Discovery Early Career Researcher Award - Grant ID: DE200101293
Funder
Australian Research Council
Funding Amount
$426,717.00
Summary
Dynamic Fracturing and Energy Release Mechanisms in Heterogeneous Materials. The prediction of fracturing behaviour in geomaterials (i.e. rock, soil and concrete) under dynamic/impact loads is essential in dealing with a wide range of engineering problems including excavation and mining, blasting and fragmentation, earthquake engineering, impact cratering, and protective structure design However, current knowledge and modelling capabilities of these applications remains empirically based. This p ....Dynamic Fracturing and Energy Release Mechanisms in Heterogeneous Materials. The prediction of fracturing behaviour in geomaterials (i.e. rock, soil and concrete) under dynamic/impact loads is essential in dealing with a wide range of engineering problems including excavation and mining, blasting and fragmentation, earthquake engineering, impact cratering, and protective structure design However, current knowledge and modelling capabilities of these applications remains empirically based. This project aims to investigate fundamental issues governing the dynamic fracturing of geomaterials and apply this knowledge to advance the understanding and modelling capacity of dynamic fractures in geomaterials.Read moreRead less
Forecasting drought impacts months ahead using satellite data. Skillful seasonal water and crop forecasts could do much to help cope with drought and water-related food crises. Recent advances in hydrological modelling and satellite remote sensing of surface soil moisture, landscape water storage and vegetation biomass have created a great opportunity to produce such forecasts over large areas. This project will exploit that opportunity by assimilating the satellite observations into a global wa ....Forecasting drought impacts months ahead using satellite data. Skillful seasonal water and crop forecasts could do much to help cope with drought and water-related food crises. Recent advances in hydrological modelling and satellite remote sensing of surface soil moisture, landscape water storage and vegetation biomass have created a great opportunity to produce such forecasts over large areas. This project will exploit that opportunity by assimilating the satellite observations into a global water and vegetation forecasting model. The resulting improvement in seasonal forecasts of stream flow, soil moisture and crop production will be quantified and compared to the limited forecasts that are currently available.Read moreRead less
Planning and managing road transport systems for extreme events through spatial enablement. Transport infrastructure is one of the seven types of nationally significant critical infrastructure identified federally to ensure the continuity of essential services in the face of extreme events including terrorist attacks and natural disasters. This project aims to provide tools for determining the most cost efficient schedule of preventative strengthening works for road networks for reducing the dis ....Planning and managing road transport systems for extreme events through spatial enablement. Transport infrastructure is one of the seven types of nationally significant critical infrastructure identified federally to ensure the continuity of essential services in the face of extreme events including terrorist attacks and natural disasters. This project aims to provide tools for determining the most cost efficient schedule of preventative strengthening works for road networks for reducing the disruption and recovery costs after extreme events. The project aims to develop a novel platform for increasing the resilience of road networks by blending transport resilience modelling and structural health vulnerability analysis of road infrastructure into one integrated spatially enabled road transport planning system.Read moreRead less
Engineering screw piles to secure offshore wind energy turbines. This project aims to tackle the scientific challenges of using screw piles as foundations for deep water offshore wind turbines. Current foundations for offshore infrastructure developments have reached their limits, and conventional screw piles are designed for land use. This project will use innovative geotechnical methods to develop verified designs, guidelines and numerical tools for predicting the forces required to install sc ....Engineering screw piles to secure offshore wind energy turbines. This project aims to tackle the scientific challenges of using screw piles as foundations for deep water offshore wind turbines. Current foundations for offshore infrastructure developments have reached their limits, and conventional screw piles are designed for land use. This project will use innovative geotechnical methods to develop verified designs, guidelines and numerical tools for predicting the forces required to install screw piles into the seabed and their capacity to resist extreme wind and wave forces relevant to these structures. As foundations cost up to 35% of construction, screw piles will provide significant economic and environmental benefits in reducing costs and unlocking substantial renewable energy from our oceans.Read moreRead less
Improved rainfall measurement using mobile phone tower link attenuation. The project aims to use the microwave link data between mobile phone towers to complement the sparse rain gauge network in urban areas, to allow more accurate near-real-time monitoring of rainfall. Accurate near-real-time precipitation data at high resolution are critical to flash flood forecasting in and around Australia's capital cities. Current estimates suffer from the limited availability of rain gauge data in urban ar ....Improved rainfall measurement using mobile phone tower link attenuation. The project aims to use the microwave link data between mobile phone towers to complement the sparse rain gauge network in urban areas, to allow more accurate near-real-time monitoring of rainfall. Accurate near-real-time precipitation data at high resolution are critical to flash flood forecasting in and around Australia's capital cities. Current estimates suffer from the limited availability of rain gauge data in urban areas. However, mobile phone towers abound and the microwave links between them can provide information on rainfall intensity, meaning that these data could be used to supplement the rain gauge data. This project plans to develop the technology to generate precipitation maps using mobile phone network link, rain gauge and weather radar data.Read moreRead less
Discovery Early Career Researcher Award - Grant ID: DE130101342
Funder
Australian Research Council
Funding Amount
$361,000.00
Summary
Coupled thermo-hydro-mechanical behaviour of unsaturated soils and its modelling. This project will study the fundamental behaviour of natural soils under varying environmental conditions such as suction, moisture, temperature and loading conditions. The outcomes of the work will improve infrastructure design methods and reduce damage costs associated with natural soils.
