Economic Operability Assessment of Leaching Process at Kwinana Nickel Refinery. Process operability is concerned with systematic analysis and improvement of process performance in the face of variable operating conditions. This project will develop a rigorous methodology for analysis of process operability with respect to short-term and transient disturbances. The proposed technique will be applied to the Kwinana Nickel Refinery Leach section, in order to reduce the plant variability and increas ....Economic Operability Assessment of Leaching Process at Kwinana Nickel Refinery. Process operability is concerned with systematic analysis and improvement of process performance in the face of variable operating conditions. This project will develop a rigorous methodology for analysis of process operability with respect to short-term and transient disturbances. The proposed technique will be applied to the Kwinana Nickel Refinery Leach section, in order to reduce the plant variability and increase nickel throughput and plant availability. This can be considered as significant move by a process industry to embrace advanced theoretical developments and will act as a benchmark to promote future links between Australian industry and academia.Read moreRead less
Dynamic CFD Simulations and Scale-Up of Three-Phase Slurry Reactors for Gas-to-Liquid (GTL) Technology. The gas-liquid-solid flow patterns in three-phase slurry bubble column reactors will be studied using experiments and CFD. The effect of various reactor parameters will be studied to develop the scale-up heuristic for the slurry bubble column reactor. The Findings of this study will be used to optimise the reactor system for the offshore natural gas locations of Australia. A successful impleme ....Dynamic CFD Simulations and Scale-Up of Three-Phase Slurry Reactors for Gas-to-Liquid (GTL) Technology. The gas-liquid-solid flow patterns in three-phase slurry bubble column reactors will be studied using experiments and CFD. The effect of various reactor parameters will be studied to develop the scale-up heuristic for the slurry bubble column reactor. The Findings of this study will be used to optimise the reactor system for the offshore natural gas locations of Australia. A successful implementation of this project will bring a huge economic benefit to Australia by utilising the vast amount of remotely located and otherwise unusable stranded natural gas reserves. The project falls within one of National Research Priorities: An Environmentally Sustainable Australia.Read moreRead less
Wavelet approaches for solving nonlinear dynamic systems in process engineering. The success of the proposed project will enable us to obtain more accurate numerical solutions for the nonlinear dynamical systems arising from process engineering. This ensures the potential for understanding and optimising industrial and engineering processes. Hence, a wide range of processing industries in Australia, such as agricultural chemicals, mineral processing, food, detergents, pharmaceuticals, ceramics ....Wavelet approaches for solving nonlinear dynamic systems in process engineering. The success of the proposed project will enable us to obtain more accurate numerical solutions for the nonlinear dynamical systems arising from process engineering. This ensures the potential for understanding and optimising industrial and engineering processes. Hence, a wide range of processing industries in Australia, such as agricultural chemicals, mineral processing, food, detergents, pharmaceuticals, ceramics and specialty chemicals will benefit from the results of this project. This will ensure globally competitive production and, therefore, greater contributions to the Australian economy.Read moreRead less
An innovative computational technique for the study and control of oscillation marks in continuous casting of steel. The project addresses an important problem in steel making industry. The success of the project will lead to a comprehensive understanding of the continuous steel casting process and the development of an innovative computational technique for the analysis of the process, which is important for the optimal control of the process. As Australia has a huge amount of mineral resources ....An innovative computational technique for the study and control of oscillation marks in continuous casting of steel. The project addresses an important problem in steel making industry. The success of the project will lead to a comprehensive understanding of the continuous steel casting process and the development of an innovative computational technique for the analysis of the process, which is important for the optimal control of the process. As Australia has a huge amount of mineral resources, improvement of the steel casting technology will result in great economic and social benefit. It will increase the revenue from the steelmaking industry and ensure the Australian steelmaking industry to be internationally competitive. The project will also lead to the production of a number of graduates with expertise directly useful to our local industry. Read moreRead less
Patient-specific Computational Tools for Diagnosing and Treating Gait Disorders in Children with Cerebral Palsy. This proposal addresses one of the most fundamental and difficult questions related to the treatment of children with cerebral palsy: Why do these children walk in a crouched position, with excessively bent hips and knees? High-fidelity, patient-specific computer simulations of walking can help to answer this question and, in so doing, can improve the outcomes of orthopaedic surgeries ....Patient-specific Computational Tools for Diagnosing and Treating Gait Disorders in Children with Cerebral Palsy. This proposal addresses one of the most fundamental and difficult questions related to the treatment of children with cerebral palsy: Why do these children walk in a crouched position, with excessively bent hips and knees? High-fidelity, patient-specific computer simulations of walking can help to answer this question and, in so doing, can improve the outcomes of orthopaedic surgeries designed to correct movement abnormalities in these patients. Realistic computer simulations of human movement can play a pivotal role in healthcare through patient rehabilitation; in sports, through the development of personalized training programs for elite athletes; and in entertainment, through the creation of video games and animated films.Read moreRead less
