Keeping our feet dry with the help of technology, nature and people

Read more Keeping our feet dry with the help of technology, nature and people

Putting the urban mobility jigsaw together, piece by piece

Read more Putting the urban mobility jigsaw together, piece by piece

Tracing waves to find phantom plastic

Read more Tracing waves to find phantom plastic

The battle of the Amsterdam quayside bulge

Read more The battle of the Amsterdam quayside bulge

A geothermal research well on TU Delft's premises

Read more A geothermal research well on TU Delft's premises

Counting grains of sand to understand coastal dunes

Read more Counting grains of sand to understand coastal dunes

Getting it straight: bridges are becoming circular

Read more Getting it straight: bridges are becoming circular

Good vibrations? Not for bridges

Read more Good vibrations? Not for bridges

Help from on high to solve earthly problems

Read more Help from on high to solve earthly problems

Creating order in the chaos of sand and wind

Read more Creating order in the chaos of sand and wind

Super asphalt lasts longer

Read more Super asphalt lasts longer

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Stories of Science

 

Our researchers work every day on clever solutions for worldwide challenges,
to change the world and make an impact. Meet our heroes.
Discover their stories.

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| Highlighted story

Counting grains of sand to understand coastal dunes 

The Dutch coastline is continually changing. Coastal engineer Sierd de Vries is using small ventilators, home-made wind tunnels, drones, jet skis and laser scanners to gain an insight into the development of coastal areas and dune formation. He can often be found sitting close to the Sand Motor counting grains of sand. It’s all in aid of providing more accurate predictions of the long-term changes affecting the coastal landscape.

| READING TIME: 4 MIN
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Reading time: 10 min

Keeping our feet dry with the help of technology, nature and people

Ridding the oceans of plastic waste is a huge undertaking which would be significantly helped if the location of the plastic waste could be ascertained with some accuracy. Wave expert Ton van den Bremer is using waves and satellites to track down the ‘phantom’ plastic that is polluting our oceans.

Floating wind turbines change everything

In order to become climate neutral by 2050, the share of renewable energy generated at sea will need to increase significantly. Floating wind turbines, solar panels and tidal power plants will play a crucial role in this.
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Reading time: 10 min

The battle of the Amsterdam quayside bulge

The canals and quaysides in historic cities such as Amsterdam, Delft and Utrecht make a pretty picture. In order for these often busy cities to remain safe, the quay walls, some over 300 years old and built on wooden piles, need to be well maintained.
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Reading time: 10 min

Tracing waves to find phantom plastic

Ridding the oceans of plastic waste is a huge undertaking which would be significantly helped if the location of the plastic waste could be ascertained with some accuracy. Wave expert Ton van den Bremer is using waves and satellites to track down the ‘phantom’ plastic that is polluting our oceans.
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Leestijd: 9 min

A geothermal research well on TU Delft’s premises

Years ago a group of TU Delft students got the idea of realising a geothermal well at the university campus. What at first seemed like a wild plan was set into motion when it became clear the campus grounds were in fact an ideal location. Now, for theme leader Phil Vardon things are almost about to get real. After years of measuring, liaising and researching, detailed preparations to make it a reality are in full flow now. “This geothermal source on our campus will become one of the world’s biggest hotspots for research into geothermal energy.”
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Reading time: 7 min

The landslide forecast coming to you from space

Catching the breeze may bring you gold but sail too close to the wind and you’ll miss the boat. Combined with a sailor’s intuition meteorologist Sukanta Basu’s highly detailed wind forecast may well help the Dutch sailing team secure a win at the Olympics this year.
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Reading time: 7 min

Meltwater from the Austrian Alps

An imposing, compelling and urgent social problem, that is what Master student Sarah Hanus wanted for her final project. She found it high up in the Austrian Alps where climate change is altering river runoff patterns. Using a model she developed herself, Hanus is able to come up with long-term projections of what these patterns will look like in future. Her work earned her the title of Best Graduate of the Faculty of Civil Engineering & Sciences.
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Reading time: 6 min

Climate technology you hope you’ll never need

Could clouds be modified to slow global warming? Cloud expert Herman Russchenberg is investigating climate intervention but hopes his theories will never be put to the test.
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Reading time: 4 min

