In growing and developing the TDI community, it is imperative that we acknowledge our members and the expertise they bring to the table. This month we are focusing the spotlight on CRUX Engineering BV, an independent consultancy in the field of geotechnical, geohydrology and soil based in The Netherlands.
Who is CRUX?
CRUX Engineering BV is an independent geotechnical consulting agency and provides high-quality advice in the field of geotechnical engineering, geohydrology, ground and settlement risk assessment. By bundling these consultancy services with their expertise in monitoring, ground research and ground improvement techniques, they are truly capable of offering complete and, where necessary, innovative geotechnical design solutions. Due to their strong drive for knowledge and innovation, their company has grown rapidly since its founding in 2002 and is currently involved in a lot of the (more complex) geotechnical projects and issues in the Netherlands, as a designer or as an expert. Foreign clients increasingly use CRUX for support. CRUX is also engaged as an independent specialist to provide second opinions or to assist in liability issues for insurers, arbitration and lawsuits (DIX).
New UVA Library: Sheet-pile walls are used as soil and water retaining walls. For the purpose of reconstruction of the existing foundation, new foundation piles have been installed and the ground floor is placed in and under the existing walls of the building. www.cruxbv.com
Critical Specialist
With almost fifty consultants and specialists, our team has now reached a size that perfectly suits a specialized and decisive consultancy agency with sufficient critical mass. Our management team consists of eight partners, each with their own knowledge, skills and competencies.
CRUX within the Dewatering Industry.
As a Company Member of The Dewatering Institute, CRUX brings a great deal of engineering experience to the table. The goal is to spend less time on repetitive calculations and more time on analyzing results and reducing risks to achieve an optimal design by automating design processes to create the most value for our clients. These experience and resources will also prove invaluable to the TDI community.
What does CRUX have to offer?
In the field of hydrogeology CRUX bases its advices on high quality knowledge and translates the knowledge into practice based on extensive experience. CRUX has knowledge of model codes, theoretical background of both the hydrological and mathematical side of hydrogeology and also develops new knowledge and numerical methods.
Dewatering and pumping tests.
CRUX provides advice for the entire permit process for the Water Act in the form of drainage advice, environmental impact assessments, guidance and interpretation of pumping tests and support for the permit application at the Water Board, Water Board and Directorate-General of Public Works and Water Management. Here CRUX takes into account the wishes of the contractors, developers and the licensing authorities. CRUX is aware of the latest legislation and regulations in this area and maintains good contacts with the competent authorities. CRUX can also take care of supervision of the implementation of drainage and interpretation of the monitoring of drainage and environmental effects. For smaller excavation pits CRUX draws up practical brief drainage recommendations.
Groundwater statistics and climate (drought & wetness).
Groundwater level statistics are essential for geotechnical and hydrogeological analysis and design. Groundwater level statistics are performed by means of time series analysis of monitoring well measurements and spatial analysis. Hereby CRUX can determine all necessary statistical values and recurrence times. In determining the groundwater statistics they not only look at data and the theoretical mathematical approach, but also at the multi-year trend in the measuring series and the practical application of the normative groundwater statistics in requirement analyses and standard setting. CRUX does this frequently in (large) tenders and in the implementation phase of projects.
CRUX also uses statistics as a tool in damage analysis, for instance to distinguish between dehydration caused by climate change and dehydration caused by drainage works or permanent changes in the system.
What’s new for CRUX?
Research and development are important spearheads at CRUX. In various collaborations with contractors and market parties they are continuously working on innovation. Research is being conducted in the area of innovative ground improvement techniques, the development energy sheet piles and the use of alternative (geotechnical) building materials
Sustainability and construction.
Almost all governments stimulate as a precondition in designs that they must be built in a groundwater neutral way. The exact definition differs from place to place, but from a hydrogeological point of view it is a recurring issue with elements such as water balance, rewetting and dehydration, barrier effect and heat stress. In case of a large groundwater gradient, a barrier (basement) can even lead to settlement damage. CRUX uses knowledge of groundwater statistics, water system analyses and groundwater models to test designs for groundwater neutrality in accordance with the applicable rules.
Aquifer Thermal Energy Storage (ATES).
CRUX employs several specialists with extensive experience in the field of soil energy. Innovations like the energy Sheet Pile were co-developed by CRUX. And in the larger drainage projects that potentially influence thermal storage systems they work with coupled hydraulic and thermal models to quantify the degree of influence
A new additional function of these sheet piles, is that of unlimited free thermal energy source: the Energy Sheet Pile. This allows houses and buildings nearby to be easily heated or cooled using this renewable available energy. energiedamwanden.com
Geochemistry.
By definition, chemical processes take place during construction activities in the subsurface. Think of clogging of drainage wells as a result of iron precipitation or calcification, influence of water glass and underwater concrete on groundwater quality, degasification of methane during deep dewatering, erosion of metals and displacement of components of a groundwater contaminant during dewatering. CRUX advises on geochemical aspects that occur during underground construction by means of risk analyses in the design phase, monitoring and interpretation of groundwater composition during (and after) the execution and damage analysis afterwards.
In addition, environmental effects such as displacement of groundwater contamination is a social issue with basic hydrogeological aspects and also hydrogeological solutions. Legally, relocation of contamination is not allowed. And if the remediation has already been designed or is already being carried out, then adjacent dewatering is a disturbance. Displacement of groundwater contaminations is considered by CRUX by means of modelling studies in combination with field and laboratory research. Displacements of groundwater contaminants are modelled by MODFLOW and Mt3d/Rt3d or PHREEQc.
The Special Geochemistry of Water Glass Injections outlines the issues of concern for drainage in construction pits with water glass injections. See also the Special Geochemistry of Water Glass Injections.
Digital skillset for optimizing your design.
Founded in 2020, their sister company CEMS (CRUX Engineering Microservices) relies on 20+ years of engineering experience backing their developed products. This unique relationship, in combination with expertise on the latest programming languages, gives them the skillset to develop digital services that supports and optimizes your design (in the field of geotechnics, geohydrology and monitoring).
CEMS combines engineering and software knowledge to develop MicroServices and custom made applications to automate the design process. They offer geotechnical and hydrogeological software as a service through REST API’s. These endpoints can be used as a trusted component in scalable automated engineering processes. Check CEMS public online NUCLEI platform where you can explore their applications, try the Samples of their Cores and find useful links to API documentation and websites of CEMS such as MLU and MicroFEM.
MLU your go-to solution for analyzing pumping test results.
MLU is a Web Application for the Analysis of Aquifer Tests and the Design of Well Fields in Layered Systems delivered through a browser interface. Experience their new elegant web-based user interface. No installation needed and works on any device. Easy. To the point. Consistent. Effective.
Create and customize contour plots by choosing levels and colours. Save and load your settings for future models. Export your contours as GeoJSON for direct import into GIS. www.mlu.app
MicroFEM an all-purpose 3D finite element groundwater model.
MicroFEM is an all-purpose 3D finite element groundwater model. MicroFEM takes you through the whole process of ground-water modeling, from the generation of a finite-element grid through the stages of preprocessing, calculation, post processing, graphical interpretation and plotting. User-friendly. Accurate. Fast. Comprehensive.
For more information.
Become a TDI Member
Are you ready to become a part of a growing global community and develop the dewatering industry worldwide? Become a member of TDI today by going to www.dewateringinst.com to register online, subscribe to our newsletter and follow us on social media.
