News

Andrei Faragau receives the Best Paper Award at the Third International Conference on Railway Technology (ICRT) 2024

Another accolade for our team! Andrei Faragau has won the Best Paper Award for Young Scholars at the Third International Conference on Railway Technology (ICRT) 2024.

The paper titled "The Influence of the Vehicle's Direction of Motion in Response Amplification at Railway Transition Zones" examines the response amplification at railway transition zones for two types of transitions: soft-to-stiff and stiff-to-soft. It aims to clarify the differences in differential settlement observed between these two transition types, as identified through both field measurements and numerical simulations. Although various site-specific factors can contribute to these observed differences, the paper uncovers a fundamental mechanism that explains the dissimilarities between the two types. This study provides valuable insights for researchers and engineers, enhancing the understanding of diverse degradation patterns observed in complex models or field measurements.

The paper was co-authored by Avni Jain, Andrei Metrikine, and Karel van Dalen.

PhD defense of Mingjuan Zhao – 11 September 2024

We are happy to share that Mingjuan Zhao has successfully defended her PhD thesis entitled “Dynamics of underground tunnels: Semi-analytical solution for the response of the system under seismic waves and stability analysis of high-speed moving trains”. 

The doctoral dissertation can be found here and the recording of her PhD defense can be accessed using this link. 

Karel van Dalen and Andrei Metrikine served as promotors, while the independent committee members were Zuzana Dimitrovová (Nova University of Lisbon, Portugal), Qijian Liu (Hunan University, China), Cristina Jommi (TU Delft), Evert Slob (TU Delft), Rudy Negenborn (TU Delft).   

Best Paper Award at the Offshore Technology Conference (OTC) 2024 received by Athanasios Tsetas

It is a great pleasure to announce that Athanasios Tsetas has received the Best Paper Award at the Offshore Technology Conference (OTC) 2024 by the American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE).

His paper, entitled “Gentle Driving of Piles (GDP): Field Observations, Quantitative Analysis and Further Development”, presents an overview of the research works and future developments in the GDP method and is co-authored with Evangelos Kementzetzidis, Sergio S. Gómez, Timo Molenkamp, Ahmed S.K. Elkadi, Federico Pisanò, Apostolos Tsouvalas and Andrei Metrikine. Congratulations to all co-authors!

We invite you to read the full paper here.

Best Wind and Ocean Energy Paper Award 2023 received by Athanasios Tsetas

We are excited to announce that Athanasios Tsetas has received the Best Wind & Ocean Energy Paper award by TU Delft for 2023. The finalists showcased their groundbreaking work on February 15th at De Oude Bibliotheek and after meticulous evaluation, the Jury singled out Athanasios Tsetas’ paper, entitled The Mechanics of Gentle Driving of Piles.

Co-authored with Apostolos Tsouvalas and Andrei Metrikine, this work deciphers the complex mechanics of the Gentle Driving of Piles, paving the way for better comprehending and optimizing this novel pile installation technology.

We invite you to explore and download the full paper here.

We are thrilled to share that Athanasios Tsetas has successfully defended his PhD thesis entitled "A unified modelling framework for vibratory pile driving methods". His work has been awarded the esteemed Cum Laude distinction, a befitting acknowledgement of his talent and contributions.

For those interested, you can find his doctoral dissertation here and also access the recording of his PhD defence in this link.

Apostolos Tsouvalas and Andrei Metrikine served as promotors, while the independent committee members were Li Cheng (Hong Kong Polytechnic University), Geert Degrande (KU Leuven), Nicole Kessissoglou (University of New South Wales), Ekaterina Pavlovskaia (University of Aberdeen), Peter Steeneken (TU Delft), and Arnold Heemink (chairman, TU Delft).

Hold onto your hats—we have a new doctor on campus. Andrei Faragau successfully defended his PhD thesis entitled "Understanding degradation mechanisms at railway transition zones using phenomenological models". His work earned him the prestigious Cum Laude designation—a well-deserved recognition of his talent and efforts.

His thesis can be downloaded here.

Karel van Dalen and Andrei Metrikine served as promotors, while the rest of the committee comprised of Wim van Horssen (TU Delft), Akke Suiker (TU Eindhoven), Geert Degrande (KU Leuven), Stefano Lenci (UNIVP Marche), Julius Kaplunov (Keele University), and Marja Elsinga (chairwoman, TU Delft).

We enjoyed EURODYN2023 - the 12th International Conference on Structural Dynamics - a lot! The event took place in Delft, 2-5 July 2023.

It was great to welcome so many people and see them interact with each other during the reception in our Botanical Garden, the conference dinner in the New Church of Delft and during the many lunches and breaks. The plenary lectures in the Old Church of Delft, the presentations in the many exciting mini-symposia and the semi-plenary lectures given in the lecture halls of Civil Engineering and Electrical Engineering were certainly very inspiring. In our view, the atmosphere during the conference was very nice and pleasant. We would like to thank all participants and sponsors for their contributions and input which made the conference a success.