Thermo-hydro-mechanics of geosynthetic liners: from processes to prediction. This project aims to resolve the complex interactions affecting the long-term performance of geosynthetic liner systems under harsh environmental conditions for preventing groundwater contamination. Failures of waste containment lining systems result in millions of dollars remedial costs and high societal costs. The project expects to underpin the development of an experimentally-validated theory to predict the performa ....Thermo-hydro-mechanics of geosynthetic liners: from processes to prediction. This project aims to resolve the complex interactions affecting the long-term performance of geosynthetic liner systems under harsh environmental conditions for preventing groundwater contamination. Failures of waste containment lining systems result in millions of dollars remedial costs and high societal costs. The project expects to underpin the development of an experimentally-validated theory to predict the performance of geosynthetic liner systems at high temperatures. Expected outcomes of the project are the establishment of a new conceptual framework and providing new guidelines for the design of geosynthetic liner systems for environmental protection. These outcomes are expected to benefit the waste and mining industries by informing planning, decision makers, consultants and construction engineers with science-based information on new lining systems for landfills and mining and industry waste containment.Read moreRead less
Topological Optimization of Load-carrying Structural Systems with Repetitive Geometrical Patterns. Periodic structures are increasingly used in the design of the structural systems or sub-systems of buildings, bridges, aircraft, motor vehicles etc. The duplication of identical or similar modules significantly reduces the production cost and greatly simplifies the assembly process. In many cases periodic structures are also selected for their distinctive aesthetic appeal. The proposed research wi ....Topological Optimization of Load-carrying Structural Systems with Repetitive Geometrical Patterns. Periodic structures are increasingly used in the design of the structural systems or sub-systems of buildings, bridges, aircraft, motor vehicles etc. The duplication of identical or similar modules significantly reduces the production cost and greatly simplifies the assembly process. In many cases periodic structures are also selected for their distinctive aesthetic appeal. The proposed research will develop advanced techniques for the optimal design of such structures. The new design tool will enable Australian engineers and architects to create innovative and efficient structural systems for a wide range of applications and to become involved in high profile international projects. Read moreRead less
Socially Oriented Requirements Engineering - Software Engineering meets Ethnography. The project should lead to the design and development of better software/information and communications technologies in the homes of Australians, that encourage flexible social ineractions, and has been designed with the user in mind.
Power system security assessment given massive intermittent energy sources. This project aims to develop new models and analysis methods to investigate the impact of massive intermittent energy sources (IESs) on the performance and security of power grids. Furthermore, advanced control strategies will be developed to enhance the security. The outcomes can provide useful guidelines to assist the Australian power industry and the government in realising the renewable energy target. Furthermore con ....Power system security assessment given massive intermittent energy sources. This project aims to develop new models and analysis methods to investigate the impact of massive intermittent energy sources (IESs) on the performance and security of power grids. Furthermore, advanced control strategies will be developed to enhance the security. The outcomes can provide useful guidelines to assist the Australian power industry and the government in realising the renewable energy target. Furthermore considering serious blackout can not only cause economic losses, but also larger disturbance in other critical infrastructure, this project also contributes to national security.Read moreRead less
Studying Discretisation Behaviours in Variable Structure Control Systems. Variable structure control is a technology that helps build very simple and effective switching control devices for dealing with environmental uncertainties, which are widely used, for example, in industrial control systems/processes. The outcomes from this research will help the understanding of control performance deterioration due to discretisation and developing effective measures for protection from possible ill beha ....Studying Discretisation Behaviours in Variable Structure Control Systems. Variable structure control is a technology that helps build very simple and effective switching control devices for dealing with environmental uncertainties, which are widely used, for example, in industrial control systems/processes. The outcomes from this research will help the understanding of control performance deterioration due to discretisation and developing effective measures for protection from possible ill behaviours of these control devices. This research will place Australia in the forefront of the development of this new technology, resulting in enhanced reliability of control devices, improved productivity and cost saving for industries, and consequent improvement in quality of life.Read moreRead less
