GEOTECHNICAL SEMINAR

JOINTLY ORGANIZED BETWEEN

GEOTECHNICAL SOCIETY OF SINGAPORE (GEOSS)
& CENTRE FOR SOFT GROUND ENGINEERING

Design, Construction, Serviceability and Decommissioning

of Geotechnical Port and Offshore Structures
by

Prof. Dr. Ing. Jrgen Grabe

Head of Institute for Geotechnical and Construction Engineering,
Hamburg University of Technology
(PDU/STU pending approval)
Date:

Wednesday, 16 November 2016

Time:

6:30pm Reception
7:00pm Seminar

Venue:

Engineering Auditorium
Faculty of Engineering
National University of Singapore

SYNOPSIS

Quay wall structures and foundations of wind farms require a Pareto-efficient design and construction. In
general, design is a multi criteria optimization of costs, time and quality. Topology optimization of
structures and optimization of processes using numerical methods is becoming best practice. Different
installation methods like impact and vibratory driving of piles, jacking of sheet piles, deep compaction and
impact compaction are numerically modeled mainly with the Finite Element Method (FEM) and
subsequent approaches like Coupled Eulerian Lagrangian (CEL) to improve the understanding of the
installation processes and with this, to increase the production rate, which is a main element of the above
mentioned efficient design and construction. The state variables of the soil in the near field are changed
significantly, which could lead to a time dependent set-up of bearing behavior, which is still not taken into
account in design.
At port and offshore conditions dynamic installation of e.g. tubular piles leads to extreme hydro sound
emissions. Noise mitigation systems were developed in the North Sea recently. Foundation structures like
shallow foundations and suction buckets are obviously better in this aspect. Cyclic loads due to wind and
waves could lead to an accumulation of displacement of geotechnical structures. Newest results show that
an increased pile drift occurs, if the cyclic load direction is non uniform, which could reduce the
serviceability with time.
The decommissioning of large geotechnical structures like piles of wind farms and oil structures is a
challenge for the future. Especially oil and gas structures of the 70ies are now becoming inefficient and
will be decommissioned. In many cases there was no concept, when the structures were designed, which
today evolves many technical and environmental questions.

THE SPEAKER

Prof. Grabe was educated in civil engineering at Hannover University/Germany and received his Doctoral
Degree from Karlsruhe University/Germany. Afterwards he worked in geotechnical consulting and
construction companies for six years. In 1998 he became head of the Institute of Geotechnical Engineering
and Construction Management at Hamburg University of Technology in Germany. He has extensive
research and practical experience in physical, theoretical and numerical modelling in geotechnical
engineering, especially in pile foundations, and marine geotechnics. Prof. Grabe built up a very well
equipped soil mechanics laboratory at TUHH. He worked also on physical modelling in centrifuge in
collaboration with the University of Western Australia.
Prof. Grabes main research topics are geotechnical engineering in general, and marine geotechnics in
particular. His methodical background covers physical modelling (1g model tests and ng model tests in
collaboration with UWA), theoretical modelling (single and multiphase models for saturated and
unsaturated soils based on continuum approach), numerical modelling (grid and mesh-based methods like
FDM, FVM and FEM for continuum approach; meshfree methods like SPH for continuum approach, and
DEM for discontinuum approach). Prof. Grabe and his research group produced 257 publications in
national and international journals and conferences since 1998 (October 2013). Prof. Grabe is also vice
president for research of Hamburg University of Technology since 2011.
For catering purpose, please confirm your attendance via email: secretariat@geoss.sg
***** Admission is free for members of GeoSS. Non-members can join as GeoSS members on the spot (Annual fee applies) ***
Geotechnical Society of Singapore, c/o CMA International Consultants Pte Ltd, 1 Liang Seah Street, #02-11 Liang Seah Place, Singapore 189022
E-mail: secretariat@geoss.sg