Hybrid cooling for coal fired power stations. Water shortage is a nation wide problem facing Australian industries. The project will directly benefit the Victorian power industry through water saving. If the new proposed hybrid cooling system concept is proved to be practically feasible, it will put the Australian power industry in a strong competitive position in terms of its efficiencies and waste heat recovery technology. Lowering the temperature of water into the cooling tower by 2 degree, b ....Hybrid cooling for coal fired power stations. Water shortage is a nation wide problem facing Australian industries. The project will directly benefit the Victorian power industry through water saving. If the new proposed hybrid cooling system concept is proved to be practically feasible, it will put the Australian power industry in a strong competitive position in terms of its efficiencies and waste heat recovery technology. Lowering the temperature of water into the cooling tower by 2 degree, by using the hybrid cooling system, it would save over 17,500,000 tons of makeup water per year for the Victorian power industry alone. At the same time, the waste heat recovered by the heat pump can be fed back to the power generation cycle. Read moreRead less
A Multi-Scale Approach To Reliability And Durability Of Engineering Structures And Sensors. The Longford explosion is an example where a major failure was due to a very small defect. It is estimated to have cost Australia in excess of $1.5 Billion. The acquisition costs of aircraft mean that keeping a fleet operational for a year can produce savings of ~$100,000,000.The automotive industry is designing lighter vehicles. GM Australia has realised that ensuring the durability of these new designs ....A Multi-Scale Approach To Reliability And Durability Of Engineering Structures And Sensors. The Longford explosion is an example where a major failure was due to a very small defect. It is estimated to have cost Australia in excess of $1.5 Billion. The acquisition costs of aircraft mean that keeping a fleet operational for a year can produce savings of ~$100,000,000.The automotive industry is designing lighter vehicles. GM Australia has realised that ensuring the durability of these new designs is essential. By our participation in the GM PACE program we ensure that the developments are available to the broader Australian Industry. Indeed, to design durable MEM's structures would give Australia a commercial edge.Read moreRead less
Fatigue Behaviour of Dragline Tubular Structures. Fatigue failure is a major concern for dragline tubular structures. Several catastrophic collapses of such structure occurred. The fatigue behaviour of such large tubular structures is unknown. Fatigue cracks were observed in many existing draglines. The latest international design codes are inadequate to address this issue. The project will develop reliable methodologies for design, inspection, strengthening and assessment of such structures. Th ....Fatigue Behaviour of Dragline Tubular Structures. Fatigue failure is a major concern for dragline tubular structures. Several catastrophic collapses of such structure occurred. The fatigue behaviour of such large tubular structures is unknown. Fatigue cracks were observed in many existing draglines. The latest international design codes are inadequate to address this issue. The project will develop reliable methodologies for design, inspection, strengthening and assessment of such structures. The outcome will be reduced manufacturing and operational costs and a reduced catastrophic failure risk. This will increase the international competitiveness of Australian mining industry. Several other industry sectors will be benefited from the technology developed in this project.Read moreRead less
Assessment of the new technologies to maximise the internal energy efficiency by modelling the energy flows in Victorian power stations. Increased internal energy efficiency will reduce the CO2 emissions and increase the profit margin for the power stations. The aim of the proposed research is to investigate the internal energy efficiency in the brown coal fired power stations by modelling the internal energy flows to reveal the potentials in the 'waste' heat streams in the power stations, and t ....Assessment of the new technologies to maximise the internal energy efficiency by modelling the energy flows in Victorian power stations. Increased internal energy efficiency will reduce the CO2 emissions and increase the profit margin for the power stations. The aim of the proposed research is to investigate the internal energy efficiency in the brown coal fired power stations by modelling the internal energy flows to reveal the potentials in the 'waste' heat streams in the power stations, and to assess new waste heat recovery measures for the power industry. The proposed research, supported by the entire Victorian power generation industry, will help the industry to achieve their green house gas emission reduction target set by the Federal Government.
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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
Development of the applications of signal processing to mechanical problems and machine diagnostics. It is intended to extend research collaboration in the following areas of interest to both UTC and UNSW:
(1) Dynamics of gears for diagnostics and noise control
(2) Application of blind source separation techniques to mechanical problems
(3) Application of cyclostationary signal analysis techniques to machine diagnostics
(4) Determination of structural dynamic properties from response measure ....Development of the applications of signal processing to mechanical problems and machine diagnostics. It is intended to extend research collaboration in the following areas of interest to both UTC and UNSW:
(1) Dynamics of gears for diagnostics and noise control
(2) Application of blind source separation techniques to mechanical problems
(3) Application of cyclostationary signal analysis techniques to machine diagnostics
(4) Determination of structural dynamic properties from response measurements
(5) Diagnostics of diesel engines and other reciprocating machines.
