2020

De
MOL
FRONT COVER
Magazine of Dispuut Geo-Engineering “De Ondergrondse”
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 FROM THE BOARD
by Dianne Jacobs, Chair of de Ondergrondse
Dear students, staff members and sponsors, input from the GEEC is really valuable for the
teachers, to improve the online education to
By the time you receive this edition of the its fullest.
Mol, we’ve already been at home for several
weeks. Friday the 13th of March really was Unfortunately the GETA to Northern Ita-
an unlucky day when our beloved TU Delft ly also had to be cancelled. Right now that
had to close down. This also meant that all committee is now active. Also the board is
our activities had to be cancelled, at least up still busy: we are thinking about organizing
until the summer break. online activities! And of course we are think-
ing of activities after the social distancing is
But luckily this doesn’t mean that De Onder- over. Hopefully we will see you all soon!
grondse came to a complete stand still. As
you can see, the Mol committee still created
a new edition of the Mol! Since they couldn’t
send the Mol from the TU Delft to all the
members themselves, they arranged that the
printer directly sends the magazine to all the
members.

In addition, the GEEC didn’t stop along with

on-campus education. Especially now, the

EDITORIAL
Welcome fellow readers to another edition
of de Mol! We hope that you are well and
healthy given the current situation.
This edition is the work of our new team
of editors, made of 1st year Geo-Engineer-
ing MSc students. Under the supervision of
Frode, our Commissioner of Activities, the
team composed of Simon, Maarten, Gokul
and myself Teodora, have managed to col-
lect several articles we believe our readers
will enjoy exploring.
by Teodora Barbuntoiu
alumni regarding their life experience as em-
ployees. Be sure to also expect articles on
MDPs, fieldworks and other activities organ-
ized by the Ondergrondse in future editions
of the magazine. We will also try to spice
things up by including sections on the Inter-
national Corner and fun articles.
We hope you will enjoy this edition of de Mol
and do not hesitate to reach out to us about
articles you wish to see in the future.

Over the course of this year, de Mol expects

to publish 4 editions, each focusing on a par-
ticular theme. This edition explores the field
of offshore engineering. Our team strives to
include various articles presenting different
perspectives, such as interesting internships
from the experience of our dear colleagues,
the latest research and thesis subjects, along
with interviews with our Geo-Engineering

3 From the Board | Editorial

 CONTENTS
From the Board 3
Editorial 3
Geotechnical Intern at BAM 5
5
Geotechnical Engineer - SPT Offshore 7
RILATM : Geodetic backbone for railway
infrastructure 9
India Special 11
Survey Results 14

11
 GEOTECHNICAL INTERN AT BAM
INTERNSHIP
My name is Ylana and
I did an internship at
the geotechnical de-
partment of BAM In-
ternational, located in
The Hague. I have been
a full-time intern for 3
months and I worked
on various projects, but
mostly on the construction of five bridges
in Guinea, Africa. My job was to calculate
the pile capacities and in order to make the
calculation process more accurate, faster
and useable for other projects, I wrote a Py-
thon script for them, with a manual, so they
can also use this for future projects.
Why did you choose to do an internship?
I chose to do an internship as I had very
little experience in the professional world,
especially regarding to Geo-Engineering. I
wanted to know whether this could help me
in choosing a working field after finishing
my studies, as I had really no idea what I
wanted to do later on. It is nice that you can
receive ECTS for it, but nevertheless I would
have wanted to do a small internship.
6 Internship
by Ylana van Hout
Why did you choose for BAM?
During my masters I already visited some
engineering firms, but not yet a construction
company with its own engineering depart-
ment. That is why I chose for a contractor.
Then I just chose the biggest one in the Neth-
erlands and gave them a call if they would
be interested in having an intern. Their ge-
otechnical engineering department consists
of approximately 25 people, of which only
one woman, and I was their first intern. They
were very positive about having an intern, so
they would now like to have more (graduate)
interns at their department.
What did you do on a daily basis at the
company?
The first few weeks I mostly joined my su-
pervisor in his meetings and helped with
his projects. After that I was more or less
busy with my own project, constructing a
pile calculations script in order to calculate
the pile bearing capacities and shaft resist-
ances. I have not only worked on my pro-
ject, but I have also participated and visit-
ed various sites, such as their asphalt plant,

