Quinten, T.O.

Profile

After obtaining a BSc degree in Civil Engineering and a MSc degree in Geo-engineering, both from TU Delft, Tristan joined DEME Group in Belgium as a Geotechnical engineer. His work and involvement in several large tenders, provided him with the opportunity to work abroad for a significant amount of time. Amongst others, he has been fortunate enough to call Manila and Singapore home for several months. Tristan re-joined the department Geosciences and Engineering as a PhD candidate in the framework of the BLUE Piling project. Together with several (post)doctoral researchers and industry experts, he aims to investigate the highly dynamic soil-pile interaction as a function of applied energy flux to the pile head during pile installation.

Research

Tristan’s first encounter with experimental geotechnics was during his master thesis project. The work was comprised of modifying a pre-existing dynamic (pile) driving actuator for the geotechnical centrifuge. The prime objective was to evaluate the effect of blow energy and hammer frequency fluctuations (during impact hammering); particularly in terms of pore pressure generation and the occurrence of friction degradation.  

For the current PhD project, the aforementioned actuator will see further improvements (as part of a joint-venture with the researchers affiliated to the ME faculty) to mimic BLUE Piling driving characteristics in a controlled, small-scale environment. The tests should yield insight into soil behaviour at the pile-soil interface and the far-field, and deepen the understanding in soil behavioural principles relevant to ease of installation of (large) (mono)piles. In this respect, a thorough comparison between other state-of-the-art driving techniques as well as the translation of experimental observations into a computational framework are complementary parts of the research scope.

Previously, Tristan worked as a teaching assistant in the department of Geo-Engineering. In which he instructed and assisted BSc and MSc students during soil mechanics experiments (identification, classification, oedometer, triaxial and permeability tests) and related coursework. In this respect, he was part of the educational staff for Soil Mechanics (Prof. Michael Hicks and dr. Phil Vardon), Experimental Methods in Geotechnical Engineering (dr. Amin Askarinejad) and Monitoring and Stability of Dikes and Embankments (dr. Amin Askarinejad).

A. Askarinejad, T.O. Quinten, M.A. Grima, C. van ‘t Hof, K. Gavin, Use of optical fibres to measure pore water pressure development during pile driving: a geotechnical centrifuge study (2020), ECPMG 2020, Laue & Bansal (eds.), ISBN (print): 978-91-7790-542-4 & ISBN (pdf): 978-91-7790-543-1

BLUE Piling Technology

Main objective
Design (as a collaboration between the ME and CEG faculty), verify and exploit a state-of-the-art centrifuge actuator for experimental research on BLUE Piling Technology. Prime focus is on the identification of hydro-mechanical soil behavioural modes in the direct vicinity of the piles as well as the far field during pile installation at various input energy regimes.

Supervisors
Dr. Amin Askarinejad 

Industry partner(s)
Royal IHC
 

HiLo Driving

Main objective
Design, verification and deployment of a centrifuge actuator within the framework of a parametric study in the geotechnical centrifuge focussed on HiLo driving. The research is aimed at quantifying the effect of driving energy and blow frequency fluctuations (during impact hammering) on soil behaviour and its respective influence on piling efficiency. Differences between conventional driving modes and HiLo (elevated (high) frequency, reduced (low) blow energy) modes are of particular interest, as well as how the observations fit within a (predictive) soil behavioural framework.

Supervisors
Dr. Amin Askarinejad, Prof. Kenneth Gavin

Industy partner(s)
Royal IHC

Tristan Quinten

PhD student

Availability:
Monday till Friday