Assimilation of architectural and services design in early design modelling. How can buildings in a climate as varied as Australia's balance the best environmental comfort standards for their human occupants, cost and at the same time meet the urgent imperative of reduced energy consumption and associated carbon emissions? This practice-based research will develop tools to support more informed decision making in the earliest stage of an integral approach to services in the design of buildings. ....Assimilation of architectural and services design in early design modelling. How can buildings in a climate as varied as Australia's balance the best environmental comfort standards for their human occupants, cost and at the same time meet the urgent imperative of reduced energy consumption and associated carbon emissions? This practice-based research will develop tools to support more informed decision making in the earliest stage of an integral approach to services in the design of buildings. It will provide knowledge about designing architecture that is more environmentally responsive, can provide comfortable air in more optimised ways, that consume less energy and do this through promoting smarter use of information in practice.Read moreRead less
Prediction and controlling of pipe failures in buried water and gas pipe systems. Australian Research Council has recognised water as a critical resource that must be protected from wastage. Along with water, the supply of gas to communities through extensive buried pipe networks is an essential service. As the pipe systems age, the pipe failures have increased. These failures lead to loss of valuable commodity and inconvenience and health hazard to public and workers. Effective asset manage ....Prediction and controlling of pipe failures in buried water and gas pipe systems. Australian Research Council has recognised water as a critical resource that must be protected from wastage. Along with water, the supply of gas to communities through extensive buried pipe networks is an essential service. As the pipe systems age, the pipe failures have increased. These failures lead to loss of valuable commodity and inconvenience and health hazard to public and workers. Effective asset management tools are urgently required in predicting and controlling pipe failures. A consortium of water and gas suppliers and a team of researchers from Monash University and CSIRO have joined forces to address this problem so that significant social and economic benefits to Australia can be realised. Read moreRead less
Development of Topological Optimisation Techniques for the Conceptual Design of Multi-storey Buildings. The building design process often begins with a case based preliminary design which derives its main parameters and features from a number of existing buildings of similar dimensions and functionality. This project aims to develop a design tool which incorporates two topological optimisation techniques in the conceptual design of multi-storey buildings. This design tool will enable inefficient ....Development of Topological Optimisation Techniques for the Conceptual Design of Multi-storey Buildings. The building design process often begins with a case based preliminary design which derives its main parameters and features from a number of existing buildings of similar dimensions and functionality. This project aims to develop a design tool which incorporates two topological optimisation techniques in the conceptual design of multi-storey buildings. This design tool will enable inefficient materials to be automatically removed from the design, thus producing a structurally efficient building system. At the same time, the new topologies generated by these optimisation techniques can be used by the designer to create innovative forms and layouts for the building.Read moreRead less
Optimisation of Building Structures Considering Wind Loading. Wind loading is a dominant factor that should be carefully considered and resourcefully exploited in the design of building structures. The ever-taller buildings proposed around the world have presented a major challenge and opportunity in the pursuit of new techniques and materials. The proposed research will improve the competitiveness and productivity of the Australian building design industry by establishing a cutting-edge compute ....Optimisation of Building Structures Considering Wind Loading. Wind loading is a dominant factor that should be carefully considered and resourcefully exploited in the design of building structures. The ever-taller buildings proposed around the world have presented a major challenge and opportunity in the pursuit of new techniques and materials. The proposed research will improve the competitiveness and productivity of the Australian building design industry by establishing a cutting-edge computer-automated design tool for creating innovative building systems that can resist wind loading effectively and efficiently. The developed technology will result in significant enhancement of the performance and safety of buildings, and substantial reduction of construction materials and costs.Read moreRead less
Development of economical beam-column connections for robust composite steel-concrete structural frames. The proposed construction systems will offer a competitive and more robust alternative for developers, building owners and occupants. The successful development of the proposed construction systems will lead to an increased market for blind bolts, steel circular hollow sections, steel Universal Beams and metal decking. An added benefit of the proposed systems is an anticipated improvement in ....Development of economical beam-column connections for robust composite steel-concrete structural frames. The proposed construction systems will offer a competitive and more robust alternative for developers, building owners and occupants. The successful development of the proposed construction systems will lead to an increased market for blind bolts, steel circular hollow sections, steel Universal Beams and metal decking. An added benefit of the proposed systems is an anticipated improvement in performance, relative to existing systems, under low probability, high consequence events such as 2500-year return period level earthquakes (in the relevant region) or blast loading. These unique and innovative structural solutions should drive the competitive advantage of Australian engineers in international markets.Read moreRead less
