Research programmes

Country: France, Northern Italy and nearby regions
Funding: EDF, AREVA, CEA, ENEL
Project Period: 2011 -2015 (48 months)
Project Budget: EUR 4 million
Website: www.projet-sigma.com
Fugro Contact: Gabriele Ameri (g.ameri@fugro.com)

Seismic Ground Motion Assessment (SIGMA)

SIGMA is a research and development project of characterization of seismic ground motion assessment in France, Northern Italy and nearby regions. The main goal is to improve knowledge on data, methods and tools to better quantify uncertainties in seismic hazard estimates.

The Project is organized in five main Work Packages:

WP1: a better knowledge of seismic sources. The two main goals are to produce a catalogue of earthquakes that covers both the historical and instrumental periods, and to improve knowledge of faults and geological structures that are potentially active.

WP2: to develop methods of ground-motion prediction. The goal is to develop methodologies and analysis tools for predicting seismic ground motion that are adapted to the French context and nearby countries, and that uses a realistic representation of physical and epistemic uncertainties.

WP3: improve local site conditions characterization. The goal is to develop methods and tools to evaluate sites potentially subjected to local site effects, and that are appropriate to be used in the seismic hazard calculation methods.

WP4: improve Seismic Hazard Models. The intention is to better identify and quantify uncertainties with the goal to reduce them, particularly the epistemic uncertainties. It is proposed to validate and introduce methods that are existing or are in the process of being developed, and to explore new directions, for testing probabilistic hazard curves against observations.

WP5: Improve characterization and exploitation of seismic ground motion. The studies in this work package are to ensure that results of the overall project fulfil engineers’ and designers’ needs for the design and operations of various facilities types. Its goal is to produce methods and tools for the development of the required engineering parameter(s) of the seismic ground motion, for several return periods, and various levels of risk, adapted to the facilities.

Partners

• Basilicata University Potenza (Italy)
• BGS, British Geological Survey,   (United Kingdom)
• BRGM, Bureau de recherches géologiques et minières (France)
• CEREGE, Centre Européen de Recherche et d'Enseignement (France)
• Comenius University in Bratislava (Slovakia)
• EMSM, European Mediterranean Seismological Centre (France)
• EOST, Institut de Physique du Globe de Strasbourg (France)
• Géoazur (France)
• Géodynamique et Structure (France)
• INGV, Istituto Nazionale di Geofisica e Vulcanologia (Italy)
• IRSN, Institut de Radioprotection et de Sûreté Nucléaire (France)
• ISTerre, Institut des Sciences de la Terre (France)
• Laboratoire 3S-R, laboratoire Sols, Solides, Structures – Risques (France)
• METU, Middle East Technical University (Turkey)
• ORB, Observatoire Royal de Belgique (Belgium)
• POLIMI, Politecnico di Milano (Italy)
• RPK, Structural Mechanics Consulting (USA)
• SRC, Savy Risk Consulting (USA)
• UJF, Université Joseph Fourier (France)
• Université de Versailles Saint-Quentin-en-Yvelines (France)
• Université Paul Cézanne Aix Marseille (France)
• University of California, Berkeley (USA)
• University of Potsdam (Germany)

Country: France
Funding: ANR (The French National Research Agency)
Project Period: 2015 -2017 (48 months)
Project Budget: EUR 485.000
Fugro Contact: Francois Dunand (f.dunand@fugro.com)

IT-TIME – Assessment of time variation of seismic risk: Application to Istanbul

The general objective of the Project IT-TIME is to improve the efficiency of the methodology of time-varying seismic risk mitigation based on continuously recorded data and its capability of protecting human activities.The project aims to establish best practice on how to use jointly all the information coming from earthquake observations and continuous vulnerability assessments.

Earthquake scenarios are needed for city planning, disaster preparedness, risk reduction and hazard mitigation decisions, and urban rehabilitation actions in earthquake prone areas. Earthquake loss estimation in an urban environment is a very complex process that requires detailed building inventories, realistic estimation of earthquake shaking on the ground surface and comprehensive assessment of building vulnerabilities, including its variations during co- and post-seismic periods.