Non-invasive assessment of hip fracture risk in elderly people. No falls, no fractures - this will be the main benefit of the proposed research. The most significant outcome will be new computational tools to improve current understanding of the biomechanics of falls and bone fragility in elderly people, which, in turn, will help to reduce healthcare costs associated with the treatment and management of hip fractures. Realistic models and computer simulations of human movement can play a pivota ....Non-invasive assessment of hip fracture risk in elderly people. No falls, no fractures - this will be the main benefit of the proposed research. The most significant outcome will be new computational tools to improve current understanding of the biomechanics of falls and bone fragility in elderly people, which, in turn, will help to reduce healthcare costs associated with the treatment and management of hip fractures. Realistic models and computer simulations of human movement can play a pivotal role in three of Australia's largest industries: healthcare, through the diagnosis and treatment of movement disorders; sports, through the development of personalized training programs for elite athletes; and entertainment, through the development of video/digital games and animated films.Read moreRead less
A Control Systems Approach for Understanding Human Locomotion. This proposal addresses fundamental, difficult questions in the context of human movement: How do muscles move our limbs during walking? How do the nervous system and muscles work together to control movement? Realistic computer simulations of human movement can help answer these questions and, in so doing, can play a pivotal role in three of Australia's largest industries: healthcare, through clinical gait analysis and gait rehabili ....A Control Systems Approach for Understanding Human Locomotion. This proposal addresses fundamental, difficult questions in the context of human movement: How do muscles move our limbs during walking? How do the nervous system and muscles work together to control movement? Realistic computer simulations of human movement can help answer these questions and, in so doing, can play a pivotal role in three of Australia's largest industries: healthcare, through clinical gait analysis and gait rehabilitation (diagnosis and treatment of movement disorders); sports, through the development of personalized training programs for elite athletes; and entertainment, through the development of video/digital games and animated films (creation of virtual life-like actors).Read moreRead less
Patient-specific computational tools for evaluating functional performance of total knee replacements in vivo. Knee replacement surgery is the established treatment for end-stage osteoarthritis. This proposal addresses one of the most fundamental questions related to knee replacement surgery: Why do total knee replacements fail? High-fidelity, patient-specific computer simulations of walking can help to answer this question and, in so doing, can improve the functional performance and longevity o ....Patient-specific computational tools for evaluating functional performance of total knee replacements in vivo. Knee replacement surgery is the established treatment for end-stage osteoarthritis. This proposal addresses one of the most fundamental questions related to knee replacement surgery: Why do total knee replacements fail? High-fidelity, patient-specific computer simulations of walking can help to answer this question and, in so doing, can improve the functional performance and longevity of current knee implant designs. Realistic computer simulations of human movement also can play a pivotal role in healthcare through patient rehabilitation; in sports, through the development of personalized training programs for elite athletes; and in entertainment, through the creation of video games and animated films.Read moreRead less
Nonlinear Dynamics of Pulse Coupled Oscillators. A mathematical model of the heart pacemaker system will be created, based on simple interacting units. These units have been shown to be good models of physiological information e.g. the discrimination of different influences on heart rate. We will firstly look at the interaction of the units in simple combinations and then tune the model to mimic the behaviour of the cardiac pacemaker.
Potential benefits may arise from elucidating the mechanis ....Nonlinear Dynamics of Pulse Coupled Oscillators. A mathematical model of the heart pacemaker system will be created, based on simple interacting units. These units have been shown to be good models of physiological information e.g. the discrimination of different influences on heart rate. We will firstly look at the interaction of the units in simple combinations and then tune the model to mimic the behaviour of the cardiac pacemaker.
Potential benefits may arise from elucidating the mechanisms underlying arrhythmias which contribute to ?sudden cardiac death? in young men, and suggesting strategies for artificial pacemakers to effectively arrest abnormal rhythms before they convert to potentially fatal fibrillation.Read moreRead less
Bayesian Inference for Multivariate Hierarchical Regression Models. This project will develop Bayesian methodology for analysing multivariate regression models. The distribution of each measurement can be discrete or continuous, with the dependence between measurements obtained through the correlation matrix of a Gaussian copula. Model parsimony is obtained by identifying zero elements in the correlation matrix or its inverse and by variable selection on the regression parameters. The results wi ....Bayesian Inference for Multivariate Hierarchical Regression Models. This project will develop Bayesian methodology for analysing multivariate regression models. The distribution of each measurement can be discrete or continuous, with the dependence between measurements obtained through the correlation matrix of a Gaussian copula. Model parsimony is obtained by identifying zero elements in the correlation matrix or its inverse and by variable selection on the regression parameters. The results will be applied to solve problems in finance, health management and marketing. In all these fields multiple observations are often taken per individual or time period and the models need to incorporate measures of dependence and uncertainty.Read moreRead less