Development of a new technique to improve very soft soils using geogrid wrapped stone columns. Many large Australian infrastructure projects will be developed in regions with inherently poor soil conditions. Port developments, for instance, are by their nature located in river estuaries which are characterised by deep deposits of soft alluvial soils. Many highway projects also traverse low-lying ground or coastal regions with soft soil conditions. This project will develop a novel technique to ....Development of a new technique to improve very soft soils using geogrid wrapped stone columns. Many large Australian infrastructure projects will be developed in regions with inherently poor soil conditions. Port developments, for instance, are by their nature located in river estuaries which are characterised by deep deposits of soft alluvial soils. Many highway projects also traverse low-lying ground or coastal regions with soft soil conditions. This project will develop a novel technique to improve the engineering characteristics of very soft soils (shear strength lower than 15 kPa) by using geogrid wrapped stone columns. The effectiveness of this technique will be investigated in both small scale laboratory tests and field trials.Read moreRead less
A Global Satellite Altimeter Database for Ocean Engineering Applications. Australia is a maritime nation with major shipping activities, offshore facilities and a very significant percentage of its population living near the coast. As such, it is critical that engineers can accurately predict ocean wave conditions. This project will bring together more than 20 years of satellite observations of the ocean into a single database. This database will represent a major resource for the nation, signif ....A Global Satellite Altimeter Database for Ocean Engineering Applications. Australia is a maritime nation with major shipping activities, offshore facilities and a very significant percentage of its population living near the coast. As such, it is critical that engineers can accurately predict ocean wave conditions. This project will bring together more than 20 years of satellite observations of the ocean into a single database. This database will represent a major resource for the nation, significantly enhancing our understanding of ocean wave conditions. The research projects associated with the database will provide an understanding of the ocean wave climate, oceanic extremes, tropical cyclone conditions and nearshore ocean design parameters.Read moreRead less
SCANEM : A Scanning and Inspection Method for Urban Pipeline Systems. Water and sewage utilities are crucial factors limiting economic growth and urban amenity. However many of these facilities are subject to corrosion, fracture and collapse and new strategies are now required to provide a sound basis for systematic remediation and replacement. Suitable strategies involving a structural audit and statistical analysis have been proposed by CSIRO and Tyco Water. However new geophysical inspection ....SCANEM : A Scanning and Inspection Method for Urban Pipeline Systems. Water and sewage utilities are crucial factors limiting economic growth and urban amenity. However many of these facilities are subject to corrosion, fracture and collapse and new strategies are now required to provide a sound basis for systematic remediation and replacement. Suitable strategies involving a structural audit and statistical analysis have been proposed by CSIRO and Tyco Water. However new geophysical inspection methods are now required to provide the key physical parameters relating to pipeline condition. Hopefully the EM inspection tool resulting from this project will provide the industrial partners with a unique capacity to satisfy a major global market.Read moreRead less
Prediction of Time-dependent Deformations in Post-tensioned Concrete Suspended Slabs in Tall Buildings. The proposed project aims to develop an analytical model that can predict the time-dependent deformations in post-tensioned concrete slabs considering concrete shrinkage and creep, cracking, and bond-slip behaviour. Over the past several years, numerous cases have been reported in Australia and elsewhere, of flexural elements for which the calculated deflection is far less than the actual defl ....Prediction of Time-dependent Deformations in Post-tensioned Concrete Suspended Slabs in Tall Buildings. The proposed project aims to develop an analytical model that can predict the time-dependent deformations in post-tensioned concrete slabs considering concrete shrinkage and creep, cracking, and bond-slip behaviour. Over the past several years, numerous cases have been reported in Australia and elsewhere, of flexural elements for which the calculated deflection is far less than the actual deflection leading to serviceability problems. The significance of this investigation hence lies in its potential to provide a solution to more accurately predict service-life deflections in post-tensioned concrete suspended slabs and validate the model with real-life deflections monitored over time on a current building project.Read moreRead less
Improvement of the performance of water-sensitive geomaterials using hydrophobic additives. Geo-structures such as road and railway bases suffer from water induced damage because they readily interact with the atmosphere and shallow water tables. Under traffic loading, damage to geo-structures occurs as cracking, rutting and roughness, when the strength and stiffness of the geomaterials are compromised by on-going moisture variations. Substantial cost savings to the community can be made if ef ....Improvement of the performance of water-sensitive geomaterials using hydrophobic additives. Geo-structures such as road and railway bases suffer from water induced damage because they readily interact with the atmosphere and shallow water tables. Under traffic loading, damage to geo-structures occurs as cracking, rutting and roughness, when the strength and stiffness of the geomaterials are compromised by on-going moisture variations. Substantial cost savings to the community can be made if effective methods can be found to minimise such damage. This project proposes to study a novel technique, in which blends of hydrophobic polymer additives are used to increase the stability of geomaterials subjected to varying moisture levels and traffic loading.Read moreRead less