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Category 2: Civil Structures
2
Antea Group
Contact
Evert De Groote
Address Roderveldlaan 1
2600 Antwerpen, Belgium
Website
Antea Group is an international design, engineering and consultancy firm
working for governments, organisations and companies. Its operations are
in the field of engineering, environment, urban planning, infrastructure and
water.
The civil engineering department focuses on the strength and stability
of buildings and civil construction including quay walls and water related
structures. During the design process, every aspect is considered, starting
with the geotechnical calculations and ending with the detailed design.
“Coeck” Quay - Niel, Belgium
SE
Owner
Waterwegen en Zeekanaal - Afdeling Zeeschelde
General Contractor
Hye
Engineering Office
Antea Group
Construction Period 11/2013 - 09/2014
On the shore of the Rupel, near the concrete factory of Coeck N.V., a
new quay was built. The quay consists of a concrete superstructure on
steel piles which is built over a slope. At the back of the slope there is a
combined wall. The total length of the quay is 135 m and it consists of
7 sections. In the first 2 sections a loading platform is incorporated which
is situated 2.3 m lower than the quay level. The quay was built using
prefabricated beams and plates.
In total 4 different sections were modelled in SCIA Engineer. The piles,
beams and plates were inputted in the program together with the various
load cases. The sections were supported in the horizontal plane by
inputting
non-linear spring supports
on the piles. These non-linear
supports represent the
passive resistance of the soil
. The non-linear
supports were placed at an interval of 1 to 2 m. Based on the soil
characteristics, the group effect of the piles and the effect of the slope, the
non-linear supports for each pile row and each depth were different.
The modelling of the non-linear spring in combination with the
high number of load cases resulted in more than 1,000 non-linear
combinations. This made the whole project challenging and required us to
test the boundaries of the program and the engineer.