Furthermore, earthquake hazard is spatially distributed and presents temporal variations in relation to earthquake sources that need to be assessed based on the regional seismotectonic scale and local site conditions. Mapping the spatial and temporal variation in earthquake hazard at an urban scale makes it possible to better estimate the less affected zones for the allocation of appropriate land use and to minimize possible earthquake damage.

Partners

• BRGM, Bureau de recherches géologiques et minières (France)
• ISTerre, Institut des Sciences de la Terre (France)
• Fugro-GEOTER (France)
• IFSTTAR, L'Institut français des sciences et technologies des transports, de l'aménagement et des réseaux (France)

Country: Denmark, Germany, Ireland, Netherlands, UK and Slovenia
Funding: CEDR (Conference of European Directors of Roads) Transnational Road Research Programme
Project Period: April 2014 – April 2016 (24 months)
Project Budget: EUR 1.3 million
Website: www.hispeq.com
Fugro Contact: Mark Thomas (m.thomas@fugro.com)

Hi-speed survey Specifications, Explanation and Quality (HiSPEQ)

To efficiently manage their road networks road administrations rely on high quality condition data to understand the condition of the asset and plan and undertake maintenance programmes. High speed surveys have become a key source of this information. Initially providing data on the shape and condition of the road surface, in recent years these have expanded to measure structural performance and the structure of the pavement itself. High speed surveys bring significant advantages to condition assessment but they use different techniques and provide a wide range of different data types. Many policies are applied across Europe to define the requirements for the survey equipment, the surveys and the data delivered. This causes problems for those commissioning the surveys, those undertaking the surveys and those using the data.

The Hi-SPEQ initiative aims to deliver improvements to the process of describing high-speed survey equipment, specifying the requirement for surveys/survey equipment and the regimes that should be applied to ensure the quality of data delivered. HI-SPEQ will also improve the ability to obtain good value from the measured data by making use of the best derived parameters to assess condition within asset management systems. In summary:

• Utilizing stakeholder consultation, current best practice and the extensive experience of our team in developing and delivering high-speed surveys, survey equipment and survey specifications, Hi-SPEQ will identify the data that can be collected on road networks to measure surface condition, structural condition and road structure at high speed and the type of equipment that can be used to collect this data. This will be used to determine the requirements for, and the capability of, current high speed survey equipment to deliver interactive templates and best practice guidance for describing the equipment used on the network.
• Building on the equipment capability and descriptions developed above, Hi-SPEQ will investigate how network surveys can be specified to deliver the needs of road authorities and, using current examples, will clarify how such surveys can be commissioned and provide interactive templates for specifying surveys of surface and structural condition on the European road network, accompanied by guidance.
• Having explored the equipment and the survey processes Hi-SPEQ will then use the experience of the team and the lessons learned in real world routine surveys to identify the processes that should be applied to ensure that these surveys meet their expected levels of quality, and through this provide guidance to help Authorities specify suitable QA regimes for their network surveys.
• Finally, Hi-SPEQ will explore the way that high speed survey data can be processed and analyzed in order to recommend the most effective ways to convert survey data into meaningful condition parameters that can be input to asset management systems.

A key focus of Hi-SPEQ will be the delivery of outputs that can be implemented by road administrations via interactive guidance and templates that can be taken forward by individual road administrations to form the basis for developing strategies and specifications for their own network surveys. This will be accompanied by promulgation of the results of the work across a wide range of stakeholders and the provision of training materials to allow road administrations to further disseminate and implement the results within their own organizations.

Partners

• Transport Research Laboratory (TRL)
• Fugro Aperio
• Austrian Institute of Technology (AIT)
• COWI
• Swedish National Road and Transport Research Institute (VTI)
• Slovenian National Building and Civil Engineering Institute (ZAG)

Country: The Netherlands
Funding: Dutch Government, TKI Wind op Zee (the Top consortium for Knowledge and Innovation
Offshore Wind) 
Project Period: October 2013 – August 2016 (34 months)
Project Budget: EUR 2.3 million
Website: http://tki-windopzee.nl/project/dssi
Fugro Contact: Flip Hoefsloot (f.hoefsloot@fugro.nl)

Efficient Support Structure Design through Improved Dynamic Soil Structure Interaction Modelling  

A lack of knowledge about dynamic soil-structure interaction (DSSI) could be an important bottleneck in the quest to reduce the cost of offshore support structures. Dynamic stiffness and damping in this phenomenon are the main sources of uncertainty in the current support structure design process. 

