Cohere Consultants is one of the organizers of the next international symposium on Energy Geotechnics, SEG23. This symposium is held under the auspices of the ISSMGE Technical Committee 308 on Energy Geotechnics, on 2-5 October 2023 in Delft, the Netherlands.  Link: SEG23 website

The symposium consist of presentations and technical sessions with prominent researchers and practitioners in the field of energy geotechnics. We expect contributions on various topics related to the energy geotechnics field, including geothermal energy, energy geostructures, energy storage, carbon sequestration, radioactive waste disposal and induced seismicity.

Since 1 August 2022 Cohere Consultants have become a partner in the Partners in Business (PIB) initiative: the Dutch Technical Team for Dam Safety (DTTD). This PIB is a public-private initiative from The Netherlands. This Dutch-Brazilian partnership was born out of an advise given by the Dutch Risk Reduction (DRR) team in 2019 to assist the Brazilian Government in formulating policies and measures with regards to the mining problems. Cohere Consultants was also part of this DRR team. The DTTD currently consists of the following companies: Antea, Arenal, Rohr-Idreco, Intech, Van Sonsbeek Hulst, Royal Eijkelkamp and Cohere Consultants

Building on both the Netherlands’ experience with water-related challenges and technological innovations through triple helix cooperation, this cluster of seven leading companies provides a “total solution package” for safe and sustainable mine tailing dams. The overall goal of the DTTD is to mitigate the tailing dam lifecycle risk, and to boost the recovery of metals by purifying wastewater streams, together with our Brazilian partners. The entire team will be present from 12 to 15 September at their booth in the Holland Pavillion at the upcoming Exposibram congress in Belo Horizonte in September 2022.

On the 13th of April a news article was published on the website of the Dutch building and construction magazine cobouw. See the link below.

Voorkom slapeloze nachten door spoortrillingen bij nieuwbouw

For the Netherlands Space Office and the Netherlands Ministry of Defense, we work with our Partners Neo and University of Utrecht on the SBIR program phase 2: "Hyperpectral satellite data to determine the accessibility of terrain". In this phase we develop on the basis of a number of pilots an analysis tool. One of the products that our analysis tool generates is a soil and vegetation classification.

Hyperspectral satellite data from the PRISMA satellite is used for this. Together with information about moisture content and topography, this is important input to determine the accessibility and bearing capacity of the terrain. Especially in areas where there is limited information and there is no possibility for reconnaissance missions, this is important strategic information.

Photo: The Netherlands Ministry of Defense

Mònica Novell Morell successfully defended her MSc thesis Geo-Engineering from TU Delft Department of Geoscience and Engineering. Her thesis was on modelling of dam breach flows of mine tailing storage facilities. Mònica tested the performance of the numerical models FLO-2D and HEC-RAS. Dam breach modelling is one of the most important aspects in the risk assessment of mine tailing dams in case of failure like Brumandinho in 2019.

Mònica also compared the numerical models with a simpler GIS-based approach. This can be solution for a high-level safety and environmental impact assessment of the several hundreds of tailing storage facilities that exist in the Brazilian state of Minas Gerais alone, and the thousands of mine tailing storage facilities that are present worldwide. At Cohere Consultants we are very proud of Mònica for achieving this great result!

On the 4th of August 2021 Eliam will present one of our projects at the 50th International Congress Noise Control Engineering, Internoise. The presentation is called:  'Vibration source properties of cargo trains: free field vibration and track side measurement analysis'. For more information please visit: https://internoise2021.org/

The work of the National Coordinator Groningen (NCG) starts by determining which buildings reinforcement is needed in connection with the risk of failure to a (possible future) earthquake. This concerns residential buildings, but the NCG also has special programs for schools, hospitals, heritage sites and farm houses. Buildings with a CC2/CC3 consequence class, such as shops, communal buildings and sports halls, are often not included in the NCG working stock.

In order to determine as efficiently as possible or, and if so which objects to be added to the working stock, the NCG has asked TTE Consultants and Cohere Consultants to develop a prioritization system for these objects. The precondition for this was that only publicly available data was used. The preparation of the prioritization method is a first step. On the basis of the prioritization, the NCG can determine which objects need to be further examined for structural vulnerability and possibly to be added to their current working stock.

In collaboration with Ricardo Rail, Cohere Consultants is studying the influence of wheel out-of-roundness on environmental vibration levels. The study is commissioned by ProRail and includes data-analysis of measured accelerations at axle level in combination with measured vibration levels at free field.

The goal is to increase understanding on how to reduce environmental vibration impact of railway lines in the Netherlands.

We are happy to announce that Pim van der Male has joined our team! Pim has been working on his PhD research at the Delft University of Technology focussing on coupled dynamics of offshore windturbines.

Pim will continue to work for Delft University of Technology next to his position at Cohere Consultants, which strengthens our connection with Delft University. Pim has a background in structural engineering with a profound knowledge of structural dynamics.

The members of the Commission have been appointed by the Minister of Economic Affairs and Climate Policy for a maximum of 4 years. The appointment of members is impartial and based on expertise. The Commission's website can be found here.