Innovative and human-centred design in underground coalmining: a new concept vehicle for safe personnel transport. Australian coalminers commute daily on a system of underground roads to the ‘longwall’, the site where their work can begin, in vehicles that are primitive by aboveground standards. These current vehicles contribute to short- and long-term injuries amongst mining personnel. This project will develop benchmark standards for an innovative underground personnel carrier that promotes a ....Innovative and human-centred design in underground coalmining: a new concept vehicle for safe personnel transport. Australian coalminers commute daily on a system of underground roads to the ‘longwall’, the site where their work can begin, in vehicles that are primitive by aboveground standards. These current vehicles contribute to short- and long-term injuries amongst mining personnel. This project will develop benchmark standards for an innovative underground personnel carrier that promotes a safer and healthier working environment by contributing to reduced injury rates and ensuring the comfort of workers. This project contributes to the health and welfare of coalminers in regional Australia and in the international mining sector through innovative and ’human-centred’ design.Read moreRead less
Variable Geometry Cooling Intakes for Passenger Vehicles. Cars reject engine heat via air forced through the grille, radiator and engine bay. The associated "cooling drag" increases total aerodynamic drag by 10-15% hence increasing fuel consumption. The highest heat load that needs to be rejected by the engine determines the quantity of cooling air, resulting in systems that are over designed for typical driving. This research provides a strategy of adjusting the cooling airflow to match the ....Variable Geometry Cooling Intakes for Passenger Vehicles. Cars reject engine heat via air forced through the grille, radiator and engine bay. The associated "cooling drag" increases total aerodynamic drag by 10-15% hence increasing fuel consumption. The highest heat load that needs to be rejected by the engine determines the quantity of cooling air, resulting in systems that are over designed for typical driving. This research provides a strategy of adjusting the cooling airflow to match the engine requirements (via variable geometry intakes that can be under the control of the engine management computer) offering substantial reductions in fuel consumption and emissions.Read moreRead less
Plastic deformation and failure of high strength rail steels in heavy haul transportation of mineral products. The Australian Government has made infrastructure, including rail, as a national priority for investment to meet the freight transport demand. This project focuses on the deformation and failure of rail in heavy haul lines to transport ores in the mining industry. The outcomes will be applied to ensure the structural integrity of rail infrastructure.
A Robotic System for Steel Bridge Maintenance. This research will bring enormous benefits to Australian community by significantly reducing the environmental impact of civil infrastructure maintenance operations, and improving the working conditions of maintenance workers by minimising their exposure to dust containing hazardous materials. Bridges are a key link that supports rural communities. Besides the 426 steel road bridges in NSW, many hundreds steel road/rail bridges and other steel infra ....A Robotic System for Steel Bridge Maintenance. This research will bring enormous benefits to Australian community by significantly reducing the environmental impact of civil infrastructure maintenance operations, and improving the working conditions of maintenance workers by minimising their exposure to dust containing hazardous materials. Bridges are a key link that supports rural communities. Besides the 426 steel road bridges in NSW, many hundreds steel road/rail bridges and other steel infrastructure in Australia need regular paint stripping and repainting. Australia will gain significant economic and health benefits from commercialising the advanced technologies developed by this project, and become a world leader in developing autonomous systems for infrastructure maintenance.Read moreRead less
Vibration-based health monitoring of aero-engine bearings . This project will develop new vibration-based techniques to greatly improve the detection and diagnosis of faults in aero engine bearings from in-flight measurements. To achieve this goal, advances will be made on source separation algorithms to extract the weak bearing signals, and signal processing techniques to extract features for diagnosing bearing fault severity and lubrication conditions, under a wide range of operating condition ....Vibration-based health monitoring of aero-engine bearings . This project will develop new vibration-based techniques to greatly improve the detection and diagnosis of faults in aero engine bearings from in-flight measurements. To achieve this goal, advances will be made on source separation algorithms to extract the weak bearing signals, and signal processing techniques to extract features for diagnosing bearing fault severity and lubrication conditions, under a wide range of operating conditions. A bearing degradation model will estimate the remaining useful life. Since rolling element bearings are among the most critical components in most machines, the results of this research will also provide massive benefits in other sectors such as mining, transportation, energy production and manufacturing.Read moreRead less
TRANSIENT VIBRATION IN PIPELINE SYSTEMS. Although the threat of transient vibration to the safety of pipeline systems has been widely recognised, neither the coupling characteristics in transient wave propagation are clearly understood, nor accurate tools are available for analysing them. The aims of this project are to develop effective analytical and experimental methods, to study the interactions between transient waves of different types at pipe joints and bends, and to experimentally charac ....TRANSIENT VIBRATION IN PIPELINE SYSTEMS. Although the threat of transient vibration to the safety of pipeline systems has been widely recognised, neither the coupling characteristics in transient wave propagation are clearly understood, nor accurate tools are available for analysing them. The aims of this project are to develop effective analytical and experimental methods, to study the interactions between transient waves of different types at pipe joints and bends, and to experimentally characterise the transient excitations. The understanding and techniques developed from this project hold promise in providing reliable tools for safe design of complex pipeline systems in petroleum, chemical and refinery industries.Read moreRead less
Novel vibro-acoustic technologies for detecting bearing and wheel defects in rail vehicles. Research will be conducted to provide the basis for the development of a novel automatic system that detects bearing and wheel defects in under-way railway wagons, thus helping to prevent catastrophic derailments and minimise fuel consumption. It will also maintain Australian industry at the forefront of the global track-side monitoring industry.