MARUM
Center for Marine Environmental Sciences – AG Marine Engineering Geology
Engineering services and geophysics
The Marine Engineering Geology Group at the Center for Marine Environmental Sciences (MARUM) of the University of Bremen is a member of ForWind. Our young, practical, interdisciplinary field of research includes areas of soil mechanics, coastal and hydraulic engineering, geotechnical engineering, sedimentology, mineralogy, geochemistry, and marine geology.
Research focus
Basic research
In basic research, engineering geology, geotechnical, sedimentological and geophysical methods are used to describe and quantify a wide variety of sediment mechanics and shelf geology tasks. Examples include determining relative stratigraphies using the degree of compaction, assessing slope stability, and measuring hydraulic permeabilities of shorelines and shelf sediments.
The European North Sea and its complex Quaternary past are another focus, where classical methods of marine geophysics and seafloor exploration from drilling and pressure sounding data are used to increase our knowledge of stratigraphy, transgression, paleoscape, and hydraulic drainage.
Applied alignment
In our strongly applied orientation, 3 topics are in the foreground:
- Development and construction of new innovative methods of geotechnical subsurface exploration in the field (e.g., seabed CPTUs (GOST) and land-based exploration vehicles for DIN-ISO testing and advanced scientific-experimental exploration and investigation).
- Construction, development and operation of innovative geotechnical test rigs for the characterization of sediment samples in the laboratory (e.g. the only triaxial CPT test chamber in Germany with B1-B5 boundary conditions).
- Use of calibrated numerical models to simulate complex soil-structure interactions.
In the area of transfer, the focus is on the scientific support of industrial, geotechnical pilot projects and large-scale projects in the run-up to and during construction measures. The main focus is on renewable energies and their offshore and onshore implementation (e.g. geotechnical support for offshore wind farm projects).
Fields of activity
- Applied geotechnical onshore and offshore projects in Germany and Europe
- Development, construction and operation of innovative geotechnical onshore and offshore exploration technologies (seabed CPT GOST, Vibro-Crawler, Vibro CPTu).
- Quaternary geology of the southern North Sea and central North Sea
- Beach exploration and assessment for offshore wind energy projects
- Development, construction and operation of innovative geotechnical laboratory test rigs (CPT calibration rig, dynamic triaxial test rig)
- Geotechnical laboratory tests
- In situ calibration of geotechnical exploration methods (logging)
- Numerical modeling and analysis of large-scale deformations in geotechnical engineering
- Geotechnics and clay mineralogy – factors for slope sensitivity analysis
- Special drilling for undisturbed geotechnical sampling
- West Antarctic continental slope with offshore drift bodies
- Pacific continental slope off Central America
- Development of geotechnical measuring instruments
Methods
- Strength determination and consolidation measurements of continental margin sediments.
- Measurement of sediment physical parameters(core logging and single measurements in the laboratory).
- Sedimentological and structural characterization of sediments (e.g., turbidites) in preparation for geotechnical field operations.
- Geotechnical laboratory tests
