GEOLAB - CLARIFIER project

The existing Critical Infrastructure (CI) of Europe in the water, energy, urban and transport sector is facing major challenges because of pressures such as climate change, extreme weather, geo-hazards, ageing and increased usage, in combination with pivotal changes in the CI to meet long-term societal goals (e.g., energy transition). To address these challenges, scientific research and innovative solutions are needed that can only be achieved by an interdisciplinary, cross-boundary approach and by equipping expert teams with the most advanced suite of physical research infrastructure available. This will allow them to work across spatial scales, explore different theories that describe the pressures and adopt innovative techniques in the development of practical solutions.

The GEOLAB Research Infrastructure (RI) consists of 11 unique installations in Europe developed to study subsurface behavior and the interaction of the subsurface with structural CI elements (e.g., a bridge) and the environment. The overarching aim of GEOLAB is to integrate and advance these key national research infrastructures towards a one-stop-shop of excellent physical research infrastructure specifically for performing ground-breaking research and innovation to address the challenges faced by the CI of Europe. During the GEOLAB Transnational Access (TA), users outside the consortium gain access to the GEOLAB installations to perform research and innovation.

One of the GEOLAB’S TA projects is the project CLARIFIER. For this project, centrifuge tests were conducted at Deltares, in The Netherlands. The main objectives of the CLARIFIER tests are: (a) to evaluate how well partially decomposed fibrous peat can be modelled in a geotechnical centrifuge and to (ii) understand the failure mechanisms under light weight embankments.