Digital water

Overstroomde riolen, plastic afval, lekkages van waterleidingen… Ook onder de grond kent Nederland grote wateruitdagingen. Met menselijke kracht alleen kunnen we dat niet oplossen, zegt professor Zoran Kapelan. Daarom schakelt hij de hulp in van kunstmatige intelligentie en machine learning.
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Reading time: 7 min

The wind app which puts the wind in your sails

Catching the breeze may bring you gold but sail too close to the wind and you’ll miss the boat. Combined with a sailor’s intuition meteorologist Sukanta Basu’s highly detailed wind forecast may well help the Dutch sailing team secure a win at the Olympics this year.
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Reading time: 10 min

Putting the urban mobility jigsaw together: piece by piece

Having your own car, bike or moped may be convenient but it’s also clogging up our city centres. Shared mobility can make cities easier to navigate and improve air quality. But adopting it efficiently is easier said than done. Maaike Snelder is helping local authorities to piece together the urban mobility jigsaw.
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Reading time: 7 min

Sand on the horizon

It’s a decade since the creation of the Sand Motor, an artificial sand bank off the North Sea coast. What happens to a natural system following human intervention on such a large scale? That question has been the focus of professor of Coastal Engineering Stefan Aarninkhof’s research for the last ten years. The results, he hopes, will pave the way to a full-scale experimental climate lab.
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Reading time: 3 min

Safety in numbers in times of Corona? There can be.

When did we last dance at a pop festival, cheer on our favourite football team or get together with friends for a meal at a restaurant? It all seems an eternity ago. Dorine Duives misses the crowds as well, and not just for the atmosphere. As a TU Delft researcher Duives studies pedestrian crowd behaviour and the arrival of coronavirus and the 1.5 metre society has made her expertise more relevant than ever. As the crisis developed, the focus of her research became firmly centred on safe ways of opening up society again.
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Reading time: 4 minutes

Sweet solutions to a salty problem

Fringing coral reefs provide a sheltered habitat for many sea animals and are a snorkelers’ paradise. But they also form a natural barrier which protects the shoreline and the area further inland. Experiments using 3D printed replicas of a coral are helping Marion Tissier gain an insight into how coral reefs influence and dampen wave energy.
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Reading time: 5 min

Getting it straight: bridges are becoming circular

A large number of bridges in the Netherlands are scheduled for large-scale maintenance work or replacement. In order to minimise the effect on the environment and bring down costs researcher Wenjun Cao is working on a model to assess the potential for circularity of these bridges. This will help the Netherlands to achieve its aim of a fully Circular Economy (CE) by 2050.
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Reading time: 5 min

Good vibrations? Not for bridges

Due to poor monitoring, many structures are not maintained properly or on time. This results in safety risks and high costs for overdue maintenance. Researcher Alice Cicirello is working on better design and monitoring tools to ensure the secure construction of structures to extend their service life.
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Reading time: 4 min

Help from on high to save earthly problems

The ground beneath our feet is constantly moving and that can compromise the stability of buildings and infrastructure. Satellite data are helping Giorgia Giardina to chart the impact of subsurface activity on buildings in great detail so efficient measures to limit damage, cost and safety risks can be taken before it’s too late.

Reading time: 3 min

Campus Mobility Dashboard to monitor crowd behavior at TU Delft

For years, Distinguished Professor Smart Urban Mobility Serge Hoogendoorn had been dreaming of a sensor network for research into traffic flows. The fact that it would happen on the TU Delft campus was never part of the dream. A perfect case of “never waste a good crisis”.

Understanding complex coral reef coasts

Fringing coral reefs provide a sheltered habitat for many sea animals and are a snorkelers’ paradise. But they also form a natural barrier which protects the shoreline and the area further inland. Experiments using 3D printed replicas of a coral are helping Marion Tissier gain an insight into how coral reefs influence and dampen wave energy.

Reading time: 5 min

Creating order in the chaos of sand and wind

The sky is a pretty hectic place but most of the tumultuous goings-on pass us by. In order to gain a better insight into the atmospheric processes taking place nearer the ground, Frans Liqui Lung developed a simulation model showing small-scale interactions between sand and wind The resulting Master’s thesis earned him the title of Best Graduate of the faculty of Civil engineering and Geosciences.

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