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Modelling and Optimisation of Belt Conveyor Systems. Belt conveyors are the arteries of Australia's heavy industries. Their efficiency and cost are critical to the productivity of our major export markets. A current trend in this area is the introduction of high-speed and long distance conveying. This has placed tremendous pressure on the current design standards which are in drastic need of re-evaluation. This project will address these deficiencies and build a strong foundation for future conv ....Modelling and Optimisation of Belt Conveyor Systems. Belt conveyors are the arteries of Australia's heavy industries. Their efficiency and cost are critical to the productivity of our major export markets. A current trend in this area is the introduction of high-speed and long distance conveying. This has placed tremendous pressure on the current design standards which are in drastic need of re-evaluation. This project will address these deficiencies and build a strong foundation for future conveyor design. This will be achieved by developing rigorous mechanical models for conveyor mechanics and the application of state-of-the-art optimisation methods based on Darwinian natural selection. This will lead to significant improvements in the efficiency and running costs of belt conveyor systems.Read moreRead less
Passive Control of Dust Emissions from Belt Conveyor Systems. Belt conveyor systems are employed extensively to transport bulk materials in a great many industries, particularly those associated with mining and mineral processing. Belt conveyor installations are becoming longer and belt speeds significantly faster, resulting in increased dust emissions. An estimated 16 billion litres of water per annum is used by the Australian Black Coal Industry alone on dust suppression. This project will dev ....Passive Control of Dust Emissions from Belt Conveyor Systems. Belt conveyor systems are employed extensively to transport bulk materials in a great many industries, particularly those associated with mining and mineral processing. Belt conveyor installations are becoming longer and belt speeds significantly faster, resulting in increased dust emissions. An estimated 16 billion litres of water per annum is used by the Australian Black Coal Industry alone on dust suppression. This project will develop passive dust control technology, requiring no external energy or suppressants. This will be achieved through the development of numerical methods verified by rigorous experimental work. This will lead to significant cost savings, improved employee health and safety and reduced environmental impact.Read moreRead less
Analytical, Numerical and Testing Procedures for Improved Design and Performance of Bulk Solids Systems. Mining and minerals production is Australia's most important export industry. Despite the global financial crisis, the Australian Bureau of Agriculture and Resources Economics (Australian Commodities, December Quarter 2008) has forecast that earnings from Australia's energy and minerals exports will increase by 37% during 2008-09 to A$160 billion. Bulk materials handling operations constitute ....Analytical, Numerical and Testing Procedures for Improved Design and Performance of Bulk Solids Systems. Mining and minerals production is Australia's most important export industry. Despite the global financial crisis, the Australian Bureau of Agriculture and Resources Economics (Australian Commodities, December Quarter 2008) has forecast that earnings from Australia's energy and minerals exports will increase by 37% during 2008-09 to A$160 billion. Bulk materials handling operations constitute a major component of the minerals production and transportation costs. Through the research conducted in this project, greater efficiencies with reduced operating costs will be achieved while, at the same time, meeting the stringent environmental controls in accordance with the National priority goal of 'An Environmentally Sustainable Australia'.Read moreRead less
Dynamic Simulation of Gear and Bearing Interactions in Gearboxes for Improved Diagnostics and Prognostics of Faults. The techniques to be developed in this project should become the international standard for diagnostic and prognostic techniques for high speed gearboxes, and improve the performance of Australian industry. Australia being a major supplier of natural resources, with many mines in remote locations, it is heavily dependent on machine condition monitoring techniques, such as those be ....Dynamic Simulation of Gear and Bearing Interactions in Gearboxes for Improved Diagnostics and Prognostics of Faults. The techniques to be developed in this project should become the international standard for diagnostic and prognostic techniques for high speed gearboxes, and improve the performance of Australian industry. Australia being a major supplier of natural resources, with many mines in remote locations, it is heavily dependent on machine condition monitoring techniques, such as those being developed in the project, to maximise output and minimise the likelihood of catastrophic failure. The techniques also give improved safety, for example of helicopters, which are suspended from the gearbox, making it a very critical component. This will be of considerable benefit to both civil and military operators of helicopters, both important to Australia.Read moreRead less
An investigation of granular stress fields and permeability interactions in gas-solid flow. This project will provide the fundamental theoretical basis for a completely new approach to the design of dense phase pneumatic conveying systems. This will lead to improved energy efficiency, significantly greater operational reliability and reduced wear of system components for the transport of bulk solids in the resource and process industries.
