Economical Particleboard Product from Hardwood Sawmill Waste for Domestic and Industrial Applications. The proposed project is aimed at developing a methodology to produce particleboard using hardwood saw-mill residue. Currently, 20% of logs used to produce sawn hardwood are disposed of by burning or as fertiliser. Using innovative concepts of high-moisture pressing and understanding composite material behaviour and internal dynamics during hot-pressing of particleboard, the proposed project wil ....Economical Particleboard Product from Hardwood Sawmill Waste for Domestic and Industrial Applications. The proposed project is aimed at developing a methodology to produce particleboard using hardwood saw-mill residue. Currently, 20% of logs used to produce sawn hardwood are disposed of by burning or as fertiliser. Using innovative concepts of high-moisture pressing and understanding composite material behaviour and internal dynamics during hot-pressing of particleboard, the proposed project will have a significant potential for revolutionising particleboard technology. Outcomes will be a significant contribution towards sustainability of the Australian Timber Industry and the environment by reducing logging for custom flaked softwood chips, which will be of significant benefit to regional and rural communities as well.Read moreRead less
Design Optimisation and Advanced Manufacturing of Structural Connections. This project aims to establish a new approach to designing and fabricating complex connections in spatial structures by taking advantage of latest technologies in topological optimisation and additive manufacturing. The project intends to develop new optimisation algorithms considering special constraints of additive manufacturing and to determine a cost-effective process for fabricating large metal connections. Expected o ....Design Optimisation and Advanced Manufacturing of Structural Connections. This project aims to establish a new approach to designing and fabricating complex connections in spatial structures by taking advantage of latest technologies in topological optimisation and additive manufacturing. The project intends to develop new optimisation algorithms considering special constraints of additive manufacturing and to determine a cost-effective process for fabricating large metal connections. Expected outcomes of the project include a new methodology and an advanced digital design tool, validated by experiments, for designing and fabricating efficient structural components. This should provide significant benefits to the construction industry in terms of performance enhancement, weight reduction and waste minimisation.Read moreRead less
Discovery Early Career Researcher Award - Grant ID: DE200100887
Funder
Australian Research Council
Funding Amount
$409,398.00
Summary
Robust Designs Inspired by Biological Chiral Structures. This project aims to understand the mechanics of biological chiral structures in order to create novel engineering designs. The project expects to gain new insights into mechanisms which enable these structures to accommodate complex and random loads through experimental, analytical and numerical approaches. Expected outcomes include a computational platform for designing highly efficient and mechanically robust products, and new designs s ....Robust Designs Inspired by Biological Chiral Structures. This project aims to understand the mechanics of biological chiral structures in order to create novel engineering designs. The project expects to gain new insights into mechanisms which enable these structures to accommodate complex and random loads through experimental, analytical and numerical approaches. Expected outcomes include a computational platform for designing highly efficient and mechanically robust products, and new designs such as wind turbine blades and hypodermic needles as applications of the platform. The products should have great potential in energy harvesting and biomedical engineering. The platform should provide significant benefits to engineering through performance improvement and robustness enhancement.Read moreRead less
Australian Laureate Fellowships - Grant ID: FL190100014
Funder
Australian Research Council
Funding Amount
$2,871,982.00
Summary
New Technologies for Delivering Sustainable Free-form Architecture. This project aims to harness the full potential of digital technologies to significantly enhance the performance and reduce the environmental impact of free-form architecture of the future. The research expects to establish a fundamentally new computational platform capable of producing diverse and competitive designs, and an environmentally friendly manufacturing process for realising such designs. Expected outcomes include an ....New Technologies for Delivering Sustainable Free-form Architecture. This project aims to harness the full potential of digital technologies to significantly enhance the performance and reduce the environmental impact of free-form architecture of the future. The research expects to establish a fundamentally new computational platform capable of producing diverse and competitive designs, and an environmentally friendly manufacturing process for realising such designs. Expected outcomes include an unprecedented cloud-based interactive design tool, and a novel minimum-waste manufacturing technology for fabricating mass-customised building components. This project will transform the architecture, engineering and construction (AEC) sector and make the Australian manufacturing industry more competitive globally.Read moreRead less
Topology Optimisation for Three-dimensional Periodic Nanophotonic Structures. Three-dimensional dielectric and/or metallic nanophotonic structures are of critical importance to a wide variety of applications ranging from sensing and biomedicine to imaging and information technology. This project aims to establish effective and efficient topology optimisation algorithms for the designs of nanophotonic structures with specific functional properties. The expected outcome will be a new methodology a ....Topology Optimisation for Three-dimensional Periodic Nanophotonic Structures. Three-dimensional dielectric and/or metallic nanophotonic structures are of critical importance to a wide variety of applications ranging from sensing and biomedicine to imaging and information technology. This project aims to establish effective and efficient topology optimisation algorithms for the designs of nanophotonic structures with specific functional properties. The expected outcome will be a new methodology and an advanced design tool for scientists and engineers to create novel nanophotonic structures to improve capabilities in devices such as waveguides, sensors, optical computer chips, superlenses and so on.Read moreRead less
