A new generation high crash energy absorbing barrier for improved road safety. The new, high energy absorbing road safety barrier developed in this project will provide better protection for all road users than current barriers by reducing the severity of car crashes. Current road barriers result in an average loss of 1600 lives in Australia annually, including a disproportionate number of young lives. The new barrier will be highly efficient in absorbing collisions from vehicles travelling at s ....A new generation high crash energy absorbing barrier for improved road safety. The new, high energy absorbing road safety barrier developed in this project will provide better protection for all road users than current barriers by reducing the severity of car crashes. Current road barriers result in an average loss of 1600 lives in Australia annually, including a disproportionate number of young lives. The new barrier will be highly efficient in absorbing collisions from vehicles travelling at speeds between 60 to over a 100 kilometres per hour. Installation of the new road safety barrier systems in high accident zones will save lives by reducing the severity of accidents involving road barriers. This will significantly benefit the community by reducing injury, medical, rehabilitation and property damage costs, and improve quality of life for all road users.Read moreRead less
Development of a novel mobile sensory system for bridge health monitoring. The aim of this project is to provide accurate, rapid and cost-effective ‘health checks’ for bridges. Transportation infrastructures are subject to continuous degradation due to the environment, ageing and excess loading. This project plans to develop a vehicle equipped with sensors as a mobile sensing platform to catch the dynamic interaction between the vehicle and the bridge. The interaction information would be used t ....Development of a novel mobile sensory system for bridge health monitoring. The aim of this project is to provide accurate, rapid and cost-effective ‘health checks’ for bridges. Transportation infrastructures are subject to continuous degradation due to the environment, ageing and excess loading. This project plans to develop a vehicle equipped with sensors as a mobile sensing platform to catch the dynamic interaction between the vehicle and the bridge. The interaction information would be used to assess the health of the bridge infrastructure through substructuring techniques. The expected output of this project would enable managers to monitor the structural conditions and provide an economical infrastructure asset management scheme to protect the structure and human lives.Read moreRead less
Risky Business: Using biological systems to mitigate risk in supply chains and transportation networks. In an uncertain world, resilient supply chains are crucial for getting products and services to consumers. However, the algorithms used to design and manage supply chains are inadequate to deal with the increasingly complex and self-organised nature of modern supply chains. This project will look to nature for new solutions to supply chain design and management problems. Natural systems are hi ....Risky Business: Using biological systems to mitigate risk in supply chains and transportation networks. In an uncertain world, resilient supply chains are crucial for getting products and services to consumers. However, the algorithms used to design and manage supply chains are inadequate to deal with the increasingly complex and self-organised nature of modern supply chains. This project will look to nature for new solutions to supply chain design and management problems. Natural systems are highly resilient against perturbations and damage. They have had millions of years to evolve efficient solutions to the same problems currently facing supply chains. Using experiments on ants and slime moulds. This project will uncover the secrets of biological resilience, and use this insight to develop new algorithms for supply chain design and management. Read moreRead less
Development of Intelligent Structures that can Self-evaluate Deterioration. This project aims to transform traditional civil structures into smart structures that can accurately identify current and future structural deterioration conditions and automatically notify the infrastructure management authority for timely maintenance. Civil structures deteriorate over their long life spans. Currently, we have no effective method to identify when deterioration has reached the point where maintenance is ....Development of Intelligent Structures that can Self-evaluate Deterioration. This project aims to transform traditional civil structures into smart structures that can accurately identify current and future structural deterioration conditions and automatically notify the infrastructure management authority for timely maintenance. Civil structures deteriorate over their long life spans. Currently, we have no effective method to identify when deterioration has reached the point where maintenance is required. The project plans to develop innovative structural deterioration evaluation systems using output-only vibration data and versatile optimisation algorithms to enable long-term deterioration assessment and maintenance management even under demanding operating conditions. These could be used with both conventional data acquisition systems and modern monitoring systems with smart wireless sensors. Expected project outcomes will enhance structural safety and maintenance efficiency.Read moreRead less
Stress Evaluation with Non-Linear Guided Waves. This project plans to investigate a novel approach for in situ measurement of stress in structures based on an internal resonance phenomenon for nonlinear guided waves. Monitoring the stress level of critical structural components is important to ensure structural safety. The project plans to derive the requirements for this internal resonance and its dependence on stress analytically and verify them experimentally for both simple waveguides and mo ....Stress Evaluation with Non-Linear Guided Waves. This project plans to investigate a novel approach for in situ measurement of stress in structures based on an internal resonance phenomenon for nonlinear guided waves. Monitoring the stress level of critical structural components is important to ensure structural safety. The project plans to derive the requirements for this internal resonance and its dependence on stress analytically and verify them experimentally for both simple waveguides and more realistic structures. The expected outcome is the demonstration of the feasibility of a new inexpensive method for continuous monitoring of applied or thermally-induced stresses, which is of great importance in several engineering contexts, such as modern railway track rails, pipelines or pre-stressed strands in concrete structures.Read moreRead less
Novel quantitative sizing of inaccessible and hard-to-inspect defects to address the challenges posed by innovations in airframe design. Modern unitised aircraft structures cannot be reliably inspected using traditional techniques. This project will develop new techniques to quantify defects required for this innovation in aircraft component design. This research will improve the through-life support of future metallic and composite aircraft structures and improve air safety.