This project will result in the publication of joint papers in each of these topics, and give material to form the basis of an application for at least one FAIR project in the area of gear noise control and diagnostics.Read moreRead less
Reducing wear on rotary coal pulverisers. The aim of this project is to develop an understanding of the small-scale flows and particle breakage required to permit optimised redesign of the attrition stage of the 36 coal pulverisers at Gladstone Power Station, which, because of erosive wear, currently have a maintenance budget of $4M per year. CFD-DEM simulation of the air and particle flows will be used to determine particle flow patterns, particle-particle and particle-wall impact energies. Thi ....Reducing wear on rotary coal pulverisers. The aim of this project is to develop an understanding of the small-scale flows and particle breakage required to permit optimised redesign of the attrition stage of the 36 coal pulverisers at Gladstone Power Station, which, because of erosive wear, currently have a maintenance budget of $4M per year. CFD-DEM simulation of the air and particle flows will be used to determine particle flow patterns, particle-particle and particle-wall impact energies. This information will be input to comminution and wear models to predict pulveriser performance and wear patterns. Simulation results will be validated using measurements from scale visualisation and working models.Read moreRead less
Developing a scientific relationship between non-destructive testing ("NDT"), manufacturing acceptance levels and integrity requirements for pressure equipment welds. The acceptance of pressure equipment welds involves the interplay of three engineering fields: manufacturing acceptance standards, non-destructive testing and structural integrity analysis. Historically each of these fields has been developed separately by different research groups. In recent years these developments have acceler ....Developing a scientific relationship between non-destructive testing ("NDT"), manufacturing acceptance levels and integrity requirements for pressure equipment welds. The acceptance of pressure equipment welds involves the interplay of three engineering fields: manufacturing acceptance standards, non-destructive testing and structural integrity analysis. Historically each of these fields has been developed separately by different research groups. In recent years these developments have accelerated with new demands on failure risk, a revolution in NDT techniques and advances in structural integrity analysis. As a result there are now large inconsistencies between the various requirements which lead to serious disputes in industry.
This project seeks to redefine the appropriate relationship between the fields and develop a scientific and logical pathway for standards development.Read moreRead less
Experimental and Numerical Investigation of Granular Flow in Hoppers. Handling and processing of bulk solids such as coal and metal ores perform a key function in many industries, and hoppers are the most common devices for storage and discharge of granular materials in this field. The proper design of this equipment is very important. This project provides a systematic investigation of granular flow in hoppers, which is essential in order to avoid structure failures and associated costs. It wil ....Experimental and Numerical Investigation of Granular Flow in Hoppers. Handling and processing of bulk solids such as coal and metal ores perform a key function in many industries, and hoppers are the most common devices for storage and discharge of granular materials in this field. The proper design of this equipment is very important. This project provides a systematic investigation of granular flow in hoppers, which is essential in order to avoid structure failures and associated costs. It will lead to a fundamental understanding of relevant industrial processes, improvement of their efficiency, and hence improved competitiveness of Australian mining/mineral/metallurgical industries.Read moreRead less
Novel H2 production technology using brown coal for clean power generation. This project aims to develop a novel technology of poly-generation for the large-scale production of hydrogen and activated carbon materials using Australian brown coal through a high-pressure entrained-flow pyrolysis process, which is combined with a flameless catalytic H2 combustion process. The scientific goal of the project is to gain a detailed scientific understanding of the mechanisms of radical reaction pathways ....Novel H2 production technology using brown coal for clean power generation. This project aims to develop a novel technology of poly-generation for the large-scale production of hydrogen and activated carbon materials using Australian brown coal through a high-pressure entrained-flow pyrolysis process, which is combined with a flameless catalytic H2 combustion process. The scientific goal of the project is to gain a detailed scientific understanding of the mechanisms of radical reaction pathways for the high-pressure pyrolysis of brown coal, and the mechanism and kinetics of the catalytic flameless combustion of H2. The project outcomes will meet the needs of Australia's recent national hydrogen initiatives and lead to an industry demonstration to convert Victorian brown coal to NO-free and carbon-free clean power.Read moreRead less