Stiffness has a determining influence on the frequencies of offshore wind turbines, while damping greatly influences fatigue damage accumulation during the lifetime of support structures. Uncertainty in soil behaviour is addressed by making conservative assumptions in soil models which, industry-wide, carry a high potential for significant cost reductions.  

Applying new knowledge about DSSI in the design and certification process enables the design of support structures to be improved, and the lifetime of existing support structures to be prolonged significantly. The problem statement for this project is therefore: 

The present modelling method for stiffness and damping in dynamic soil-structure interaction used for the design of offshore wind turbine support structures is inadequate and leads to over-conservative designs. 

The main objective of the project is to reduce the cost of electricity by enabling the more efficient design of offshore support structures through increased knowledge of dynamic soil structure interaction.

Partners

• Siemens Nederland N.V. (Netherlands)
• Fugro GeoServices B.V. (Netherlands)
• Delft University of Technology (Netherlands)
• DNV KEMA Method (Netherlands)
• BMO Offshore (Netherlands)

Country: United Kingdom
Funding: European Seventh Framework Programme (FP7)
Project Budget: EUR 12 million
Project Period: November 2013 – November 2016 (36 months)
Website: http://www.eu-midas.net/
Fugro Contact: Ian Stewart (i.stewart@fugro.com)

Managing Impacts of Deep-Sea Resource Exploitation

The MIDAS project addresses fundamental environmental issues relating to the exploitation of deep-sea mineral and energy resources; specifically polymetallic sulphides, manganese nodules, cobalt-rich ferromanganese crusts, methane hydrates and the potential mining of rare earth elements. These new industries will have a significant impact on deep-sea ecosystems, in some cases extending over hundreds of thousands of square kilometres. 

Scientific knowledge is needed urgently to develop guidelines for industry, ensuring wealth creation and Best Environmental Practices (BEP).  MIDAS will assess the nature and scale of potential impacts including:

• physical destruction of the seabed by mining, the creation of mine tailings and the potential for catastrophic slope failures from methane hydrate exploitation, 
• potential effects of particle-laden plumes in the water column, 
• possible toxic chemicals that might be released by the mining process. 

Knowledge of the impacts will be used to address the key biological unknowns, such as connectivity between populations, impacts of the loss of biological diversity on ecosystem functioning, and how quickly the ecosystems will recover. The information derived will be used to guide recommendations for best practice, integrating with MIDAS industry partners and the wider stakeholder community to ensure that solutions are practical and cost-effective. 

We will engage with European and international regulatory organisations to take these recommendations forward into legislation in a timely fashion. A major element of MIDAS will be to develop methods and technologies for (1) preparing baseline assessments of biodiversity, and (2) monitoring activities remotely in the deep sea during and after exploitation (including ecosystem recovery). The MIDAS partnership represents a unique combination of scientists, industry, social scientists, legal experts, NGOs and SMEs.

Partners

The consortium consists of 32 partners from universities, institutes and companies from the UK, Netherlands, Germany, Spain, France, Portugal, Norway, Italy, Poland, Belgium and Russia.

Country: United Kingdom
Funding: European Horizon 2020 Programme
Project Budget: EUR 9.2 million
Project Period: January 2015 – June 2018 (42 months)
Website: http://vamos-project.eu/
Fugro Contact: Ian Stewart (i.stewart@fugro.com)

Viable and Alternative Mine Operating System 

Estimates indicate that the value of unexploited European mineral resources at a depth of 500-1,000 metres is around €100 billion. However, a number of physical, economic, social, environmental and human constraints have, as yet, limited their exploitation. 

¡VAMOS! will provide a new safe, clean, low-visibility mining technique and prove the economic viability for extracting currently unreachable mineral deposits. This will encourage investment and help put the EU back on a level playing field in terms of access to strategically important minerals. 

Derived from successful deep-sea mining techniques, the ¡VAMOS! mining solution aspires to result in the reopening of abandoned mines; extensions to open-pit mines limited by stripping ratio, hydrological or geotechnical problems; and the opening of new mines in the EU. 

