Energy Dissipation and Nanoscale Processes at Moving Contact Lines. The dynamic process of liquids wetting and dewetting, as moving contact lines pass over solid surfaces is central to many industrial operations and natural phenomena. Contact line motion plays a key role in micro and nanofluidics, the foundation of an emergent technology called process intensification, where large industrial processes can be reduced to Lilliputian in size. Substantial energy reduction and other benefits are exp ....Energy Dissipation and Nanoscale Processes at Moving Contact Lines. The dynamic process of liquids wetting and dewetting, as moving contact lines pass over solid surfaces is central to many industrial operations and natural phenomena. Contact line motion plays a key role in micro and nanofluidics, the foundation of an emergent technology called process intensification, where large industrial processes can be reduced to Lilliputian in size. Substantial energy reduction and other benefits are expected from this project, including the transformation of coarse particle flotation. Young PhD scientists and engineers will be educated in a rich research environment, with strong international research collaboration in areas of national priority.Read moreRead less
Nickel iron sulphide mineralogy: the link between mineral transformations and microstructure and magnetic properties. This project is about measuring the rate at which minerals transform or react and how metal diffusion controls these reactions. Metal diffusion in sulphides is much more rapid that in silicates and is still very significant at low temperatures (< 300 C). In this project, we are trying to measure the rate at which the principal ore of nickel, pentlandite, transforms to violarite ....Nickel iron sulphide mineralogy: the link between mineral transformations and microstructure and magnetic properties. This project is about measuring the rate at which minerals transform or react and how metal diffusion controls these reactions. Metal diffusion in sulphides is much more rapid that in silicates and is still very significant at low temperatures (< 300 C). In this project, we are trying to measure the rate at which the principal ore of nickel, pentlandite, transforms to violarite, another important nickel rich sulphide that forms from it in the upper parts of ore bodies. The arrangement of the metal atoms in these minerals is sensitive to temperature, so it may be used as a geothermometer.Read moreRead less
Olympic Dam in a Test Tube: Critical Experiments and Theory for Understanding Fe-Cu-U-REE in Hydrothermal Fluids and during Fluid-Rock Interaction. Olympic Dam (OD) is a supergiant Cu-U-Au-Ag-REE ore deposit, containing more than a trillion Australian dollars worth of metals, and hosted by hematite-rich breccia in South Australia. Yet, key aspects of the geochemistry of OD-style deposits remain poorly understood. This project will conduct innovative experiments to address the role for fluorine i ....Olympic Dam in a Test Tube: Critical Experiments and Theory for Understanding Fe-Cu-U-REE in Hydrothermal Fluids and during Fluid-Rock Interaction. Olympic Dam (OD) is a supergiant Cu-U-Au-Ag-REE ore deposit, containing more than a trillion Australian dollars worth of metals, and hosted by hematite-rich breccia in South Australia. Yet, key aspects of the geochemistry of OD-style deposits remain poorly understood. This project will conduct innovative experiments to address the role for fluorine in Fe, U and REE transport at OD, and the role of fluid-rock interaction in generating the unusually oxidised Fe-Cu mineral assemblages and in controlling U grades and distribution. The fundamental information gained will underpin intense on-going research aimed at discovering new OD-style orebodies and at creating new ore-processing technology that are environmentally sustainable and able to access lower-grade ores.Read moreRead less
Order-disorder behaviour in Bi-tellurides: a tool to monitor gold scavenging by Bi-Te melts. This project addresses a group of minerals (bismuth tellurides) that are often part of the exotic assemblages present in gold deposits, yet their potential to model the gold-forming processes is only recently apparent. These minerals also have the capacity to record their genetic history due to crystal modularity. Materials scientists target the analogous synthetic compounds because of the same structura ....Order-disorder behaviour in Bi-tellurides: a tool to monitor gold scavenging by Bi-Te melts. This project addresses a group of minerals (bismuth tellurides) that are often part of the exotic assemblages present in gold deposits, yet their potential to model the gold-forming processes is only recently apparent. These minerals also have the capacity to record their genetic history due to crystal modularity. Materials scientists target the analogous synthetic compounds because of the same structural modularity for applications in nanotechnology. The dataset on the mineral compounds, using the geological environment as a natural laboratory, will serve materials science research, as much as delivering key information relevant to understanding the reasons for gold enrichment in economically important types of ores. Read moreRead less
Tracking targets in large scale surveillance camera networks. The research is expected to provide a significant boost in the effectiveness of safety and security measures for public facilities and open spaces that are monitored by surveillance cameras. The general public benefits from this through a decreased need for intrusive security measures, and increased deterrence of crime and anti-social behaviour. This capability is in demand worldwide for both public and private camera networks, whose ....Tracking targets in large scale surveillance camera networks. The research is expected to provide a significant boost in the effectiveness of safety and security measures for public facilities and open spaces that are monitored by surveillance cameras. The general public benefits from this through a decreased need for intrusive security measures, and increased deterrence of crime and anti-social behaviour. This capability is in demand worldwide for both public and private camera networks, whose usefulness is currently limited by the difficulty of monitoring them. We therefore anticipate considerable commercial interest in Australia and internationally.
