Improvement of the performance of water-sensitive geomaterials using hydrophobic additives. Geo-structures such as road and railway bases suffer from water induced damage because they readily interact with the atmosphere and shallow water tables. Under traffic loading, damage to geo-structures occurs as cracking, rutting and roughness, when the strength and stiffness of the geomaterials are compromised by on-going moisture variations. Substantial cost savings to the community can be made if ef ....Improvement of the performance of water-sensitive geomaterials using hydrophobic additives. Geo-structures such as road and railway bases suffer from water induced damage because they readily interact with the atmosphere and shallow water tables. Under traffic loading, damage to geo-structures occurs as cracking, rutting and roughness, when the strength and stiffness of the geomaterials are compromised by on-going moisture variations. Substantial cost savings to the community can be made if effective methods can be found to minimise such damage. This project proposes to study a novel technique, in which blends of hydrophobic polymer additives are used to increase the stability of geomaterials subjected to varying moisture levels and traffic loading.Read moreRead less
Special Research Initiatives - Grant ID: SR0354805
Funder
Australian Research Council
Funding Amount
$10,000.00
Summary
Research Network for Rehabilitation of Structures Using Advanced Materials and Frontier Technologies. There is an urgent need to rehabilitate existing structures that are considered inadequate in strength and serviceability. Frontier strengthening technologies (such as external post-tensioning and plate bonding) using conventional and advanced materials are being currently developed in Australia by different groups, but as yet not in a coordinated manner. The aim of this network is to bring tog ....Research Network for Rehabilitation of Structures Using Advanced Materials and Frontier Technologies. There is an urgent need to rehabilitate existing structures that are considered inadequate in strength and serviceability. Frontier strengthening technologies (such as external post-tensioning and plate bonding) using conventional and advanced materials are being currently developed in Australia by different groups, but as yet not in a coordinated manner. The aim of this network is to bring together a multi-disciplinary team with complementary strengths to provide an integrated solution for rehabilitation of structures. The core of the network focuses on design tools, linking the various technologies to provide appropriate rehabilitation and understanding of life cycle demands for major infrastructure.Read moreRead less
Design of Composites for Exceptional Functional Properties by Maximising the Poisson Effect. This project will establish an effective and efficient computational framework for the topological optimisation of composites whose constituent phases possess significantly different Poisson ratios. In particular, the proposed research will be focused on exploiting the dramatic improvements in functional properties of composites when the Poisson ratio of one of the constituent phases is either negative o ....Design of Composites for Exceptional Functional Properties by Maximising the Poisson Effect. This project will establish an effective and efficient computational framework for the topological optimisation of composites whose constituent phases possess significantly different Poisson ratios. In particular, the proposed research will be focused on exploiting the dramatic improvements in functional properties of composites when the Poisson ratio of one of the constituent phases is either negative or near its incompressibility limit. The expected outcomes will be a new methodology and an advanced engineering design tool that can be used for the development of a new class of composites with exceptional properties. Such new composite systems will have many potential applications, particularly in aerospace, defence and medical industries.Read moreRead less
Design of Novel Metamaterials Considering Large Deformation and Plasticity. The project aims to establish an effective and efficient computational framework for the topological design of novel mechanical metamaterials considering both geometrical and material nonlinearities. This would overcome a formidable bottleneck in practical applications of metamaterials which are mostly based on linear elastic assumptions. The expected outcomes will be a new methodology and an advanced engineering design ....Design of Novel Metamaterials Considering Large Deformation and Plasticity. The project aims to establish an effective and efficient computational framework for the topological design of novel mechanical metamaterials considering both geometrical and material nonlinearities. This would overcome a formidable bottleneck in practical applications of metamaterials which are mostly based on linear elastic assumptions. The expected outcomes will be a new methodology and an advanced engineering design tool that can be used for the development of new classes of metamaterials with exceptional mechanical properties (eg negative compressibility or negative Poisson’s ratio) over a large strain range. Such novel metamaterials would have many important applications, particularly in biomedical and defence industries.Read moreRead less