¡VAMOS! will design and manufacture innovative automated excavation equipment and environmental impact monitoring tools to perform field tests at four mine sites across Europe with a range of rock hardness and pit morphology. 

¡VAMOS! will: 

• develop a prototype underwater, remotely controlled, mining machine with associated launch and recovery equipment, 
• enhance currently available underwater sensing, spatial awareness, navigational and positioning technology, 
• provide an integrated solution for efficient real-time monitoring of environmental impacts, 
• conduct field trials with the prototype equipment in abandoned and inactive mine sites with a range of rock types and at a range of submerged depths, 
• evaluate productivity and operating costs to enable mineability and economic reassessment of the EU's mineral resources, 
• maximise impact and enable the market uptake of proposed solutions by defining and overcoming the practicalities of the concept, proving operational feasibility and economic viability,
• contribute to the social acceptance of the new extraction technique via public demonstrations in EU regions.

Partners

• Group Ltd (United Kingdom) 
• Soil Machine Dynamics Ltd. (United Kingdom)
• Damen Shipyards Group (Netherlands) 
• Instituto de Engenharia Sistemas e Computadores (Portugal) 
• Fugro EMU Limited (United Kingdom)
• ZfT Zentrum für Telematik e.V. (Germany) =
• MUL Montanuniversität Leoben (Austria) 
• MIN MINERÁLIA, LDA (Portugal) 
• MML Marine Minerals Ltd (United Kingdom)
• EDM Empresa de Desenvolvimento Mineiro SA (Portugal)
• SAND Sandvik Mining and Construction GmbH (Austria) 
• GeoZS Geological survey of Slovenia (Slovenia) 
• CF La Palma Research Centre for Future Studies (Spain) 
• EFG European Federation of Geologists (Belgium)
• TRE Trelleborg Ede Bv (Netherlands)
• FZG Federalni zavod za Geologijo (Bosnia and Herzegovina)
• FORRV Fonadacija za obnovu i razvoj regije Vareš (Bosnia and Herzegovina)

Country: Australia
Funding: Industries, University of Western Australia
Project Budget: AUD 2.62 million 
Project Period: January 2014 - June 2017 (42 months)
Website: tba
Fugro Contact: Phil Watson (philw@ag.com.au)

Offshore Geotechnical Engineering with Remote Intelligent Geotechnical Seabed Surveys

Offshore geotechnical site investigation (SI) technology lags behind other industries in the application of remote and intelligent robotic technology. The RIGSS JIP will deliver new tools, hardware and engineering design methods to create more intelligent and efficient seabed surveys.

The aim of the Joint Industry Project (JIP) is to advance geotechnical site investigation technology through improved control and instrumentation, new types of penetrometer and other tools, and new engineering design methods to apply the SI data more directly to geotechnical design. The remote and intelligent tools will be deployed from a seabed frame or ROV-based platform.

This compact arrangement will allow SIs to be executed more rapidly, from smaller vessels, and at lower cost. The new tools - including novel penetrometers invented at UWA - will provide more detailed measurements of soil response, through seabed interactions that are more directly relevant to engineering design. For example, a compact instrumented pipe-like penetrometer is far more suited to the determination of pipe-soil friction factors, than a cone penetrometer.

The JIP will unlock earlier and more reliable geotechnical definition in projects, leading to more efficient design and reduced option-carrying.

The JIP is divided into six work packages: (1) control, actuation and acquisition, (2) surface penetrometers, (3) deep penetrometers, (4) free fall penetrometers, (5) erosion and scour measurements and (6) blue sky tools.

