Nanostructured magnetic materials for clean automotive technologies. Greater utilisation of the petrol-electric hybrid technology is an effective and realistic approach to the problem of increasing greenhouse gas emissions from transportation sources. Owing to the requirement of the temperature stability of the magnets used in the electric motors in the current hybrid vehicles, the magnets contain considerable amounts of costly rare-earth elements. This impedes the utilisation of the technology ....Nanostructured magnetic materials for clean automotive technologies. Greater utilisation of the petrol-electric hybrid technology is an effective and realistic approach to the problem of increasing greenhouse gas emissions from transportation sources. Owing to the requirement of the temperature stability of the magnets used in the electric motors in the current hybrid vehicles, the magnets contain considerable amounts of costly rare-earth elements. This impedes the utilisation of the technology and hence alternative cost effective magnets with high temperature stability are needed. In this project we will exploit a range of alloy design strategies in manganese-bismuth/iron nanocomposite magnets, thereby realising a novel permanent magnet, free of costly rare-earth elements.Read moreRead less
Comfort and ergonomics: Innovative seating solutions for commercial vehicles. Comfort and ergonomics: Innovative seating solutions for commercial vehicles. This project aims to develop a 6-degree-of-freedom seating system for commercial vehicles, including heavy duty trucks and mobile machinery, to reduce unwanted multiple directional vibrations to the driver’s body. Long-term exposure to vibrations from uneven road surfaces, vibrating tools, and vibrating machinery affects driver comfort, fatig ....Comfort and ergonomics: Innovative seating solutions for commercial vehicles. Comfort and ergonomics: Innovative seating solutions for commercial vehicles. This project aims to develop a 6-degree-of-freedom seating system for commercial vehicles, including heavy duty trucks and mobile machinery, to reduce unwanted multiple directional vibrations to the driver’s body. Long-term exposure to vibrations from uneven road surfaces, vibrating tools, and vibrating machinery affects driver comfort, fatigue and safety, and can also cause neck and shoulder pain, lower back injuries, and spinal injuries. The expected outcome of the project is a comfortable and ergonomic seating system that, agriculture, transportation, mining and construction vehicles, both in Australia and internationally, can widely use.Read moreRead less
Soft magnetic nanostructures for clean automotive technologies: origin of induced magnetic anisotropies. This project will clarify the mechanism of annealing-induced magnetic anisotropies in magnetic nanostructures and thereby establish a basis for further alloy development of efficient core materials for electric motors. The project outcomes will potentially lead to a significant reduction of the heat loss in petrol-electric hybrid cars.
Damage Tolerance Approach in Designing and Maintaining Truck Trailers. This project aims to develop a damage tolerance approach in designing and maintaining truck trailers. Combined with field test and computational simulation, machine learning will be used to generate loading spectrums. Following the damage tolerance philosophy, a mature approach in aerospace industry, the fatigue crack growth and the fatigue life will be predicted. In addition, structural optimisation will be applied in traile ....Damage Tolerance Approach in Designing and Maintaining Truck Trailers. This project aims to develop a damage tolerance approach in designing and maintaining truck trailers. Combined with field test and computational simulation, machine learning will be used to generate loading spectrums. Following the damage tolerance philosophy, a mature approach in aerospace industry, the fatigue crack growth and the fatigue life will be predicted. In addition, structural optimisation will be applied in trailer design. This project expects to revolutionize the design and maintenance practices in Australian truck trailer industry. It should provide significant benefits, such as prolonging the life cycle of truck trailers, reducing the tare weight and increasing operating profit, to both trailer producers and users.Read moreRead less
The Australian naturalistic driving study: innovation in road safety research and policy. A revolutionary new approach, the naturalistic driving study, will investigate what people actually do when they drive, in normal and safety-critical situations. It will provide Australia with answers to some intractable, high priority, road safety problems that cannot be answered using current methods, thereby saving hundreds of lives.
Lower greenhouse at lower cost: maximising the potential of liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) in passenger vehicles. This project will develop tools for designing internal combustion engines that simultaneously achieve low greenhouse emissions without added consumer cost. The project aim is to be achieved through the effective use of liquefied petroleum gas (LPG), which is an affordable fuel that has potentially low emissions if used properly.
Development of engine management systems for turbocharged gasoline direct-injection engines with optional natural gas port-injection. This project aims to develop universal and programmable engine management systems for gasoline direct-injection engines with lean-burn technology and optional natural gas port-injection. The new engine management system will enable higher fuel efficiency than its predecessors and the increased use of nationally-produced natural gas. The project aims to overcome th ....Development of engine management systems for turbocharged gasoline direct-injection engines with optional natural gas port-injection. This project aims to develop universal and programmable engine management systems for gasoline direct-injection engines with lean-burn technology and optional natural gas port-injection. The new engine management system will enable higher fuel efficiency than its predecessors and the increased use of nationally-produced natural gas. The project aims to overcome three main problems that limit efficiency improvement of direct-injection engines, namely: misfiring, unstable combustion, and soot emission. How these issues are impacted by additional natural gas port-injection will also be explored. This project aims to accomplish this by combining fundamental in-cylinder optical measurements and detailed modelling.Read moreRead less
Improving affordability of composite materials to meet sustainability challenges. The project will develop new technologies to improve the affordability of carbon fibre composites for non-aerospace applications. The outcome of this project will greatly accelerate the insertion of light-weight composites in clean-energy products, such as carbon fibre composite wheels, to drastically reduce CO2 emissions of road transport.
Microwave-generated plasma combustion for in-cylinder soot reduction. Microwave-generated plasma combustion for in-cylinder soot reduction. This project aims to develop a microwave-generated plasma combustion system for the in-cylinder formation of hydroxyl radicals, achieving cost-effective reduction of engine-out emissions in diesel engines. This new system should overcome high-load particulate emissions and high-cost fuel injection systems, which limit further improvement of diesel engines. T ....Microwave-generated plasma combustion for in-cylinder soot reduction. Microwave-generated plasma combustion for in-cylinder soot reduction. This project aims to develop a microwave-generated plasma combustion system for the in-cylinder formation of hydroxyl radicals, achieving cost-effective reduction of engine-out emissions in diesel engines. This new system should overcome high-load particulate emissions and high-cost fuel injection systems, which limit further improvement of diesel engines. This project expects to accomplish this by combining laser diagnostics in optical combustion facilities and computational modelling, which should lead to the scientific knowledge accelerating the development cycle of the new system.Read moreRead less