Transforming decision making for rockfall hazard assessment. The aim is to transform conventional approaches to rockfall hazard prediction and mitigation. The management of risks posed by rockfall in Australia currently comes at significant cost and is suboptimal; predicted environmental changes are likely to worsen these hazards. Rockfall mechanics, remote sensing, and data-driven modelling will be combined with advanced visual technologies to deliver a novel, rapid, and reliable augmented real ....Transforming decision making for rockfall hazard assessment. The aim is to transform conventional approaches to rockfall hazard prediction and mitigation. The management of risks posed by rockfall in Australia currently comes at significant cost and is suboptimal; predicted environmental changes are likely to worsen these hazards. Rockfall mechanics, remote sensing, and data-driven modelling will be combined with advanced visual technologies to deliver a novel, rapid, and reliable augmented reality based rockfall hazard assessment tool. The outcomes are expected to streamline prediction, assessment, and mitigation – supporting practitioners and governments to proactively assess triggering conditions, evaluate risk, and apply robust solutions to improve safety, with substantial economic savings.Read moreRead less
Multilayer Graphene Based Anti-Corrosion Polymer Coated Structures. This project aims to develop a novel multilayer graphene/polymer coating for structures exposed to corrosive environment with graphene concentration varying layer-wise to eliminate galvanic corrosion yet maintain all unique advantages owing to graphene inclusion, thus offering a cost-effective design solution with significantly improved anti-corrosion performance and remarkably enhanced safety and durability for structures. Expe ....Multilayer Graphene Based Anti-Corrosion Polymer Coated Structures. This project aims to develop a novel multilayer graphene/polymer coating for structures exposed to corrosive environment with graphene concentration varying layer-wise to eliminate galvanic corrosion yet maintain all unique advantages owing to graphene inclusion, thus offering a cost-effective design solution with significantly improved anti-corrosion performance and remarkably enhanced safety and durability for structures. Expected outcomes of this project include an innovative design, experimental data on corrosion prevention, development of reliable simulation techniques and design procedures for the proposed coating. This should provide huge benefits to Australian civil, offshore and marine engineering industry and national economy.Read moreRead less
Adaptive daytime radiative cooling and heating for buildings . This project aims to develop an adaptive daytime radiative cooling and heating technology suitable for the for the reduction of the energy consumption in buildings for the mitigation of the urban overheating in the built environment. The project expects to generate new knowledge in this area to exploit adaptive strategies in the development of future cooling and heating solutions for buildings. Expected project outcomes consist of th ....Adaptive daytime radiative cooling and heating for buildings . This project aims to develop an adaptive daytime radiative cooling and heating technology suitable for the for the reduction of the energy consumption in buildings for the mitigation of the urban overheating in the built environment. The project expects to generate new knowledge in this area to exploit adaptive strategies in the development of future cooling and heating solutions for buildings. Expected project outcomes consist of the establishment of the new adaptive daytime radiative technology for use on building envelopes to support cooling requirements in hot weather and heating needs under cold conditions. This should lead to significant benefits for the Australian building and construction industry. Read moreRead less
Fire engineering of prefabricated structural systems of modular buildings. With the speed and cost benefits, modular construction is considered a game-changing solution in response to pandemics and natural disasters, and tackling the affordable housing crisis on a large scale. However, its uptake has been hindered due to recent fire incidents of modular buildings. This project aims to develop novel fire experiments and advanced modelling techniques to evaluate the fire performance of modular bui ....Fire engineering of prefabricated structural systems of modular buildings. With the speed and cost benefits, modular construction is considered a game-changing solution in response to pandemics and natural disasters, and tackling the affordable housing crisis on a large scale. However, its uptake has been hindered due to recent fire incidents of modular buildings. This project aims to develop novel fire experiments and advanced modelling techniques to evaluate the fire performance of modular buildings. Computational tools and fire safety design guidelines will also be developed to enable modular buildings to be built safer and more economically. This project will promote the widespread adoption of modular buildings to benefit end-users and the wider society, especially the housing sector and low-income households.Read moreRead less
Pile foundations in unsaturated soils: a mechanistic framework. This project will develop a mechanistic approach to pile foundation design in variably saturated soils through integrated expertise in the fields of unsaturated soil mechanics, material nonlinearity, numerical modelling, limit analysis and experimental investigation. It will achieve a rigorous understanding of pile behaviour in unsaturated
soils subjected to monotonic loading through a comprehensive program of scaled laboratory test ....Pile foundations in unsaturated soils: a mechanistic framework. This project will develop a mechanistic approach to pile foundation design in variably saturated soils through integrated expertise in the fields of unsaturated soil mechanics, material nonlinearity, numerical modelling, limit analysis and experimental investigation. It will achieve a rigorous understanding of pile behaviour in unsaturated
soils subjected to monotonic loading through a comprehensive program of scaled laboratory testing, numerical and theoretical analyses. The models, theories, mechanics and predictive tools arising from this research will have direct and immediate impact on the planning, design, construction and management of many types of infrastructure involving pile foundations in industrial and residential developments.Read moreRead less
