Shear heating in granular materials: micromechanics of thermal conduction and production. Oil, gas and geothermal exploration are amongst the major energy industries in Australia and must be optimised to enable efficient production. These processes are dominated by the transfer of heat through granular soil media. Past research was based on continuum heat-flow solutions, but these problems are governed by distinct networks of particle-particle contacts and interparticle pore-fluids. Heat-flow so ....Shear heating in granular materials: micromechanics of thermal conduction and production. Oil, gas and geothermal exploration are amongst the major energy industries in Australia and must be optimised to enable efficient production. These processes are dominated by the transfer of heat through granular soil media. Past research was based on continuum heat-flow solutions, but these problems are governed by distinct networks of particle-particle contacts and interparticle pore-fluids. Heat-flow solutions depend on effective terms of thermal conduction, production and convection, but these change with loading. A systematic study must therefore be accomplished to formulate the micromechanics of the effective thermal properties, such that continuum solutions are refined to optimise energy exploration.Read moreRead less
Determination of unsaturated soil properties using cone penetrometer data. Unsaturated soils account for almost 40 percent of earth's land surface. Over 70 percent of Australia's land surface consists of unsaturated soils. The research proposed aims at providing a methodology for a realistic characterisation of unsaturated soils in the field. The developments in this research will be immediately applicable to many engineering problems of national interest including dams, embankments, foundatio ....Determination of unsaturated soil properties using cone penetrometer data. Unsaturated soils account for almost 40 percent of earth's land surface. Over 70 percent of Australia's land surface consists of unsaturated soils. The research proposed aims at providing a methodology for a realistic characterisation of unsaturated soils in the field. The developments in this research will be immediately applicable to many engineering problems of national interest including dams, embankments, foundations, highways and airfields. The work will also benefit Australia and the Australian research community through the development of a new expertise within Australia, which is likely to receive wide spread attention in both scientific and engineering communities.
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CO2 sequestration in deformable, chemically interactive, double porosity media. Increasing atmospheric carbon dioxide (CO2) level is emerging as one of the most serious issues affecting humanity. Models, theories and relationships derived from this research will have a direct and immediate impact on the design, construction, maintenance, management and risk assessment of sequestration systems in Australia and overseas, and will assist Australia and Australian community to meet its target reducti ....CO2 sequestration in deformable, chemically interactive, double porosity media. Increasing atmospheric carbon dioxide (CO2) level is emerging as one of the most serious issues affecting humanity. Models, theories and relationships derived from this research will have a direct and immediate impact on the design, construction, maintenance, management and risk assessment of sequestration systems in Australia and overseas, and will assist Australia and Australian community to meet its target reductions in CO2 emission. The work will also benefit Australia and the Australian research community through the development of a new expertise in Australia, which will have a significant potential for export to other countries.Read moreRead less
A fully coupled elasto-plastic model for dynamic analysis of unsaturated soils. This research is concerned with an important and, as yet, unresearched class of problems in geomechanics dealing with dynamic analysis of unsaturated soils. The work is of significance as it will contribute to the progress of soil mechanics as a science, advancing it from the study of unsaturated soils to that of real soils, which are invariably unsaturated. The project should lead to cost savings in many geotechnica ....A fully coupled elasto-plastic model for dynamic analysis of unsaturated soils. This research is concerned with an important and, as yet, unresearched class of problems in geomechanics dealing with dynamic analysis of unsaturated soils. The work is of significance as it will contribute to the progress of soil mechanics as a science, advancing it from the study of unsaturated soils to that of real soils, which are invariably unsaturated. The project should lead to cost savings in many geotechnical engineering practices as it will provide a better understanding of the response of unsaturated soils to dynamic loading and provide a greater confidence in the prediction of the preformance of earth-structures.Read moreRead less
Experimental Investigation and Constitutive Modelling of Thermo-Hydro-Mechanical Coupling Effects in Unsaturated Porous Media. The research proposed in this project will benefit the Australian community through provision of a methodology for a more realistic and fully coupled modelling of flow and deformation in unsaturated porous media subject to thermal loading. The developments proposed in this research will be immediately applicable to many engineering problems of national interest, includin ....Experimental Investigation and Constitutive Modelling of Thermo-Hydro-Mechanical Coupling Effects in Unsaturated Porous Media. The research proposed in this project will benefit the Australian community through provision of a methodology for a more realistic and fully coupled modelling of flow and deformation in unsaturated porous media subject to thermal loading. The developments proposed in this research will be immediately applicable to many engineering problems of national interest, including storage of nuclear wastes, removal of contaminants using air sparging, steam drive/steam flooding, and in situ combustion. The work will also benefit Australia and the Australian research community through the development of a new expertise within Australia, which will have a high potential for export to other countries.
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