The deliverables from the JIP include:

• State-of-the-art reports (Rev. 1 issued at start of JIP, Rev. 2 issued at end of JIP),
• Interim and final reports on (i) SI technology and (ii) direct design using in situ SI data
• Recommended designs and proof-of-concept demonstrations of an advanced actuation, control and data system for a seabed frame or ROV-based SI platform
• Recommended practices for new/improved penetrometers (surface: toroid, ball; piezoprobe; free-fall; embedded: piezoball): design and geometry; test execution steps; interpretation methods for soil properties; interpretation methods for direct design
• Performance data from each penetrometer type, at full scale, at an onshore clay test site
• Development of a new in situ seabed erosion property measurement device: design and geometry, test execution steps, data interpretation methods; performance data
• The research will be underpinned by experimental and numerical modelling at UWA, including a major programme of centrifuge testing, as well as three campaigns of field-scale trials performed at Australia’s national soft clay test site, located at Ballina in NSW

Partners

• Centre for Offshore Foundation Systems (COFS) part of University of Western Australia
• Fugro Advanced Geomechanics Pty Ltd.

Country: Greece
Funding: European Framework Programme 7 - Marie Curie Initial Training Networks (ITN)
Project Budget: EUR  3.7 million
Project Period: 2013 - 2017 (48 months)
Website: http://www.seditrans.civil.upatras.gr/
Fugro Contact: Benoit Spinewine (BSpinewine@fugro.be)

Sediment Transport in Fluvial, Estuarine and Coastal environment

Sediment transport in the fluvial, estuarine and coastal environment causes significant morphological changes and results in the amplification of floods, storm surges and other inundation hazards. This increases considerably the risk of structural failure, disruption of network function (water, energy), and the destruction of ecosystems, natural resources, property and human life.

Climate change is expected to increase the impact of sediment transport, hastening the need to improve knowledge and train future engineers in this field. We propose creating a network for the training of researchers in all application areas of sediment transport. The network comprises six academic and four industrial partners and provides an elaborate and interdisciplinary training-through-research programme to twelve early stage and four experienced researchers. It includes a comprehensive academic programme, secondment at industrial partners, workshops, winter- and summer schools, thematic conferences, production of guidelines and complementary activities.

The research focuses on 1) modelling and algorithm development for sediment transport in river and coastal flows, and for inland and offshore turbidity currents or debris flows, and 2) experiments and simulations of sediment transport in river and coastal flows, and sediment-laden density underflows in reservoirs and submarine canyons. 

The experiments will allow for crucial phenomenological advances in the conceptual models upon which simulation tools are built. The latter, compatible with high performance computing, will be explored jointly by academic and industrial partners in real engineering applications during and after the duration of the project. This network is structured to help the coordination of research and educational activities in sediment transport at a European level and increase European competitiveness in this important field of science and technology.

Partners

• University of Patras (Greece)  
• Université Catholique de Louvain (Belgium)  
• University of Cyprus (Cyprus)  
• Instituto Superior Técnico (Portugal)  
• Università degli Studi di Trieste (Italy)   
• École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne (Switzerland)
• Laboratόrio Nacional de Engenharia Civil (Portugal)
• Fugro GeoConsulting (Belgium)  
• Idrostudi Srl (Italy) 
• Stucky Ltd (Switzerland)

Country: The Netherlands
Funding: Stichting IJkdijk
Project Budget: EUR 800,000
Project Period: 2013 - 2015
Website: http://www.openddsc.nl/en/
Fugro Contact: Bujar Nushi (B.Nushi@fugro.nl)


Dike Data Service Centre 

The Dike Data Service Centre (DDSC) is an IT platform founded on a national database for the storage of measurement data concerning dikes and water barriers.

This involves both real-time and historical data.  Linking the data of several water boards makes it possible to compare the data of similar dikes through time. 

IT technologies such as electronic sensors are increasingly being used to manage and monitor water barriers, resulting in a vast increase in the amount of (digital) data collected. Consequently, there is a growing need for an effective data management system to collect - and more importantly make accessible – all this data. The Dike Data Service Centre provides an integrated solution to store and effectively use the information for the management of water barriers.

Examples of data that can be saved include: height measurements, subsidence (in x, y, z directions), water and ground water levels, soil saturation, temperature, infrared and radar scans.

User benefits

The DDSC is not just a database, but an IT platform on which various functions are facilitated:-

Alarm systems: The DDSC can alert the user by SMS or email if predetermined alarm limits are exceeded. Alarms can be set for both the current measurement data and the derived and predicted data.

Storage and use of data: It is possible to store all dike data in a clearly structured manner, including real-time measurements, historical measurements, dike profiles, soil data, filed observations, test results and inspection reports. The DDSC can also be linked to a management register. Linking to DAM, for instance, provides reliable up-to-date information about current water levels and tensions.