Transforming Current Design Practice for Controlled Modulus Columns . Current design methods used for Controlled Modulus Column-supported embankments are outdated and uneconomical. This project aims to use innovative numerical and image processing techniques to develop new design methods that use 100% recyclable, environmentally friendly and highly durable EPS geofoam. Outcomes will advance the fundamental knowledge of bearing capacity increase of columns due to formation of smear zone and damag ....Transforming Current Design Practice for Controlled Modulus Columns . Current design methods used for Controlled Modulus Column-supported embankments are outdated and uneconomical. This project aims to use innovative numerical and image processing techniques to develop new design methods that use 100% recyclable, environmentally friendly and highly durable EPS geofoam. Outcomes will advance the fundamental knowledge of bearing capacity increase of columns due to formation of smear zone and damages to nearby columns during installation. Numerical tools and design guidelines will be developed for engineers. The benefits include the design and construction of lighter, cheaper, safer and more stable embankments with significant cost and environmental gains from future infrastructure developments in Australia.Read moreRead less
Anisotropic behaviour of natural soft soils. This project aims to improve current engineering analysis methods, which often fail to predict the performance of infrastructure built on natural soft soils. This project expects to develop a theoretical and mathematical framework to describe the response of soft soils to complex loading patterns imposed by transport and energy infrastructure. This will be informed by advanced laboratory experiments that transcend the capabilities of routine testing m ....Anisotropic behaviour of natural soft soils. This project aims to improve current engineering analysis methods, which often fail to predict the performance of infrastructure built on natural soft soils. This project expects to develop a theoretical and mathematical framework to describe the response of soft soils to complex loading patterns imposed by transport and energy infrastructure. This will be informed by advanced laboratory experiments that transcend the capabilities of routine testing methods. The expected outcome of the project is a series of tools for the engineering analysis of earthworks and foundations built on soft soils that will underpin the construction of civil infrastructure on ground often too poor to be considered for other use.Read moreRead less
Assessment of Dynamic Pile Driving Using Machine Learning. This project aims at developing new technology to determine ground properties and foundation capacity in real-time during pile installation by adopting rigorous numerical simulation, laboratory experiments and artificial intelligence-based computational model. Although impact driving is used commonly to install piles on site, there is no technology currently available to interpret collected data accurately and in real-time to provide liv ....Assessment of Dynamic Pile Driving Using Machine Learning. This project aims at developing new technology to determine ground properties and foundation capacity in real-time during pile installation by adopting rigorous numerical simulation, laboratory experiments and artificial intelligence-based computational model. Although impact driving is used commonly to install piles on site, there is no technology currently available to interpret collected data accurately and in real-time to provide live feedback and optimise construction processes. This research will provide new machine learning model to assess the ground and foundation characteristics during construction, and will increase certainty in infrastructure investment in Australia particularly for costly transport assets and infrastructure.Read moreRead less
Real-time bridge performance evaluation based on crowdsourcing and learning. This project aims to develop a novel strategy utilizing the real-time measurements from moving vehicles and bridges for evaluating the safety and operational performance of bridges based on transfer learning and vehicle-bridge interaction model. This is the first essential study on integrating the bridge-moving load models with transfer learning to extract common knowledge from simulation experiments to support the asse ....Real-time bridge performance evaluation based on crowdsourcing and learning. This project aims to develop a novel strategy utilizing the real-time measurements from moving vehicles and bridges for evaluating the safety and operational performance of bridges based on transfer learning and vehicle-bridge interaction model. This is the first essential study on integrating the bridge-moving load models with transfer learning to extract common knowledge from simulation experiments to support the assessment of damaged status in practice. The project will provide an engineer-friendly low cost monitoring system for its deployment, management and maintenance of existing transport infrastructure. The innovative techniques developed enable the safe operation and reliable evaluation and maintenance of transport infrastructure.Read moreRead less
Experiment-numerical-virtual Generative Design for Nondeterministic Impacts. This project will establish an advanced nondeterministic design methodology to uncover the optimised material properties and 3D printed metastructural capacity in real-time against impact loading. It will develop a rigorous framework that integrates numerical simulation, experiment, and machine learning-based virtual modelling to tackle practical challenges in design and manufacture of impact-proof materials and structu ....Experiment-numerical-virtual Generative Design for Nondeterministic Impacts. This project will establish an advanced nondeterministic design methodology to uncover the optimised material properties and 3D printed metastructural capacity in real-time against impact loading. It will develop a rigorous framework that integrates numerical simulation, experiment, and machine learning-based virtual modelling to tackle practical challenges in design and manufacture of impact-proof materials and structures with intrinsic uncertainties. The generative design-calibration system unifying experimental-numerical-virtual processes will largely reduce the need for repetitive large-scale experimental tests. This project benefits civil, aerospace, automotive, and defence with competitive advantage through technological innovation.Read moreRead less