushion, is designed to reduce low-frequency noise during off-shore impact pile driving. To assess the functionality of the Meta Cushion in reducing low-frequency noise during offshore impact pile driving, a small-scale pile driving test setup was designed and built. The small-scale test aimed to validate the numerical results and to provide a better understanding of the cushion's effectiveness. This test was a joint effort of Delft University of Technology and Huisman Equipment B.V..

The small-scale impact test setup was scaled using scaling laws on the large-scale appliance, and the instrumentation was selected to perform the required measurements to quantify wave propagation. The test setup was built using a test tank with sound-absorbing foam attached to its walls and soil at the bottom to reduce the reflection waves of the tank sides. In the middle of the tank a small-scaled MP was placed on top of a damping plate, to protect the MP and the bottom of the tank. This damping plate was changed during the experiments, because the initial plate caused a large backlash on the MP after impact. On top of the MP, different cushions were placed, and on the MP wall, a set of strain gauges and an accelerometer was attached to measure the behaviour of the MP throughout the tests. In the tank, a hydrophone was placed to measure the sound pressure as a result of the impact force.

The small-scale test setup had three test rounds; the first round assessed the functionality of the meta-material unit cell by testing a modular Meta Cushion made from three different materials: aluminium, acrylic, and nylon, while using a pivot impact hammer; the second and third test rounds were performed on two aluminium non-modular cushions, which were designed and built to withstand the stresses during an impact test with a higher impact force, using a drop weight impact hammer. The FRF-experiments were conducted to extract the actual TL frequency and the attenuation caused by it for each cushion...

Increasing global parcel shipping volumes and just-in-time delivery force distribution centers to handle increasingly larger volumes of greatly varying parcel types. Automated material handling systems are essential to achieve these challenging requirements. A push divert sorter is one of these systems. This system uses a series of sliding plastic blocks to divert items from a main conveyor onto specific lanes. The performance of a push divert sorter is highly influenced by the design of components interacting with parcels. The shape and materials of these components influence the locations, directions and magnitude of forces acting on parcels, which influences their dynamic behaviour. The influence of the design of these components on the system performance is analyzed in the study. Moreover, based on these insights, an improved design is proposed and assessed.

In the 21st century, maritime landscape is confronted with issues such as congestion and delays due to the ever increasing maritime trade volumes.
This thesis explores the possibility of utilizing the concept of amphibious vehicles as a potential solution to address the issue of congestion and enabling the autonomous container terminal operations. For this research, an agent based model is developed to study the impact of amphibious vehicles on space optimization and reduction of material handling equipment within a given port region. The study analyses the performance of the proposed concept over several key performance indicators such as time taken by a handling equipment from origin to destination, container throughput, handling equipment fleet size and container demand fulfilment rate. The developed simulation model is then applied to the chosen case study of the port of Rotterdam. Additionally, the study also performs a sensitivity analysis to simulate how container demand variations affects the efficiency of logistic chains with these amphibious vehicles. This thesis highlights the effect of these amphibious vehicles on tackling problems faced by container terminals due to increased global trade. Through an extensive analysis of existing literature and developed model, this thesis provides valuable insights into the future of container terminal operations.

Sodium borohydride (NaBH4) is a potential material-based hydrogen storage solution. However, a lack of information regarding its bulk material properties poses a challenge in designing storage and handling equipment. This report addresses this gap by conducting a series of tests to analyse the bulk material properties of NaBH4 powder and granules, with a specific interest in how these properties change under varying humidity conditions.
Since humidity does not have a direct effect on material properties, but moisture content does, the report first investigates the effect of humidity on moisture content in the material. The second set of experiments is then designed to determine the bulk material properties with varying moisture content, establishing a link between humidity and bulk material properties.
The findings reveal that prolonged exposure to ambient humidity negatively affects the cohesion and flowability of NaBH4. This effect is more pronounced in powdered NaBH4 compared to its granulated form. However, these adverse effects can be mitigated by storing the material in a closed environment. The study concludes by emphasizing the importance of a closed storage environment and the need for further research on NaBH4’s behaviour under a wider range of conditions for its storage and handling.

Automation in tomato greenhouses is lacking compared with some other crops. The efficiency and consistency of greenhouse operations can be boosted by implementing automation. Therefore, a new concept that facilitates the robotisation of crop-handling tasks is investigated. This concept combines the existing technology of a movable-gutter system with the cultivation concept of a limited-truss tomato. The combination of these two techniques has not been previously explored. For this paper, a generic conceptual design framework was developed which contains a simulation model and an evaluation protocol. In the evaluation protocol a sensitivity analysis and an optimal dimension analysis is performed. Case studies are conducted to evaluate the simulated performance, to examine the capacity of the transport system and crop-handling tasks and to assess the robustness. These case studies prove that the developed framework is generic and all-encompassing. The framework has proven its worth by eliminating erroneous design choices before significant resources were spent. The new concept is promising, as it facilitates automation and has a competitive simulated production. Therefore, it is advised to move on to the next design phase, which should mainly focus on validating the crop-growth model and the preliminary design of subsystems as the transport system and components as the movable-gutter itself. Furthermore, a cost analysis and economic assessment should be conducted.

Wind loads acting on STS cranes are an important design parameter to be taken into account when designing STS cranes. Current calculation standards such as the EN13001-2 overestimate wind forces. The goal of this research is to propose an improvement on current calculation standards. Wind tunnel tests were performed to assess the results of standard calculations. Computational fluid dynamics were validated against the wind tunnel and used to investigate the root cause of this difference. This research proposed the use of the shielding coefficients found in the DIN 1055 standard for horizontal elements in conjuncture with the EN13001-2 standard for more accurate calculations.