Access: Information can be easily accessed via PC, tablet or mobile telephone, with a built-in user rights model and data protections system controlling who has access to the data.

Building of the DDSC

The DDSC is being built for Stichting IJkdijk by the consortium of Nelen & Schuurmans and Fugro GeoServices B.V.


Partners

The Dike Data Service Centre is developed by a partnership between Stichting IJkdijk, the province of Groningen, and water barrier managers Vallei en Veluwe, Waternet, Noorderzijlvest, Wetterskip Fryslân and Hoogheemraadschap De Stichtse Rijnlanden. DDSC is part of the IJkdijk development programme, which is funded by the Ministry of Economics, Agriculture and Innovation, the Ministry of Infrastructure and Environment, Samenwerkingsverband Noord Nederland, Flood Control 2015, the Province of Groningen, water barrier managers, STOWA and the affiliated companies under them.

Stichting IJkdijk is a joint venture between the Dutch private and public sector and knowledge institutes. The foundation was established by Deltares N.V. NOM, STOWA, Sensor Universe and TNO. ­The DDSC is part of the IJkdijk development programme, built for Stichting IJkdijk by Fugro GeoServices B.V. and Nelen en Schuurmans.

Country: The Netherlands
Funding: Netherlands eScience Center
Project Budget: EUR 500,000 
Project Period: 2013 - 2015
Website: http://www.pointclouds.nl
Fugro Contact: Martin Kodde (M.Kodde@fugro.nl)

Massive Point Clouds for eSciences 

Modern geographic data acquisition technologies generate point clouds with billions (or even trillions) of elevation/depth points. Point clouds have attracted a lot of attention from other research disciplines, such as: flood modelling, dike monitoring, forest mapping, generation of 3D city models, etc.  However, the main problem with these point clouds is that they are simply too big (several terabytes) to be handled efficiently by common ICT infrastructures. 

A lack of tools means that available data are not being used to their full potential. Within this project, several novel and innovative eScience techniques will be developed: 

• Parallel ICT architecture, 
• New core support for point cloud data types in the spatial DBMS, 
• Web Point Cloud Service protocol (WPCS) - progressive transfer from server to client, based on multi-resolution representation, 
• Coherent point cloud blocks allowing spatial clustering & indexing, [prob. needs punctuation]
• Point cloud compression (storage and transfer), 
• Caching strategy, 
• Exploitation of the GPU at the client side, 
• Fine-tuning of the complete system. Our work will also result in a proposal for a new Web Point Cloud
• Service (WPCS) standard to OGC and/or ISO TC211.

Partners

• Delft University of Technology
• Netherlands eScience Center
• Fugro
• Oracle
• Rijkswaterstaat
• 3TU Datacentrum

Country: Netherlands
Funding: Technology Foundation STW
Project Budget: EUR 3.4 million 
Project Period: 2015 to 2019
Website: http://www.stw.nl/nl/content/p14-03-euros-%E2%80%93-excellence-uncertainty-reduction-offshore-wind-systems
Fugro Contact: Joek Peuchen (J.Peuchen@fugro.nl)

Excellence in Uncertainty Reduction of Offshore wind Systems

EUROS focuses on major cost factors – design, construction and logistics of installation and maintenance – with a cost saving potential of 10%.

Key to achieving this is a paradigm shift to a probabilistic approach in design - reducing uncertainties that cause overly conservative safety factors – and in the planning and costing of installation and maintenance logistics to improve efficiency.

EUROS consist of three closely linked projects:

• External conditions resulting in advanced probability models for wind and waves (including their correlation), extended weather forecasts to create more freedom in logistical planning, and efficient numerical techniques (uncertainty propagation) to translate the uncertainties in external conditions into loads on OWTs (including wake effects),
• Loads and damage resulting in a protocol for smart monitoring, models to connect monitoring results to damage development (consumption of service life), and advanced physical models for crack initiation and propagation and seabed erosion,
• Wind farm design optimisation resulting in integral uncertainty maps on wind farm level (including the introduction of probabilistic planning and costing of logistics) identifying the best options for cost reduction.