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Supercells and the supercontinent cycle. This is a new approach to understanding how the Earth works, at a global-scale and billion-year perspective. In particular it seeks to understand why continents come together as supercontinents, then drift away again. The work has implications for copper-gold exploration on the Australian continent because it has relevant predictive capacity.
Garnet speed dating: Innovation for fast tectonic problem solving. This project aims to develop and apply a novel way to rapidly date the mineral garnet within rocks using the analytical technique of laser ablation mass spectrometry to calculate Lutetium-Hafnium ages. Garnet is the most important mineral we have to determine the depths of burial and the temperatures rocks experienced during the tectonic processes that shaped the continents. Our novel in situ laser ablation method will allow ga ....Garnet speed dating: Innovation for fast tectonic problem solving. This project aims to develop and apply a novel way to rapidly date the mineral garnet within rocks using the analytical technique of laser ablation mass spectrometry to calculate Lutetium-Hafnium ages. Garnet is the most important mineral we have to determine the depths of burial and the temperatures rocks experienced during the tectonic processes that shaped the continents. Our novel in situ laser ablation method will allow garnet to be rapidly and easily dated, permitting routine collection of large age datasets for tectonic problem solving. It will also offer a rapid means to determine ages of garnet-bearing rocks across prospective mineral exploration regions, providing explorers with key exploration data.Read moreRead less
Deep visual understanding: learning to see in an unruly world. Deep Learning has achieved incredible success at an astonishing variety of Computer Vision tasks recently. This project aims to convey this success into the challenging domain of high-level image-based reasoning. It will extend deep learning to achieve flexible semantic reasoning about the content of images based on information gleaned from the huge volumes of data available on the Internet. The project expects to overcome one of the ....Deep visual understanding: learning to see in an unruly world. Deep Learning has achieved incredible success at an astonishing variety of Computer Vision tasks recently. This project aims to convey this success into the challenging domain of high-level image-based reasoning. It will extend deep learning to achieve flexible semantic reasoning about the content of images based on information gleaned from the huge volumes of data available on the Internet. The project expects to overcome one of the primary limitations of deep learning and will greatly increase its practical application to a range of industrial, cultural or health settings.Read moreRead less
Added depth: automated high level image interpretation. Humans are very good at understanding the world through imagery, but computers lack this fundamental capacity because they lack experience of what they might see. This project will provide this experience by combining the large volumes of imagery on the Internet with three dimensional information generated by humans for other purposes.
Just add water: a recipe for the deformation of continental interiors. By integrating geochemical, geochronological and microstructural datasets, this project aims to provide a novel framework for fluid–rock systems in the lithosphere. Plate tectonics argues that continental interiors are usually stable, rigid and undeformable, yet mountain belts have formed in these locations. Their existence suggests that strong crust can be weakened to allow the accommodation of deforming forces, but the unde ....Just add water: a recipe for the deformation of continental interiors. By integrating geochemical, geochronological and microstructural datasets, this project aims to provide a novel framework for fluid–rock systems in the lithosphere. Plate tectonics argues that continental interiors are usually stable, rigid and undeformable, yet mountain belts have formed in these locations. Their existence suggests that strong crust can be weakened to allow the accommodation of deforming forces, but the underlying causes for this change in behaviour are not clear. This project aims to investigate the largely unexplored impact of fluid flow on the characteristics of intraplate deformation. This would improve our understanding of what modulates the strength of continental crust, including its susceptibility to seismic activity, and the ways in which fluids interact with the deep crust, including their mineralisation potential.Read moreRead less