Damage Tolerance Approach in Designing and Maintaining Truck Trailers. This project aims to develop a damage tolerance approach in designing and maintaining truck trailers. Combined with field test and computational simulation, machine learning will be used to generate loading spectrums. Following the damage tolerance philosophy, a mature approach in aerospace industry, the fatigue crack growth and the fatigue life will be predicted. In addition, structural optimisation will be applied in traile ....Damage Tolerance Approach in Designing and Maintaining Truck Trailers. This project aims to develop a damage tolerance approach in designing and maintaining truck trailers. Combined with field test and computational simulation, machine learning will be used to generate loading spectrums. Following the damage tolerance philosophy, a mature approach in aerospace industry, the fatigue crack growth and the fatigue life will be predicted. In addition, structural optimisation will be applied in trailer design. This project expects to revolutionize the design and maintenance practices in Australian truck trailer industry. It should provide significant benefits, such as prolonging the life cycle of truck trailers, reducing the tare weight and increasing operating profit, to both trailer producers and users.Read moreRead less
Controlling coastlines while generating power. The Project aims to produce strategies for protecting coasts from storms using farms of wave-energy machines, which also generate electricity. Increasing lengths of coast need protection as the climate changes, but conventional barriers create permanent environmental impacts and are a sunk cost usually borne by the taxpayer. The Project expects to derive a strategy for the setting of each machine in the farm, so that they collectively absorb or refl ....Controlling coastlines while generating power. The Project aims to produce strategies for protecting coasts from storms using farms of wave-energy machines, which also generate electricity. Increasing lengths of coast need protection as the climate changes, but conventional barriers create permanent environmental impacts and are a sunk cost usually borne by the taxpayer. The Project expects to derive a strategy for the setting of each machine in the farm, so that they collectively absorb or reflect damaging waves under severe conditions. Under normal conditions, enough wave energy to sustain environmental processes would pass through. Sales of electricity would help to pay back the capital cost. Outcomes would include reduced coastal-erosion costs and a low-intermittency energy supply.Read moreRead less
Strong and Durable Flame-Retarding Composites by Multi-scale Encapsulation and Reinforcement. Fires cause approximately $100 million damage to Australian buildings each year. The effects of fire can be significantly reduced through microencapsulation of fire-retarding chemicals in composites used in the building industry. This project aims to encapsulate such chemicals in natural microtubules and develop cost-effective polymer/microtubule/graphene oxide composites that combine superior fire resi ....Strong and Durable Flame-Retarding Composites by Multi-scale Encapsulation and Reinforcement. Fires cause approximately $100 million damage to Australian buildings each year. The effects of fire can be significantly reduced through microencapsulation of fire-retarding chemicals in composites used in the building industry. This project aims to encapsulate such chemicals in natural microtubules and develop cost-effective polymer/microtubule/graphene oxide composites that combine superior fire resistance with high durability in a wide range of applications.Read moreRead less
Network-wide sewer odour and corrosion management by model predictive control. Network-wide sewer odour and corrosion management by model predictive control. This project aims to develop and demonstrate, through real-life field studies, a model predictive control approach that achieves cost-effective network-wide mitigation of hydrogen sulphide. The lack of suitable methodologies to support the control designs of chemical dosing units and sewage pumping stations makes network-wide sewer corrosio ....Network-wide sewer odour and corrosion management by model predictive control. Network-wide sewer odour and corrosion management by model predictive control. This project aims to develop and demonstrate, through real-life field studies, a model predictive control approach that achieves cost-effective network-wide mitigation of hydrogen sulphide. The lack of suitable methodologies to support the control designs of chemical dosing units and sewage pumping stations makes network-wide sewer corrosion and odour management a problem. Innovative control methodology will simultaneously manipulate chemical dosing unit(s) and selected sewage pumping station(s), based on real-time prediction of sewage flows and characteristics both at sources and across the network, to ensure optimal delivery of dosed chemicals to mitigate hydrogen sulphide.Read moreRead less
Fish-Bird: Autonomous Interactions in a Contemporary Arts Setting. This research aims to investigate and expand the dialogical possibilities that exist between multiple autokinetic objects within a new media arts environment. Communication between the objects, and with their audience, will be explored through the modalities of gesture, motion and written text. A new aesthetic framework for interactive artwork will be created through research into autokinesis and the behavioural patterns that evo ....Fish-Bird: Autonomous Interactions in a Contemporary Arts Setting. This research aims to investigate and expand the dialogical possibilities that exist between multiple autokinetic objects within a new media arts environment. Communication between the objects, and with their audience, will be explored through the modalities of gesture, motion and written text. A new aesthetic framework for interactive artwork will be created through research into autokinesis and the behavioural patterns that evolve between people and autokinetic machines. Outcomes will include a major artwork in three stages, underpinned by a robotics software tool set that facilitates composition and experimentation with autokinetic artwork.Read moreRead less
Polymer fibres: A game changer for THz high-capacity interconnects. The transition to a society with consuming enormous amounts of digital data has accentuated the need for high-speed data links. The project aims to create a novel class of polymer terahertz fibres to replace the current lossy wires that are bandwidth limited. This will be achieved through innovative microstructured fibre designs, cost-effective and scalable fibre fabrication, and integration of terahertz fibre in the next genera ....Polymer fibres: A game changer for THz high-capacity interconnects. The transition to a society with consuming enormous amounts of digital data has accentuated the need for high-speed data links. The project aims to create a novel class of polymer terahertz fibres to replace the current lossy wires that are bandwidth limited. This will be achieved through innovative microstructured fibre designs, cost-effective and scalable fibre fabrication, and integration of terahertz fibre in the next generation communication systems. The project outcomes are expected to put Australia at the forefront of the field of polymer terahertz fibre links, which will be a game changer for industries that require reliable and high-speed connections including telecom, automotive, space, datacentres, and image processing.
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