building sites, the ‘Geotechniekdag’, depart-
ment meetings, strategy days and a safety
workshop. The sites I visited were the lock
of Terneuzen, the new underground bicycle
parking in Zwolle and the Afsluitdijk in Den
Oever. These visits have shown what it is like
to work on site, which is a whole other story
than sitting behind your computer. For the
Afsluitdijk I have even stayed overnight at
their employee sleeping boat and worked in
the ‘Levvel Keet’. During lunch in the Hague
we would take a small walk with the depart-
ment, which was nice because you could
speak to all the employees casually. Further-
more, every Friday the other interns and I
would drink beers in the bar downstairs and
convince our colleagues to join us, which was
also very fun.
Is the internship going to help you choose
your career path?
I really enjoyed the internship, I met a lot
of different people and I got a very clear
image of what it is like to work at a con-
tractor. I definitely want to do my thesis
at a different kind of company, so I have
a good comparison. I am however still not
sure yet where I would like to work after
my studies.
What did you discover about yourself dur-
ing the internship?
Before starting the internship, I was pretty
nervous, I did not know what I could ex-
pect and how I should behave. But actually
after already two days everything was very
relaxed, I was completely myself and could
say anything that came up in my head and
I was able to joke around with my col-
leagues a lot. I also think that because it
was almost only men there, it was easier
to be very direct to them, to fool around
and to tell them every opinion I had with-
out them feeling offended in any way. The
INTERNSHIP
most important lesson I learned was that
it is very valuable to be yourself at work, as
that really prevents you of being exhaust-
ed after every working day. This aspect was
also something I returned as very positive
feedback from my supervisor.
Internship 6
 ENGINEER AT SPT OFFSHORE
ALUMNI CORNER
Hello, Geo-Engineering colleagues. My
name is Vlad Vacareanu and I am writing
this article to share with you my experience
as a TU Delft Geo Engineering Alumni. Cur-
rently, I am working as a geotechnical en-
gineer at SPT Offshore in the Netherlands.
SPT Offshore is the leading offshore con-
tractor for suction pile anchors and foun-
dations. SPT Offshore manages and under-
takes EPCI project worldwide, from installing
single-suction anchors to mooring lines and
self-installing platforms.
After the completion of my bachelor studies
at the Technical University of Civil Engineer-
ing of Bucharest in Romania with a focus on
earthquake design of high-rise buildings, I
applied to the master’s program in Geo-En-
gineering at TU Delft.
I arrived in Delft, The Netherlands about
two weeks before the start of my studies,
therefore having plenty of time to get ac-
commodated and to get started with dis-
covering the country.
Overview picture of the wellhead platform foundation being relocated.
7 Alumni Corner
by Vlad Vacareanu
At the start of my second year of the master’s
program, I approached Dr. Federico Pisano
to do a thesis with him on offshore geotech-
nical engineering. His interests aligned with
mine and I thoroughly enjoyed his course
and him as a professor.
During my second year of studies, I have also
worked as a teaching assistant in the Struc-
tural Engineering Faculty, supporting Apos-
tolos Tsouvalas with his course ‘Structural
Response to Earthquakes’ and worked part-
time at SPT Offshore towards the end of my
studies.
The work I did at SPT was independent of my
Master Thesis. Federico connected me with
SPT Offshore.
Once graduated in January 2019, I have tak-
en a well-deserved holiday in South-East
Asia. During my trip, I got an invitation to an
interview from SPT Offshore for a full-time
position. The interview went well and I got
offered the job.
During my time at SPT Offshore, I have
worked on numerous tenders, designed the
first-ever platform relocation in one piece
in South East Asia, one deep-water founda-
tion in Asia and am currently working on two
wellhead platform foundations in the North
Sea.
Also, keep in touch with your colleagues as
they might present you with opportunities.
Good luck and All the Best!
If you have any questions, please contact
me by e-mail at vlad.vacareanu@gmail.com

I am very thankful to all my colleagues at

SPT Offshore who have been and still are ex-
tremely supportive. It is a great company to

ALUMNI CORNER
work at.