Discovery Early Career Researcher Award - Grant ID: DE210100117
Funder
Australian Research Council
Funding Amount
$427,612.00
Summary
Multiobjective optimisation of reservoir operations under uncertainty. This project aims to address a crucial water resources management problem: how to manage reservoirs under uncertainty. This project expects to develop an optimisation-based framework to improve the delivery of water resources from optimised reservoir operational strategies. Expected outcomes include an innovative tool for multiobjective decision-making under uncertainty, and robust operational strategies catering for real-wor ....Multiobjective optimisation of reservoir operations under uncertainty. This project aims to address a crucial water resources management problem: how to manage reservoirs under uncertainty. This project expects to develop an optimisation-based framework to improve the delivery of water resources from optimised reservoir operational strategies. Expected outcomes include an innovative tool for multiobjective decision-making under uncertainty, and robust operational strategies catering for real-world operational situations, including conflicting objectives, natural variability in system inputs, and future uncertainty due to climate change and population growth. The improved decisions will protect lives and assets, and postpone expensive infrastructure upgrades by maximising benefits from current systems.Read moreRead less
Linkage Infrastructure, Equipment And Facilities - Grant ID: LE130100120
Funder
Australian Research Council
Funding Amount
$490,000.00
Summary
Integrated fire engineering facility for testing structures under combined structural and fire loading. This state-of-the-art integrated fire engineering facility will provide a national research focus on behaviour of structures under combined structural and fire loading with unique observation techniques. Applications include safety of structures and infrastructure developments in civil, mining, railway, aerospace and automotive engineering.
From hazard identification to risk management. From hazard identification to risk management. This project aims to explore health risks from water- and sediment-borne bacteria to recreational users of urban rivers, using a suite of novel molecular microbiological and in-vitro assays and microbial risk assessment modelling. This project also aims to develop source tracking methods to mitigate and manage these risks. The number of bacterial-related water-borne outbreaks associated with recreationa ....From hazard identification to risk management. From hazard identification to risk management. This project aims to explore health risks from water- and sediment-borne bacteria to recreational users of urban rivers, using a suite of novel molecular microbiological and in-vitro assays and microbial risk assessment modelling. This project also aims to develop source tracking methods to mitigate and manage these risks. The number of bacterial-related water-borne outbreaks associated with recreational activities is rising, but waterway managers are under pressure to re-open these rivers for recreation. The project is expected to benefit urban communities by ensuring waterway managers make informed decisions about river recreation.Read moreRead less
Linking microstructural evolutions across the scales of granular failure. This project expects to transform the understanding of granular materials and their behaviour by establishing explicit links between the macroscopic responses of the materials and their evolving microstructural properties. This should lead to revolutionary constitutive models for granular materials that possess true mechanisms of evolving grain-scale structures. The proliferation of these new models should allow developmen ....Linking microstructural evolutions across the scales of granular failure. This project expects to transform the understanding of granular materials and their behaviour by establishing explicit links between the macroscopic responses of the materials and their evolving microstructural properties. This should lead to revolutionary constitutive models for granular materials that possess true mechanisms of evolving grain-scale structures. The proliferation of these new models should allow development of reliable predictive computational tools for the modelling and assessment of field-scale failure involving granular materials, enhancing the capability to assess the integrity and stability of earth structures, and benefitting the Australian economy, environment and public safety.Read moreRead less