Advancing water pollution emissions modelling in cities of the future. Advancing water pollution emissions modelling in cities of the future. This project aims to advance stormwater pollution modelling and enhance its link with urban development. Management of stormwater pollution by industry often results in inadequate strategies and, crucially, sub-optimal financial investments. Since this is unlikely to improve in light of urban growth and climate change, addressing decade-old pollution model ....Advancing water pollution emissions modelling in cities of the future. Advancing water pollution emissions modelling in cities of the future. This project aims to advance stormwater pollution modelling and enhance its link with urban development. Management of stormwater pollution by industry often results in inadequate strategies and, crucially, sub-optimal financial investments. Since this is unlikely to improve in light of urban growth and climate change, addressing decade-old pollution modelling knowledge gaps and the lack of a multidisciplinary approach to stormwater pollution management is urgent. The anticipated outcome is a modelling tool which industry can use to manage stormwater pollution in changing cities through smarter and economic technology and policy.Read moreRead less
Discovery Early Career Researcher Award - Grant ID: DE200100892
Funder
Australian Research Council
Funding Amount
$419,889.00
Summary
Next-generation, prefabricated, modular, solar heating and cooling system. This project aims to develop a new window design that can reduce the heating of buildings caused by the sun in warm weather and reduce heat loss from buildings in cool weather. This project expects to generate new knowledge on the interaction between solar radiation and the convection of air inside a cavity within the window design. The expected outcome is a framework that can be used to optimize window designs for buildi ....Next-generation, prefabricated, modular, solar heating and cooling system. This project aims to develop a new window design that can reduce the heating of buildings caused by the sun in warm weather and reduce heat loss from buildings in cool weather. This project expects to generate new knowledge on the interaction between solar radiation and the convection of air inside a cavity within the window design. The expected outcome is a framework that can be used to optimize window designs for buildings under various weather conditions. This should allow quick and easy fabrication and implementation of the designs in existing and new buildings, and the windows should significantly reduce building heating and cooling costs.Read moreRead less
A real-time modelling of crowd dynamics for disaster prevention. This project aims to develop methods and technologies to enable urban planners to design infrastructures to ensure public safety in emergency situations and to enable emergency management to optimise effective response plans. Rapid population growth creates major challenges for urban management, which has a responsibility to ensure the safety of citizens in the case of emergencies. This project aims to develop a methodology to stud ....A real-time modelling of crowd dynamics for disaster prevention. This project aims to develop methods and technologies to enable urban planners to design infrastructures to ensure public safety in emergency situations and to enable emergency management to optimise effective response plans. Rapid population growth creates major challenges for urban management, which has a responsibility to ensure the safety of citizens in the case of emergencies. This project aims to develop a methodology to study pedestrian crowd dynamics under panic or extreme emergency conditions, using innovative experimental approaches with new multi-scale online simulation methods and optimisation techniques. The resultant methodology would support planning and prediction of pedestrian crowd movements based on data from past events as well as adaptive planning for live events as they unfold.Read moreRead less
Design of Composites for Exceptional Functional Properties by Maximising the Poisson Effect. This project will establish an effective and efficient computational framework for the topological optimisation of composites whose constituent phases possess significantly different Poisson ratios. In particular, the proposed research will be focused on exploiting the dramatic improvements in functional properties of composites when the Poisson ratio of one of the constituent phases is either negative o ....Design of Composites for Exceptional Functional Properties by Maximising the Poisson Effect. This project will establish an effective and efficient computational framework for the topological optimisation of composites whose constituent phases possess significantly different Poisson ratios. In particular, the proposed research will be focused on exploiting the dramatic improvements in functional properties of composites when the Poisson ratio of one of the constituent phases is either negative or near its incompressibility limit. The expected outcomes will be a new methodology and an advanced engineering design tool that can be used for the development of a new class of composites with exceptional properties. Such new composite systems will have many potential applications, particularly in aerospace, defence and medical industries.Read moreRead less
Improved Management of Australian Port Infrastructure by Development of Predictive Ageing Simulation. Exposure of built infrastructure to corrosive marine conditions causes deterioration and reduced service life. Asset managers lack predictive models of in-service durability. Using data gathered from Australian ports, life-cycle predictions will be developed, simulating durability and incorporating geographical location, structure type, composition, and levels of maintenance. The modelling has ....Improved Management of Australian Port Infrastructure by Development of Predictive Ageing Simulation. Exposure of built infrastructure to corrosive marine conditions causes deterioration and reduced service life. Asset managers lack predictive models of in-service durability. Using data gathered from Australian ports, life-cycle predictions will be developed, simulating durability and incorporating geographical location, structure type, composition, and levels of maintenance. The modelling has not been undertaken on Australian port assets, whereas international models reflect very different infrastructure and exposures and are based on simpler 2D conditions that do not simulate actual deterioration. The three-dimensional (3D) modelling and graphics will be unique worldwide, providing decision support for construction and maintenance.Read moreRead less