A new role for vibration analysis in gear wear modelling and prediction. This project aims to improve prediction of the remaining useful life of gears. Gears are widely used in industry and transport. This project aims to integrate the two main methods of gear condition monitoring, vibration and oil analysis, and perform model-based wear prediction with the tribology and dynamic models continually updated on the basis of measured wear debris and vibration. New signal processing tools should allo ....A new role for vibration analysis in gear wear modelling and prediction. This project aims to improve prediction of the remaining useful life of gears. Gears are widely used in industry and transport. This project aims to integrate the two main methods of gear condition monitoring, vibration and oil analysis, and perform model-based wear prediction with the tribology and dynamic models continually updated on the basis of measured wear debris and vibration. New signal processing tools should allow estimation of relatively weak friction forces, previously neglected, as an important prognostic tool. This would allow detailed root cause analysis and prediction of remaining useful life. Improvements in gear prognosis would have safety and economic benefits by eliminating unforeseen catastrophic failures and optimising maintenance schedules.Read moreRead less
Fundamentals of active sensor network for damage identification in engineering structures. The development of active sensor network techniques for Australia's vast civil and defence infrastructure will improve operational safety, reduce maintenance costs and extend the residual life of many of our engineered assets. The resulting cost-efficiencies will advantage Australian producers in competitive global markets; our companies will be well placed to produce and install active sensor network tech ....Fundamentals of active sensor network for damage identification in engineering structures. The development of active sensor network techniques for Australia's vast civil and defence infrastructure will improve operational safety, reduce maintenance costs and extend the residual life of many of our engineered assets. The resulting cost-efficiencies will advantage Australian producers in competitive global markets; our companies will be well placed to produce and install active sensor network techniques and to provide training in the associated asset management systems. Australian industry will have a unique opportunity to collaborate with the world-class research networks on emerging areas such as damage diagnosis, prognosis and control, and structural repair.Read moreRead less
Preventing extreme granular wear of geotechnical machinery. This project will investigate the mechanisms controlling the mechanical wear that is incurred while handling geomaterials such as sand, ore, coal and fragmented rock. The overarching aim is to help forecast and mitigate extreme wear conditions by analysing the microscopic forces that granular materials produce when in contact with moving metallic surfaces. The intended outcomes include a thorough understanding of these interfacial inter ....Preventing extreme granular wear of geotechnical machinery. This project will investigate the mechanisms controlling the mechanical wear that is incurred while handling geomaterials such as sand, ore, coal and fragmented rock. The overarching aim is to help forecast and mitigate extreme wear conditions by analysing the microscopic forces that granular materials produce when in contact with moving metallic surfaces. The intended outcomes include a thorough understanding of these interfacial interactions and an experimentally validated theory predicting wear rates for a range of materials and handling processes. The expected benefit of this project is to enhance the productivity and reliability of the mining and construction sectors by reducing wear-related machinery failures.Read moreRead less
A Segmented Interior Permanent Magnet Synchronous Motor for Wide Field Weakening Range and its Sensorless Control using Improved Flux Estimators. Australia has the world's second largest reserve (after China) of high energy-density permanent magnet (neodymium-iron-boron) material for the IPM motor. The present limitation of the machine to be driven sensorless over a wide speed range with field weakening is believed to be holding back its widespread use in applications other than servo-type which ....A Segmented Interior Permanent Magnet Synchronous Motor for Wide Field Weakening Range and its Sensorless Control using Improved Flux Estimators. Australia has the world's second largest reserve (after China) of high energy-density permanent magnet (neodymium-iron-boron) material for the IPM motor. The present limitation of the machine to be driven sensorless over a wide speed range with field weakening is believed to be holding back its widespread use in applications other than servo-type which requires high-resolution mechanical sensors. Extension of the motor speed range by a combination of magnetic system design (for large field weakening range), and sensorless position and flux estimation with sufficient accuracy for fast dynamic control should lead to large scale adoption of this motor, and hence to significant improvement in energy efficiency and market share for Australia.Read moreRead less
Improvements of Direct Torque Controllers for the Interior Permanent Magnet Synchronous Motor. The Direct Torque Control (DTC) strategy has recently been applied successfully to the interior permanent magnet (IPM) motor which offers the highest torque/volume and efficiency of all known machines. Exploitation of the recently developed Neodynium-Iron-Boron material, of which Australia is the world's second largest producer, in the IPM motor and of new sensorless control strategies such as the DTC ....Improvements of Direct Torque Controllers for the Interior Permanent Magnet Synchronous Motor. The Direct Torque Control (DTC) strategy has recently been applied successfully to the interior permanent magnet (IPM) motor which offers the highest torque/volume and efficiency of all known machines. Exploitation of the recently developed Neodynium-Iron-Boron material, of which Australia is the world's second largest producer, in the IPM motor and of new sensorless control strategies such as the DTC controller, promises to open vast application potentials, such as in the upcoming hybrid and totally electric automobiles, for these motors. The new DTC controller developed at UNSW shows high promise for delivering a high-performance, sensorless IPM motor drive. This project aims to investigate, and overcome, the remaining problems of this technique.Read moreRead less