Looking back to my master’s program at TU

Delft, I do think my favourite subject and the
most critical one was ‘Behaviour of Soils and
Rocks’ taught by Ronald. That course covers
from simple to very advanced, state of the
art soil mechanics.
My master thesis summary can be found in
No matter the company that you will work the following paper on the repository for
for after graduation, you will always meet any of you that are interested:
with the fundamental concepts of soil me-
chanics. As for tips, I recommend you focus 3D FE seismic analysis of a monopile-sup-
on understanding the concepts in your stud- ported offshore wind turbine in a non-lique-
ies. Try to make a good impression on your fiable soil deposit
master thesis supervisor, as he or she can be
instrumental in you finding a job.

Alumni Corner 8
Fugro Editorial

RILA™: Geodetic backbone for rail infrastructure

Introduction
RILA technology has been used in the Netherlands since 2011 and since that time Fugro has surveyed
over 9000 kilometres of track, from which data have been delivered to ProRail. The data comply with
the ProRail RLN00296 standard for absolute track geometry. The data are used as design input for many
projects and also to update the SIGMA database with the track alignment information.

Applying RILA technology on a project is proven to increase safety performance: the amount of boots
on ballast for obtaining the same type of data is reduced by 97 %. It also improves project lead times
and significantly reduces costs.

Accurate location of assets

Mileages are commonly used to identify assets on or near the railway. However, a mile along a railway
is not necessarily 1760 yards, nor is a mile post positioned at the mile it is indicating, so an ‘exact’
location is never exact. For linear assets defining the location is even more complex. Today’s buzzwords
are Big Data, data-mining, machine-learning and artificial intelligence. Data techniques try to combine
all relevant information of an asset to define its status. However, the asset data are usually stored in
different databases, and linking disparate information is difficult because the location description varies
widely.

Surveyors use GPS-supported surveying tools to obtain their X,Y and Z position. This type of survey is
also known as a terrestrial survey and can be combined with lidar data. The disadvantages of terrestrial
surveys within the railway environment are safety (surveyors need to be on or near the track), long lead
times and cost.

RILATM technology
Fugro’s innovative RILA technology enables accurate geodetic XYZ coordinates of assets to be obtained
in a safe and affordable way. Both standalone assets and linear assets can be surveyed using the RILA
system. The RILA system is attached to revenue-earning trains (passenger or freight) to survey the track
and its surroundings at line speed. This removes the need for track possessions or additional train paths,
which is a huge advantage of RILA.

Digital twin
The RILA Digital Twin consists of two sets of merged point clouds draped with video footage; to clarify,
the points of a point cloud are recorded laser dots (points) that reflect when hitting a surface or object.
The rail scanners produce a scan of both railheads at an accuracy of 0.3 mm. If a train travels at 140
km/u, a cross section is produced every 8 cm. A lidar scanner rotates approximately perpendicular to
the track to produce a 360° point cloud of the track and its surroundings. Because the three video
cameras are connected to the other scanners, the video footage is positionally merged with the
processed point cloud. This provides an immersive view of the track corridor, with the added possibility
of taking measurements directly in the footage.

The next step is feature extraction, whereby assets are defined and extracted. As the shape, location and
position are now known, feature extraction groups the points which are part of an asset. When the data
are updated after a sequential survey run, any change or movement (removal, repositioning or
displacement etc.) of the asset can be detected and reported using artificial intelligence and machine-
learning applications. These technologies can now perform faster as only a small dataset needs to be
searched: the XYZ coordinates of the asset!

