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
Australian Laureate Fellowships - Grant ID: FL190100014
Funder
Australian Research Council
Funding Amount
$2,871,982.00
Summary
New Technologies for Delivering Sustainable Free-form Architecture. This project aims to harness the full potential of digital technologies to significantly enhance the performance and reduce the environmental impact of free-form architecture of the future. The research expects to establish a fundamentally new computational platform capable of producing diverse and competitive designs, and an environmentally friendly manufacturing process for realising such designs. Expected outcomes include an ....New Technologies for Delivering Sustainable Free-form Architecture. This project aims to harness the full potential of digital technologies to significantly enhance the performance and reduce the environmental impact of free-form architecture of the future. The research expects to establish a fundamentally new computational platform capable of producing diverse and competitive designs, and an environmentally friendly manufacturing process for realising such designs. Expected outcomes include an unprecedented cloud-based interactive design tool, and a novel minimum-waste manufacturing technology for fabricating mass-customised building components. This project will transform the architecture, engineering and construction (AEC) sector and make the Australian manufacturing industry more competitive globally.Read moreRead less
Damage Detection and Quantification using Infrastructure Digital Twins. Structural health monitoring is vital for infrastructure assets management as early detection of structural conditions is key to both safety and ongoing maintenance. This project combines computer vision, vibration tests, finite element modelling and deep learning technologies to develop an efficient structural health monitoring system. Digital twins created from images taken by cameras or UAVs will be correlated through dee ....Damage Detection and Quantification using Infrastructure Digital Twins. Structural health monitoring is vital for infrastructure assets management as early detection of structural conditions is key to both safety and ongoing maintenance. This project combines computer vision, vibration tests, finite element modelling and deep learning technologies to develop an efficient structural health monitoring system. Digital twins created from images taken by cameras or UAVs will be correlated through deep learning with structural conditions and load-carrying capacities obtained from vibration tests and finite element model analysis for efficient structural damage detection and quantification. The project will lead to effective structural health monitoring and enhance structural safety and reduce maintenance costs. Read moreRead less
Discovery Early Career Researcher Award - Grant ID: DE200100892
Funder
Australian Research Council
Funding Amount
$419,889.00
Summary
Next-generation, prefabricated, modular, solar heating and cooling system. This project aims to develop a new window design that can reduce the heating of buildings caused by the sun in warm weather and reduce heat loss from buildings in cool weather. This project expects to generate new knowledge on the interaction between solar radiation and the convection of air inside a cavity within the window design. The expected outcome is a framework that can be used to optimize window designs for buildi ....Next-generation, prefabricated, modular, solar heating and cooling system. This project aims to develop a new window design that can reduce the heating of buildings caused by the sun in warm weather and reduce heat loss from buildings in cool weather. This project expects to generate new knowledge on the interaction between solar radiation and the convection of air inside a cavity within the window design. The expected outcome is a framework that can be used to optimize window designs for buildings under various weather conditions. This should allow quick and easy fabrication and implementation of the designs in existing and new buildings, and the windows should significantly reduce building heating and cooling costs.Read moreRead less
Unsaturated Soil Dynamics. The main aim of this ambitious project is to address a highly significant and timely class of problems in civil engineering, and in particular in soil mechanics. The outcomes are expected to result in improvements in the design and construction of civil infrastructure. The problems considered are routinely confronted in daily engineering practice whenever a construction site contains weak soil and the ground requires improvement before construction. This project is exp ....Unsaturated Soil Dynamics. The main aim of this ambitious project is to address a highly significant and timely class of problems in civil engineering, and in particular in soil mechanics. The outcomes are expected to result in improvements in the design and construction of civil infrastructure. The problems considered are routinely confronted in daily engineering practice whenever a construction site contains weak soil and the ground requires improvement before construction. This project is expected to provide a comprehensive understanding of soil behaviour in this class of problems, leading to robust techniques and advanced computational tools for more cost-effective and safer engineering designs.Read moreRead less
