Variable Geometry Cooling Intakes for Passenger Vehicles. Cars reject engine heat via air forced through the grille, radiator and engine bay. The associated "cooling drag" increases total aerodynamic drag by 10-15% hence increasing fuel consumption. The highest heat load that needs to be rejected by the engine determines the quantity of cooling air, resulting in systems that are over designed for typical driving. This research provides a strategy of adjusting the cooling airflow to match the ....Variable Geometry Cooling Intakes for Passenger Vehicles. Cars reject engine heat via air forced through the grille, radiator and engine bay. The associated "cooling drag" increases total aerodynamic drag by 10-15% hence increasing fuel consumption. The highest heat load that needs to be rejected by the engine determines the quantity of cooling air, resulting in systems that are over designed for typical driving. This research provides a strategy of adjusting the cooling airflow to match the engine requirements (via variable geometry intakes that can be under the control of the engine management computer) offering substantial reductions in fuel consumption and emissions.Read moreRead less
Linkage Infrastructure, Equipment And Facilities - Grant ID: LE0347553
Funder
Australian Research Council
Funding Amount
$175,000.00
Summary
Smart Equipment for Remote Monitoring of Isolated and Mobile Infrastructure. The partners' research involves the collection and assessment of data to determine the condition, maintenance strategies and risk of failure of plant in diverse areas such as transport, cargo and packaging, mining and power. Recent advances in data processing, computing and telemetry mean that it is now possible to actually install small and rugged data acquisition equipment on remote infrastructure or mobile plant. T ....Smart Equipment for Remote Monitoring of Isolated and Mobile Infrastructure. The partners' research involves the collection and assessment of data to determine the condition, maintenance strategies and risk of failure of plant in diverse areas such as transport, cargo and packaging, mining and power. Recent advances in data processing, computing and telemetry mean that it is now possible to actually install small and rugged data acquisition equipment on remote infrastructure or mobile plant. This equipment can acquire, condition and process the signals and use wireless telemetry to transmit the data for remote assessment. The proposed infrastructure will enable the partners' research to be extended to these challenging applications.Read moreRead less
Characterization and design of new soft electrolyte materials. The use of fossil fuels for energy generation contributes heavily to global warming. The development of new types of energy sources (e.g. fuel cells) and energy storage devices (e.g. batteries) is of crucial importance to ease this pressure on the environment. The search for new, high energy-density electrolyte materials for these applications is intense. Recently, plastic crystal materials have been identified as potential electroly ....Characterization and design of new soft electrolyte materials. The use of fossil fuels for energy generation contributes heavily to global warming. The development of new types of energy sources (e.g. fuel cells) and energy storage devices (e.g. batteries) is of crucial importance to ease this pressure on the environment. The search for new, high energy-density electrolyte materials for these applications is intense. Recently, plastic crystal materials have been identified as potential electrolytes in a variety of electrochemical devices. These materials show high conductivity at ambient temperatures in their plastic (or soft) phase. This project aims to further investigate and develop these novel materials.Read moreRead less
Ionic Liquids and Solids - New Designs, Insights and Applications. Ionic Materials in the form of liquid salts and plastic crystals are of interest in a wide range of applications including environmentally benign synthesis of chemicals and high stability electrolytes for batteries, capacitors and other devices. These materials represent some of the most stable chemicals known, making them attractive for any application where complete stability and recycling are issues. Building on our recent wor ....Ionic Liquids and Solids - New Designs, Insights and Applications. Ionic Materials in the form of liquid salts and plastic crystals are of interest in a wide range of applications including environmentally benign synthesis of chemicals and high stability electrolytes for batteries, capacitors and other devices. These materials represent some of the most stable chemicals known, making them attractive for any application where complete stability and recycling are issues. Building on our recent work, this project will design, prepare and characterize novel materials of this type for a number of target applications. Collaborators in Europe and USA will be involved in the analysis and testing of the materials.Read moreRead less
Linkage Infrastructure, Equipment And Facilities - Grant ID: LE0882471
Funder
Australian Research Council
Funding Amount
$430,000.00
Summary
Three-Dimensional Optical Laser Velocimetry for the HRNBLWT (High Reynolds Number Boundary Layer Wind Tunnel). The experimental information that can be gained from this infrastructure would lead to significant advances in understanding turbulent flows, which would impact a broad range of engineering and geophysical fields. Some specific examples include the development of efficient turbulence control strategies for the reduction of skin-friction drag and improved combustion processes, resulting ....Three-Dimensional Optical Laser Velocimetry for the HRNBLWT (High Reynolds Number Boundary Layer Wind Tunnel). The experimental information that can be gained from this infrastructure would lead to significant advances in understanding turbulent flows, which would impact a broad range of engineering and geophysical fields. Some specific examples include the development of efficient turbulence control strategies for the reduction of skin-friction drag and improved combustion processes, resulting in not only better fuel efficiency for vehicles but also reduced CO2 and pollutant emissions. Significant advances could also be made in the area of understanding the dispersion of particles, including pollutants, in the atmosphere; wind turbine design and implementation strategies, and climate change modelling.Read moreRead less
Linkage Infrastructure, Equipment And Facilities - Grant ID: LE100100128
Funder
Australian Research Council
Funding Amount
$300,000.00
Summary
High performance analytical tools to strengthen clean energy research. High performance analytical tools are vital to the success of emerging research fields of national priority. By filling a gap in materials routine characterisation capabilities, the equipment requested will lead to major advances in fundamental and applied research aimed at carbon abatement and clean energy technologies. This includes technologies for clean energy generation by solar means and from decarbonised fossil fuels, ....High performance analytical tools to strengthen clean energy research. High performance analytical tools are vital to the success of emerging research fields of national priority. By filling a gap in materials routine characterisation capabilities, the equipment requested will lead to major advances in fundamental and applied research aimed at carbon abatement and clean energy technologies. This includes technologies for clean energy generation by solar means and from decarbonised fossil fuels, efficient energy storage systems, advanced fuel cells for electricity generation, and hydrogen as the universal energy vector. Advancement of these technologies will bring solutions to the grand challenges facing Australia and in turn benefit industry and society.