Managing conflicts in requirements engineering with argumentation frameworks. This project proposes to employ argumentation theory and frameworks to tackle the problem of conflict management and resolution in requirements engineering. Australia has a strong competitive advantage in the areas of belief change and conflict management. The outcomes of this project will provide an improved infrastructure for several areas of software engineering, including requirements engineering and software evol ....Managing conflicts in requirements engineering with argumentation frameworks. This project proposes to employ argumentation theory and frameworks to tackle the problem of conflict management and resolution in requirements engineering. Australia has a strong competitive advantage in the areas of belief change and conflict management. The outcomes of this project will provide an improved infrastructure for several areas of software engineering, including requirements engineering and software evolution management. More broadly, the work proposed here will enable the IT industry to adopt and utilise the techniques developed in a number of research fields of Artificial Intelligence in developing the robust and reliable software systems for the rapidly changing knowledge economy of the 21st century.Read moreRead less
Efficient and Robust Bi-directional Evolutionary Structural Optimisation Method for Large-scale Three-dimensional Topological Design. Structural optimisation is a process of searching for the best shape and topology of an engineering structure which will consume the least amount of material or energy. This project aims to further investigate the Bi-directional Structural Optimisation (BESO) method which has recently been proposed by the applicant's team. New algorithms will be developed to subst ....Efficient and Robust Bi-directional Evolutionary Structural Optimisation Method for Large-scale Three-dimensional Topological Design. Structural optimisation is a process of searching for the best shape and topology of an engineering structure which will consume the least amount of material or energy. This project aims to further investigate the Bi-directional Structural Optimisation (BESO) method which has recently been proposed by the applicant's team. New algorithms will be developed to substantially improve the efficiency and robustness of the BESO method. The expected outcome of the project is a simple and effective optimisation technique that can be used for the conceptual design of a wide range of engineering structures.Read moreRead less
Resilient Remote Environment Emulation for Human-to-Machine Communication. Human-to-machine haptic communication allow humans to immersively interact with remotely-located robots/machines. Current networks cannot support its technical demands, thereby limiting the achievable human-machine distance. This project aims to develop cloudlet intelligence together with a programmable resilient network to realise reliable remote environment emulation, a concept where the physical environment at the remo ....Resilient Remote Environment Emulation for Human-to-Machine Communication. Human-to-machine haptic communication allow humans to immersively interact with remotely-located robots/machines. Current networks cannot support its technical demands, thereby limiting the achievable human-machine distance. This project aims to develop cloudlet intelligence together with a programmable resilient network to realise reliable remote environment emulation, a concept where the physical environment at the remote machine is emulated close to the human. A key outcome will be the first reliable remote environment emulation platform that achieves vast human-machine distances on current networks. Enabling immersive human-machine experience will significantly benefit many sectors, from education through to industrial manufacturing.Read moreRead less
Computational modelling of nanofluids for industrial applications. The use of nanoparticles in heat transfer fluids, then known as nanofluids, increases their specific heat and thermal conductivity. Recent experimental works highlight that anomalous transport phenomena are evident in nanofluids that cannot be adequately described by classical conservation laws. We will extend these conservation laws to incorporate fractional operators to capture the fluid memory effects and the impact of particl ....Computational modelling of nanofluids for industrial applications. The use of nanoparticles in heat transfer fluids, then known as nanofluids, increases their specific heat and thermal conductivity. Recent experimental works highlight that anomalous transport phenomena are evident in nanofluids that cannot be adequately described by classical conservation laws. We will extend these conservation laws to incorporate fractional operators to capture the fluid memory effects and the impact of particle clustering. Computational modelling and experimental investigations will be undertaken to identify the heat transfer mechanisms of various nanofluids. The outcomes of the work will increase knowledge on nanofluids and offer a significant opportunity to improve the efficiency of many thermal engineering systems.Read moreRead less
Multi-Ontologies meet UML: Improving the Software Engineering of Multi-Agent Systems. Multi-agent systems are a new style of software well suited for open, dynamic, distributed, global, heterogeneous environments such as the Internet. Systematic methods are needed to allow multi-agent systems to reason effectively with high level knowledge. This research draws on software engineering practice to develop a theory and methodology for multi-ontologies for expressing knowledge within multi-agent sys ....Multi-Ontologies meet UML: Improving the Software Engineering of Multi-Agent Systems. Multi-agent systems are a new style of software well suited for open, dynamic, distributed, global, heterogeneous environments such as the Internet. Systematic methods are needed to allow multi-agent systems to reason effectively with high level knowledge. This research draws on software engineering practice to develop a theory and methodology for multi-ontologies for expressing knowledge within multi-agent systems that facilitate adaptation and change.
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