Discovery Early Career Researcher Award - Grant ID: DE160101633
Funder
Australian Research Council
Funding Amount
$360,000.00
Summary
Multiscale design of hierarchical structures for crashworthiness. This project intends to develop new hierarchical materials and structures for light weight and crashworthiness by mimicking impact-bearing biological materials. Environmental and road safety concerns mean that vehicles must try to compromise between light weight, to reduce fuel consumption, and crashworthiness. To some extent, design optimisation of conventional materials and structures has reached its limits. This project aims to ....Multiscale design of hierarchical structures for crashworthiness. This project intends to develop new hierarchical materials and structures for light weight and crashworthiness by mimicking impact-bearing biological materials. Environmental and road safety concerns mean that vehicles must try to compromise between light weight, to reduce fuel consumption, and crashworthiness. To some extent, design optimisation of conventional materials and structures has reached its limits. This project aims to develop new biomimetic multiscale design methods to generate novel hierarchical structures for automotive applications. The study is expected to provide the automotive industry with novel approaches and designs to improve both the weight and crashworthiness of vehicles.Read moreRead less
Nanosilver antimicrobial resistance in target pathogens. This project aims to elucidate the important phenomena of bacterial resistance to antimicrobial nanosilver, currently one of the most developed and commercialised products of nanotechnology. The integrated research approach comprises of concurrent identification of the origins and routes of nanosilver toxicity in bacteria and the arising emergence and mechanisms of bacterial defence to the toxicity. The generated knowledge is to form a bas ....Nanosilver antimicrobial resistance in target pathogens. This project aims to elucidate the important phenomena of bacterial resistance to antimicrobial nanosilver, currently one of the most developed and commercialised products of nanotechnology. The integrated research approach comprises of concurrent identification of the origins and routes of nanosilver toxicity in bacteria and the arising emergence and mechanisms of bacterial defence to the toxicity. The generated knowledge is to form a base template for novel nanosilver engineering with less tendency for resistance development and to facilitate tracking of resistance and its spread amongst microorganisms. The knowledge has far-reaching implications on the better governance of nanosilver use, including its disposal.Read moreRead less
Maximum entropy modelling and Bayesian inference in turbulent fluid mechanics. Fluid turbulence, characterised by fluctuating properties such as velocity and density, remains one of the great unsolved problems of science, due to the difficulty of calculating the Reynolds stresses created by the turbulence. This project will bring a new technique, the maximum entropy method of Jaynes, to this challenge, for the formulation and closure of theoretical and reduced-order numerical models of turbulent ....Maximum entropy modelling and Bayesian inference in turbulent fluid mechanics. Fluid turbulence, characterised by fluctuating properties such as velocity and density, remains one of the great unsolved problems of science, due to the difficulty of calculating the Reynolds stresses created by the turbulence. This project will bring a new technique, the maximum entropy method of Jaynes, to this challenge, for the formulation and closure of theoretical and reduced-order numerical models of turbulent flows. Several well-characterised case study flows, of importance to human society, will be examined. Turbulent flow models will also be constructed by maximum-entropy and Bayesian methods directly from experimental data. The project will substantially enhance our ability to predict the behaviour of turbulent flows.Read moreRead less
Sensitivity Analysis of Networked Feedback Systems. This project is concerned with the analysis of networks of interacting dynamic feedback systems. This fundamental area of research underpins transportation networks, biomolecular signalling networks, economic systems, water supply, smart electricity grids, communications and a range of other applications. This work aims to address critical questions relating to robustness and sensitivity analysis questions in this context. This fundamental adva ....Sensitivity Analysis of Networked Feedback Systems. This project is concerned with the analysis of networks of interacting dynamic feedback systems. This fundamental area of research underpins transportation networks, biomolecular signalling networks, economic systems, water supply, smart electricity grids, communications and a range of other applications. This work aims to address critical questions relating to robustness and sensitivity analysis questions in this context. This fundamental advance in knowledge is expected to advance Australia's standing as an international authority in the area.Read moreRead less