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Combining mathematical programming and constraint programming to solve large-scale integrated scheduling problems. This project will target major savings in the airline industry, with resulting benefits for others such as tourism. The efficient use of airline fuel, which will be directly addressed in the project, is very important for the environment. The algorithms developed can improve cost and quality of service for Australian transportation, manufacturing and other industries.
The solut ....Combining mathematical programming and constraint programming to solve large-scale integrated scheduling problems. This project will target major savings in the airline industry, with resulting benefits for others such as tourism. The efficient use of airline fuel, which will be directly addressed in the project, is very important for the environment. The algorithms developed can improve cost and quality of service for Australian transportation, manufacturing and other industries.
The solutions developed within the project will be sold by the industrial partner, CTI, into major companies worldwide, and the technology will be used to develop further products.
Finally the project will extend Australia's lead in constraint programming and expertise in optimisation. This creates a major opportunity for the Australian software industry.
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From Tactical Planning to Operational Control - Bridging the Chasm. All organisations plan, and all organisations suffer from the disruptions that occur when plans are put into practice. Few organisations manage to balance operational control with planning to as to maintain both efficiency and flexibility to deal with the unexpected. This project addresses this requirement for the transportation and logistics industries.
The results discovered within the project will enable the industrial ....From Tactical Planning to Operational Control - Bridging the Chasm. All organisations plan, and all organisations suffer from the disruptions that occur when plans are put into practice. Few organisations manage to balance operational control with planning to as to maintain both efficiency and flexibility to deal with the unexpected. This project addresses this requirement for the transportation and logistics industries.
The results discovered within the project will enable the industrial partner, CTI, to develop solutions for major companies worldwide. The technology will be used to build further optimisation products.
Moreover the project will extend Australia's lead in constraint programming and expertise in optimisation. This creates a major opportunity for Australia's software industry.
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Wall Turbulence Drag: Physical Mechanisms and Practicable Control Strategies. The proposed research will build on Australia's well-established strengths in Fluid Mechanics, and aim to establish within Australia world-leading expertise in turbulence control and drag reduction technology. This will have direct benefits to the Australian economy through Tourism (among other industries) by reducing the adverse impact of rising fuel prices on long-distance air travel, on which Australia is disproport ....Wall Turbulence Drag: Physical Mechanisms and Practicable Control Strategies. The proposed research will build on Australia's well-established strengths in Fluid Mechanics, and aim to establish within Australia world-leading expertise in turbulence control and drag reduction technology. This will have direct benefits to the Australian economy through Tourism (among other industries) by reducing the adverse impact of rising fuel prices on long-distance air travel, on which Australia is disproportionately reliant due to its geographic isolation. Efficient turbulence control strategies will also lead to improved combustion processes, resulting in not only better fuel efficiency but also reduced CO2 and pollutant emissions.Read moreRead less
Electrochemical Applications of Plastic Crystalline Electrolytes. A number of new and emerging electrochemical device applications such as lithium batteries, dye-sensitized solar cells, electrochemical capacitors, actuators and bio-sensors are limited by their need for a liquid electrolyte. Many of these devices are considered vital to energy efficiency and the lowering of greenhouse gas emissions. The recent discovery of ambient temperature plastic crystalline electrolyte materials by the Monas ....Electrochemical Applications of Plastic Crystalline Electrolytes. A number of new and emerging electrochemical device applications such as lithium batteries, dye-sensitized solar cells, electrochemical capacitors, actuators and bio-sensors are limited by their need for a liquid electrolyte. Many of these devices are considered vital to energy efficiency and the lowering of greenhouse gas emissions. The recent discovery of ambient temperature plastic crystalline electrolyte materials by the Monash Electrolytes group has raised the possibility of solving this problem. In this project new plastic crystalline electrolyte materials will be developed to suit these applications and their electrochemical properties investigated. Laboratory prototype devices will be prepared and tested and via collaborations with appropriate device developers, their performance evaluted.Read moreRead less