Dynamic Controllability Analysis for Plantwide Process Design and Control. World-wide chemical plants represent many billions of dollars of investment. Improvements to the process designs in terms of controllability would have the potential to provide large economic benefits, as it implies improved productivity, reduced operating costs and product variability. This proposed research will be a step towards integration of process design and control, which has been widely recognized as the key to t ....Dynamic Controllability Analysis for Plantwide Process Design and Control. World-wide chemical plants represent many billions of dollars of investment. Improvements to the process designs in terms of controllability would have the potential to provide large economic benefits, as it implies improved productivity, reduced operating costs and product variability. This proposed research will be a step towards integration of process design and control, which has been widely recognized as the key to this improvement. The outcomes from this project may be readily implemented in process design practice, and therefore have a direct impact to the Australian and world-wide process industries, helping to build a more efficient and environmental conscious Australian process industries.Read moreRead less
Complex Architecture and Convergent Design. After breaking the design code for Gaudí's Sagrada Família Church in 1979, completing the still unfinished church has required Mark Burry to pioneer groundbreaking architectural and construction design methodologies and practices. His current work is on the computer modelling and dynamic simulation of complex design and construction problems, and methods for multi-disciplinary and distributed team collaboration. This work has high impact industry appli ....Complex Architecture and Convergent Design. After breaking the design code for Gaudí's Sagrada Família Church in 1979, completing the still unfinished church has required Mark Burry to pioneer groundbreaking architectural and construction design methodologies and practices. His current work is on the computer modelling and dynamic simulation of complex design and construction problems, and methods for multi-disciplinary and distributed team collaboration. This work has high impact industry applications. At the intersection of so many fields of industrial research, Mark Burry's work acts as a catalyst and accelerator for technology transfer and innovation across the architectural, design and construction industries.Read moreRead less
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
Simulating the evolution of the Southern Ocean and Australia's Palaeo-environment over 40 million years. Our project falls in the first national research priority: an environmentally sustainable Australia and meets two of its primary goals, understanding environmental change and the evolution of biodiversity, and responding to climate change and variability. Our models will represent a major step forward in differentiating between natural processes and anthropological input to present global cli ....Simulating the evolution of the Southern Ocean and Australia's Palaeo-environment over 40 million years. Our project falls in the first national research priority: an environmentally sustainable Australia and meets two of its primary goals, understanding environmental change and the evolution of biodiversity, and responding to climate change and variability. Our models will represent a major step forward in differentiating between natural processes and anthropological input to present global climate change and will address quantitatively how Australia changed from a continent rich in freshwater to the driest inhabited continent throughout the last 40 million years.Read moreRead less
Plantwide Control of Modern Chemical Processes from a Network Perspective. Complex plants increasingly appear in modern Australian process industries, particularly in mineral processing, petrochemical and renewable energies sectors. These plants represent vast capital costs and manufacture products at a very large scale. Improvement in control and operation of these processes can potentially provide significant economic benefits. The expected outcome of this research is an effective approach to ....Plantwide Control of Modern Chemical Processes from a Network Perspective. Complex plants increasingly appear in modern Australian process industries, particularly in mineral processing, petrochemical and renewable energies sectors. These plants represent vast capital costs and manufacture products at a very large scale. Improvement in control and operation of these processes can potentially provide significant economic benefits. The expected outcome of this research is an effective approach to improve operational safety, efficiency, product quality and manufacturing flexibility, helping to build a more efficient and environmental conscious Australian chemical industry. This project will also enhance Australia's scientific reputation in the frontier research area of advanced process control and management.Read moreRead less
WAVELET-BASED MODELLING AND MODEL PREDICTIVE CONTROL OF COMPLEX MULTIDIMENSIONAL CRYSTALLISATION PROCESSES. The results of this project will directly contribute to a better understanding of crystallisation which is an important unit operation to achieve high purity separations. Many Australian industries for example, mineral processing, sugar processing, pharmaceuticals, etc will benefit from the results in order to enhance optimal operation and control to ensure globally competitive production ....WAVELET-BASED MODELLING AND MODEL PREDICTIVE CONTROL OF COMPLEX MULTIDIMENSIONAL CRYSTALLISATION PROCESSES. The results of this project will directly contribute to a better understanding of crystallisation which is an important unit operation to achieve high purity separations. Many Australian industries for example, mineral processing, sugar processing, pharmaceuticals, etc will benefit from the results in order to enhance optimal operation and control to ensure globally competitive production which is on time, minimize wastes and raw materials and inventories. The leading edge results will increase the contributions of these industries to the Australian economy and our global competitiveness necessary to maintain our culture and the beauty of our environment. Read moreRead less
Computer Modelling of the Morphology and Crystallography of Diffusion-controlled Phase Transformations. An analytical, phenomenological version of the successful "edge-to edge" matching approach to the morphology and crystallography of diffusion-controlled phase transformations will be developed. This will be incorporated in a Windows based computer program that can predict the essential features of precipitation (orientation relationships, habit planes, morphology and interface structure), fro ....Computer Modelling of the Morphology and Crystallography of Diffusion-controlled Phase Transformations. An analytical, phenomenological version of the successful "edge-to edge" matching approach to the morphology and crystallography of diffusion-controlled phase transformations will be developed. This will be incorporated in a Windows based computer program that can predict the essential features of precipitation (orientation relationships, habit planes, morphology and interface structure), from readily available input data for the two phases involved. It will provide a fuller understanding of diffusion-controlled phase transformations and the computer simulation will assist in the development of improved precipitation hardening alloys. In addition, a database of crystallographic data for typical metallic materials will be established in the project.Read moreRead less
Wet granule mechanics and their influence on agglomeration behaviour and granulation processes. Granulation is a widely-used particle size enlargement process performed by spraying a liquid binder onto an agitated powder mass. It is currently impossible to quantitatively predict granule growth behaviour in terms of the fundamental properties of the particles and binder. This project will measure and model the deformation of granules and the strength of bonds formed between them and use this info ....Wet granule mechanics and their influence on agglomeration behaviour and granulation processes. Granulation is a widely-used particle size enlargement process performed by spraying a liquid binder onto an agitated powder mass. It is currently impossible to quantitatively predict granule growth behaviour in terms of the fundamental properties of the particles and binder. This project will measure and model the deformation of granules and the strength of bonds formed between them and use this information to predict their growth behaviour. Special attention will be given to the effects of strain-rate and particle morphology in granulation mechanics. Improvements in granulation technology will be of great benefit to food, pharmaceutical, agricultural, explosives and mining industries and opens the way to 'designer granulation' for special purposes.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
Management of Complex Assets Using Smart Information Systems. The aim is to develop an integrative framework and a smart system for holistic asset management in order to manage and optimise asset decisions vis-a-vis shifts in customer and market needs. It will develop an advanced conceptual framework, a dedicated smart system that is capable of handling uncertainty often associated with decision making in large complex operations. The benefits of this research are: a more competitive indusry wit ....Management of Complex Assets Using Smart Information Systems. The aim is to develop an integrative framework and a smart system for holistic asset management in order to manage and optimise asset decisions vis-a-vis shifts in customer and market needs. It will develop an advanced conceptual framework, a dedicated smart system that is capable of handling uncertainty often associated with decision making in large complex operations. The benefits of this research are: a more competitive indusry with focus on markets; a smart system to demonstrate business-based decision making and generally a much more sophisticated approach to asset management.Read moreRead less