Internal wave energetics, mixing and transport in lakes. The aim of this project is to increase our understanding of the physical processes controlling water quality in lakes. Water supplies world-wide are under increasing pressure from development, usually resulting in decreasing water quality. The biology and chemistry in lakes is controlled primarily by physical processes, and so understanding these processes is crucial to managing water quality in lakes and reservoirs. The outcomes of this p ....Internal wave energetics, mixing and transport in lakes. The aim of this project is to increase our understanding of the physical processes controlling water quality in lakes. Water supplies world-wide are under increasing pressure from development, usually resulting in decreasing water quality. The biology and chemistry in lakes is controlled primarily by physical processes, and so understanding these processes is crucial to managing water quality in lakes and reservoirs. The outcomes of this project will be improved tools for the management of these water resources, as all the research findings will be incorporated into already existing numerical models for lake management.Read moreRead less
Linkage Infrastructure, Equipment And Facilities - Grant ID: LE130100089
Funder
Australian Research Council
Funding Amount
$500,000.00
Summary
Performance level structural testing facility. A structural testing facility is proposed for the new Advanced Engineering Building at The University of Queensland. The focus of the research supported by this facility will ensure the functionality of Australia’s infrastructure resources and the development of new engineering solutions that will enhance the country’s long-term economic growth.
Bridge performance assessment through advanced sensing and modelling. Bridge performance assessment through advanced sensing and modelling. This project aims to create cyber infrastructure to manage and maintain civil infrastructure, specifically bridges. Current sensor data interpretation approaches are not good at assessing the performance of civil infrastructure or evaluating the reserve capacity; in particular, they do not adequately account for high levels of systematic modelling uncertaint ....Bridge performance assessment through advanced sensing and modelling. Bridge performance assessment through advanced sensing and modelling. This project aims to create cyber infrastructure to manage and maintain civil infrastructure, specifically bridges. Current sensor data interpretation approaches are not good at assessing the performance of civil infrastructure or evaluating the reserve capacity; in particular, they do not adequately account for high levels of systematic modelling uncertainties. This project intends to ease the current scientific data interpretation bottleneck. Expected outcomes are better infrastructure management and maintenance planning, fewer redundant interventions, modified infrastructure and improved future design.Read moreRead less
Sustainability of water and wastewater treatment chemicals. In recent years, the environmental design and management of water and wastewater treatment facilities has broadened from consideration of water quality outcomes to include the environmental consequences of energy and material inputs. This has produced nationally agreed approaches to estimating greenhouse gas emissions from power consumption, but for important chemical additives analysts are forced to work with low-quality estimated dat ....Sustainability of water and wastewater treatment chemicals. In recent years, the environmental design and management of water and wastewater treatment facilities has broadened from consideration of water quality outcomes to include the environmental consequences of energy and material inputs. This has produced nationally agreed approaches to estimating greenhouse gas emissions from power consumption, but for important chemical additives analysts are forced to work with low-quality estimated data. In a time when society wants to account for the 'carbon-footprint' of decisions and more broadly consider the resources used and emissions produced by industry, this research will make this quantitatively possible for chemicals used in water and wastewater treatment.Read moreRead less
Linkage Infrastructure, Equipment And Facilities - Grant ID: LE130100028
Funder
Australian Research Council
Funding Amount
$300,000.00
Summary
A national facility for in situ testing of soft soils. A mobile in situ testing laboratory will permit the investigation of devices for measuring geotechnical conditions on soft and swampy sites which are often being encountered on key infrastructure projects. The new facility will improve the modelling and testing of soft soils and ensure the safe and economic development of Australian infrastructure.
Smart transformation of transport asset management through semantic web. This project aims to develop a novel asset management information model to improve the overall effectiveness of decision making in transport asset management. The project intends to provide logical formalisms and semantic features to value-adding asset information in key asset management areas. The expected outcome will be a new value-based asset management information model which provides semantically enriched asset inform ....Smart transformation of transport asset management through semantic web. This project aims to develop a novel asset management information model to improve the overall effectiveness of decision making in transport asset management. The project intends to provide logical formalisms and semantic features to value-adding asset information in key asset management areas. The expected outcome will be a new value-based asset management information model which provides semantically enriched asset information for decision-making concerning transport asset management. This will help reduce the cost, duration and effort required to acquire relevant asset information and improve the quality and data availability of current transport asset management systems.Read moreRead less
ARC Centre of Excellence for Geotechnical Science and Engineering. To pioneer new scientific approaches for geotechnical design of Australia's energy and transport infrastructure. Australia will spend over $250 billion during the next five years on the provision of physical infrastructure for energy and transport, which is the critical importance to the nation's future prosperity. The Centre for Geotechnical Science and Engineering will develop new computational and experimental approaches to un ....ARC Centre of Excellence for Geotechnical Science and Engineering. To pioneer new scientific approaches for geotechnical design of Australia's energy and transport infrastructure. Australia will spend over $250 billion during the next five years on the provision of physical infrastructure for energy and transport, which is the critical importance to the nation's future prosperity. The Centre for Geotechnical Science and Engineering will develop new computational and experimental approaches to underpin the geotechnical design of this infrastructure and provide a national focus for geotechnical research. New scientific approaches and software for designing cheaper and safer infrastructure in the energy and transport sectors.Read moreRead less
Linkage Infrastructure, Equipment And Facilities - Grant ID: LE120100011
Funder
Australian Research Council
Funding Amount
$700,000.00
Summary
The national geotechnical centrifuge facility. A new geotechnical centrifuge will enable the modelling of complex offshore and onshore structures. The new facility will support many geotechnical fields, associated with the economical and geographical development of Australia, and ensure that Australia will maintain its leadership within the international physical modelling community.
Containment and Reduction of Rework in Transport Mega Projects. Mega transport projects (>$1 billion) are poorly managed during their construction with significant cost and schedule overruns and benefit shortfalls regularly being experienced. Having to perform rework has been identified as a major factor that contributes to these unintended consequences. As there has been limited research that has empirically examined rework causation, an inability to develop effective rework containment and red ....Containment and Reduction of Rework in Transport Mega Projects. Mega transport projects (>$1 billion) are poorly managed during their construction with significant cost and schedule overruns and benefit shortfalls regularly being experienced. Having to perform rework has been identified as a major factor that contributes to these unintended consequences. As there has been limited research that has empirically examined rework causation, an inability to develop effective rework containment and reduction strategies prevails. This research aims to develop a theoretical model that can be used to develop robust containment and reduction strategies to mitigate the adverse economic, productivity and safety consequences that materialize from performing rework during the construction of mega transport projects.Read moreRead less
Fluorescence as a tool for sensitive detection of failures in recycled water treatment and distribution systems. Water reuse is emerging as a key strategy for the conservation of drinking water supplies around Australia. Accordingly, there is a need for fast, reliable, affordable and highly sensitive means of ensuring the reliability of treatment processes and final water quality. This research aims to meet such needs by providing new tools based on fluorescence analysis. These tools are to be i ....Fluorescence as a tool for sensitive detection of failures in recycled water treatment and distribution systems. Water reuse is emerging as a key strategy for the conservation of drinking water supplies around Australia. Accordingly, there is a need for fast, reliable, affordable and highly sensitive means of ensuring the reliability of treatment processes and final water quality. This research aims to meet such needs by providing new tools based on fluorescence analysis. These tools are to be implemented for online monitoring of treatment performance and for the identification of accidental contamination of drinking waters by recycled water. The enhanced ability to ensure both recycled water quality and drinking water quality will have public health and environmental benefits as well as protecting public confidence in water recycling systems.Read moreRead less