With everything now in XYZ, it is easy to calculate the mileage position of assets. The result? When a
user clicks on an asset in the video or point cloud, all the relevant data of this asset are displayed and
available.

Survey frequency philosophy

Many different sensors and systems are available for track surveys. At one end of the spectrum, sensors
permanently fixed to passenger trains record accelerations and provide insight into potential rough-
ride areas. At the other end are the big measurement trains which operate in the Netherlands and
provide information on track safety parameters such as track gauge, twist, rail integrity, OHL wire
condition and condition of fasteners.

However, none of these systems provides the engineering data that maintenance teams need to execute
measured corrective actions Of course, engineering data need to be both current and accurate. This
means that the survey frequency of these systems should be: daily, to quickly prevent potential track
geometry incidents; bi-monthly, for asset trend analysis and restoration/repair activities; and finally,
half-yearly or yearly, for safety surveys via dedicated measurement trains. The frequency of the
dedicated measurement trains will very much depend on the risk profiles associated with the
importance of the different routes. The three survey methodologies are complementary and provide
mutual calibration platforms.

Applications
The geodetic digital twin created by Fugro, especially when linked to mileages, is a powerful tool from
which many different types of information can be extracted. The basic application is location awareness:
video footage of the track and surrounding area show all the details at that location, much like Google
street view but for railways.

. For more details on the potential applications, please visit www.fugro.com/raildata.

 INDIA SPECIAL
by Maarten Zijlstra
INTERNATIONAL GEO-CORNER
This edition of the MOL’s international
geo-corner features an interview with sev-
eral first-year Geo-Engineering students
from India. Ammaan Zahoor (24), Gokul
Krishan Balaji (22), Joseph Jacob (22), Kes-
hav Kashichenula (23), Shardul Mantri (23)
and Himani Arya (24) were willing to par-
take.

Where are you from within India?

Keshav: Hyderabad, Telangana
Gokul: Chennai, Tamil Nadu
Shardul: Ahmednagar, Maharashtra
Joseph: Kochi, Kerala
Ammaan: Srinagar, Jammu and Kashmir
Himani: Bareilly, Uttar Pradesh

Why did you choose Geo-Engineering at

the TU Delft?
Everyone:TU Delft is one of the top univer-
sities in Civil Engineering in the world.
Keshav: Geo-engineering is one of the
least focused specifications opted in In-
dia though it is a much needed one. And
my interest in Geo-Engineering developed
during my research work on discrete ele-
ment analysis which was also my final year
thesis.
Gokul: I chose Geo-Engineering because
it’s the least pursued track in civil engineer-
ing and I developed a genuine interest dur-
ing an internship.
Shardul: I developed interest in geotechni-
cal engineering by working on a project for
around 2.5 years.
Joseph: I personally feel the structural en-
gineering field has way too many engineers.
I wanted to learn something different. I did
11 International Geo-Corner
an internship in the Middle East concerning
foundation engineering, which I found very
interesting has a lot of potential in India. I
heard about TU from a friend who did the
same track here a few years back.
Ammaan: I chose Geo-Engineering because
I believe that the subsurface holds a lot of
future space for infrastructure.
Himani: I chose Geo-Engineering because of
my interest in soil mechanics in my Bachelor.
What is a popular site in your region from
which we might know it?
Keshav: Hyderabad is known for its food and
for a famous monument called Charminar
(mosque), which is more than 400 years old.
Gokul: Chennai in Tamil Nadu is one of the
major four cities (a so-called metro city) in
India. It is well-known for the marina beach,
the largest beach (in a city) in the world.
Shardul: Pune, where I went to college, is
famous for its education and diversity, while
Ahmednagar (hometown) has great histori-
cal importance.
Joseph: Kerala is also named ‘God’s own
country’ and is well-known for Kovalam
beach. Most famous is the Padmanabhas-
wamy temple with a treasure worth up to 1
trillion dollars.
Ammaan: Jammu and Kashmir is the north-
ernmost part of India. It’s a popular desti-
nation for tourists, of which the Dal Lake at
Srinagar is probably the most famous. It is
a mountaneous region, so many ski-resorts
can also be found.
Himani: The most popular tourist attraction
in my region is Taj Mahal.