Partners

• Delft University of Technology (DUT)
• Eindhoven University of Technology (TU/e)
• Wageningen University (WU)
• Stichting Centrum Wiskunde & Informatica (CWI
• Systems Navigator
• Fugro Engineers B.V.
• DNV-GL
• Van Oord
• Ballast Nedam
• IHC Hydrohammer
• Eneco
• Heerema

Country: Norway
Funding: Partners
Project Budget: USD 3.6 million
Project Period: 2014 – 2017
Website: tba
Fugro Contact: Joek Peuchen (J.Peuchen@fugro.nl)

Reliability of API and CPT-based Axial Pile Capacity Design Methods

The offshore design profession needs to ensure the same level of safety for the newer CPT pile design methods as for the API method. Guidelines require that the designer select an appropriate safety factor when using the newer CPT methods. The choice is to be conservative and apply a ‘high’ safety factor, or document the level of safety (for example, the annual probability of failure) and ‘calibrate’ the required load and resistance safety factors that ensures a target annual probability of failure.

The application of the pile methods are aimed at oil and gas installations and wind turbine foundations in the energy sector.

The JIP has three objectives:

• Calibrate the load and resistance factors for a target annual probability of failure with five different pile design methods,
• Reach a consensus on a joint and unified database of reliable pile load tests to quantify the model uncertainties for each pile design method,
• Prepare recommendations for the API, ISO/OGP and Eurocode design guidelines on the design of offshore piles.

The deliverables include:

• Parameter statistics and the calibrated load and resistance factor for about 15 designs,
• New streamlined methods to carry out the probabilistic analysis of the axial capacity of piles,
• A unified, expert-accepted and flexible database of pile load tests, accessible on the web
• Recommendation of text(s) to include in the API, ISO/OGP and Eurocode guidelines.

Partners

• Norwegian Geotechnical Institute NGI
• Statoil
• Dong Energy
• Lundin
• DNV GL
• ONGC
• Team of Experts
• Imperial College London
• University of Western Australia
• Norwegian Geotechnical Institute BGI
• Fugro Engineers B.V.

Country: Australia
Funding: Australian Cooperative Research Centre for Spatial Information
Project Budget: AUD 1.45 million 
Project Period: 2014 - 2018 (41 months)
Website: tba
Fugro Contact: Xianglin Liu

Multi-GNSS PPP-RTK Network Processing 

The objective of this research is the algorithmic development of a PPP-RTK network platform for the analysis and processing of the multi-constellation, multi-frequency GNSS data of Australian CORS stations, with the goal of enabling single-receiver GNSS users to perform carrier-phase ambiguity resolved precise point positioning, otherwise known as PPP-RTK. 

The multi-GNSS PPP-RTK network processing platform will form a critical component of the CRCSI’s Analysis Centre Software (ACS).  The project consists of the following two subprojects: (1) PPP-RTK network and (2) Multi-GNSS integration. 

The goal of Subproject (1) is the algorithmic development of the PPP-RTK network processing platform. It will deliver as output the numerical estimation and quality description of the following network parameters for the GNSS satellites and network tracking station receivers: (a) satellite and receiver clock errors; (b) multi-frequency satellite and receiver code biases; (c) multi-frequency satellite and receiver phase biases; (d) ionospheric delays; (e) zenith tropospheric delays.  

The goal of Subproject (2) is to develop the PPP-RTK network processing platform further so as to admit any of the multi-GNSSs, stand-alone or in combination. These two research goals take on particular significance in the Australian context, given current GNSS/RNSS development in the Asia-Pacific region and the fact that a national CORS network will inevitably have interstation distances greater than those used in geographically smaller and more densely populated regions of the world. This project will capitalise on collaboration with international GNSS/RNSS receiver and software providers to focus on the unique Australian situation.

Partners

• Curtin University (Australia) 
• Spatial Information Systems Research Ltd (Australia)
• RMIT University (Australia)
• Geoscience Australia (Australia)
• Leica Geosystems Pty Ltd (Switzerland)
• Fugro Intersite and Fugro Satellite Positioning (Netherlands)
• Delft University of Technology (Netherlands)
• Queensland University of Technology (Australia)