Non-differentiable Energy Minimisation For Modelling Fractured Porous Media. This project is aimed at advancing theoretical, computational and experimental bases for the fracturing of geomaterials, and providing scientists and engineers with much needed predictive tools for quantitative assessment of the responses. By incorporating previously neglected aspects such as energy minimisation, advanced constitutive modelling, and non-planar interacting fracture growth, confidence in the design and pl ....Non-differentiable Energy Minimisation For Modelling Fractured Porous Media. This project is aimed at advancing theoretical, computational and experimental bases for the fracturing of geomaterials, and providing scientists and engineers with much needed predictive tools for quantitative assessment of the responses. By incorporating previously neglected aspects such as energy minimisation, advanced constitutive modelling, and non-planar interacting fracture growth, confidence in the design and planning of engineering processes in fractured porous media will be increased to the point that costly over/under designs are avoided. Through the use of the tools developed, it will be possible to detect weaknesses in the design, assess the impact and implement effective measures to improve performance.Read moreRead less
Detecting developing cracks before pipe bursts using smart sensor systems. This project aims to significantly reduce the number of pipe bursts in cities by detecting the leaks from developing cracks on water supply pipes just in time. New techniques will be developed for reliable and timely detection using the existing sensor network in the Adelaide CBD. Specialised monitoring stations will be developed with adaptive noise-cancellation algorithms to detect small leak signals in noisy city enviro ....Detecting developing cracks before pipe bursts using smart sensor systems. This project aims to significantly reduce the number of pipe bursts in cities by detecting the leaks from developing cracks on water supply pipes just in time. New techniques will be developed for reliable and timely detection using the existing sensor network in the Adelaide CBD. Specialised monitoring stations will be developed with adaptive noise-cancellation algorithms to detect small leak signals in noisy city environments. Expected outcomes include an effective pipe burst early warning system and the implementation of an active burst prevention and targeted pipe replacement strategy. This should significantly reduce the burst rates and associated interruptions in Adelaide and save millions of dollars every year in pipe relay programs.Read moreRead less
Discovery Early Career Researcher Award - Grant ID: DE210100479
Funder
Australian Research Council
Funding Amount
$424,835.00
Summary
Resilient design flood estimation for Australia. The total costs of natural disasters in Australia are forecast to more than double in the next 20 years - with floods one of the costliest natural disasters faced. The damage and cost of floods can be managed, but rapid developments in the understanding of rainfall and flood projections has resulted in national flood guidelines that are not consistent with current science. This project proposes a novel but practical technique for design flood esti ....Resilient design flood estimation for Australia. The total costs of natural disasters in Australia are forecast to more than double in the next 20 years - with floods one of the costliest natural disasters faced. The damage and cost of floods can be managed, but rapid developments in the understanding of rainfall and flood projections has resulted in national flood guidelines that are not consistent with current science. This project proposes a novel but practical technique for design flood estimation that will accommodate the key changes to flood behaviour that are expected in the future. This will include consideration of changes in extreme rainfall intensities, catchment wetness, and patterns of storm behaviour.Read moreRead less
Erosion processes in soils across scales. This project aims to develop a monitoring tool for predicting the evolution of internal erosion in dams based on innovative electromagnetic observation methods. Internal erosion is an insidious process occurring in the obscurity of the soil’s pore system until its consequences become visible and threaten the stability of the dams. These water retaining structures are vital for the future water and energy supply for our society and their failure can be ca ....Erosion processes in soils across scales. This project aims to develop a monitoring tool for predicting the evolution of internal erosion in dams based on innovative electromagnetic observation methods. Internal erosion is an insidious process occurring in the obscurity of the soil’s pore system until its consequences become visible and threaten the stability of the dams. These water retaining structures are vital for the future water and energy supply for our society and their failure can be catastrophic. By establishing an improved understanding of internal erosion as a sequence of processes on various scales, from the onset of erosion until the failure of the structure, this project will place Australia at the forefront of dam safety assessment.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