What are some characteristics of your re-

gion?
Everyone: Food
Himani: Every state in India has their own
way of cooking food and has a different cui-
sine. I think that the northern part adds more
spices.

Ammaan: Also, everyone has their own lan-
guages in India [e.g. 22 official languages].
There are even different languages and dia-
lects within states.
Joseph: I’d say that it is often like going to a
different country.
Ammaan: Cricket is an exception, cricket
unites India!
What was hard to get used to after coming
to the Netherlands and what did you like or
was really similar?
Gokul: The food and lifestyle are hard to get
used to. The food here is really bland. Also,
the lifestyle here is quiet on a daily basis, In-
dia is noisy 24/7.
Joseph: Also, people in India are more col-
lective instead of individualistic.
Gokul: True, people in general are more
moved by emotions in India than in The
Netherlands. They value emotions more. An-
other difference is the absence of ceiling fans
or air conditioning here.
Keshav: A point I would like to add is the
wind. I hate the rain, but I love the wind here.
At home the climate can be suffocating and
is very hot. The first time I set my foot over
here I was like: This place is beautiful, I just
need some spices with it.
Himani: It is very hard to adapt to the weath-
er. It changes like every hour, so you have to
carry your rain coat and pants everywhere as
you never know when it will start raining.
INTERNATIONAL GEO-CORNER
Joseph: The situation with bikes here is
also totally different.
Shardul: In India biking is crazy and unsafe,
especially during rush hours.
Joseph: Many people in India travel by
metro or train. If you really want to expe-
rience life, you have to travel in all classes,
from lowest to highest.
Shardul: Lower class is the best. It’s the
most fun you can have, crazy things hap-
pen there.
If you could import one thing from home,
what would it be?
Everyone: The food culture, it’s much bet-
ter in India. The cuisine in The Netherlands
is not in anyway comparable to the Indian.
Shardul: This is partly because of the many
types of streetfood that you can find in In-
dia.
Keshav: We have for example something
similar to your ‘Oliebollen’ (fried dough)
called Mysore Bajji.
Joseph: I have to say that the food culture
is a matter for complaints even among In-
dians.
‘Athithi Devo Bhavva’
(‘treat your guest like god’)

International Geo-Corner 12
passion
for complex
challenges

Do you share our passion for complex challenges

in the field of infrastructure and underground

construction? Would you like to work at a company

that engages in challenging infrastructural (tunnel)

projects in an international setting?

Do you feel at home in an informal work environment,

where you are given the space to develop yourself and

initiative is highly valued?

We’re looking for you!

For academic starters we offer a two-year traineeship. Apply by sending your resume and
motivation to info@arthecs.nl. For more information please contact A. Bäcker or
M. Brugman, tel. 030-638 45 54, or check out our website www.arthecs.nl.
WELL-BEING SURVEY RESULTS

Very poorly.

COLOPHON
Contact Circulation: 250
“De Ondergrondse“
p/a Stevinweg 1, Room 0.0.43 Editors: Gokul Krishan Balaji, Teodora Barbuntoiu,
2628 CN Delft Simon Dehout, Frode van der Drift, Maarten Zijlstra

T | 015 - 278 2778 Map India: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:In-

E | ondergrondse@tudelft.nl dia-locator-map-blank.svg
Taj Mahal: Karola Buzas on Unsplash
W | www.ondergrondse.nl Cover: Pixabay
Sponsor Page: Martin Damboldt

Survey Results | Colophon 14

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