Continuum Damage Mechanics in Geotechnical Engineering. Mining and oil exploration are amongst the major industries in Australia and must address geotechnical problems in which growth in damage plays a central role. For example, failure of an offshore platform can occur under cyclic environmental loading, due to accumulated damage to the seabed soils. Design tools are therefore needed that incorporate continuum damage mechanics in modelling the response of geomaterials. The project will place Au ....Continuum Damage Mechanics in Geotechnical Engineering. Mining and oil exploration are amongst the major industries in Australia and must address geotechnical problems in which growth in damage plays a central role. For example, failure of an offshore platform can occur under cyclic environmental loading, due to accumulated damage to the seabed soils. Design tools are therefore needed that incorporate continuum damage mechanics in modelling the response of geomaterials. The project will place Australia at the forefront in this field through the development of rigorous yet simple numerical models that achieve this, and thus underpin safe but economic geotechnical engineering solutions in the mineral resource industries.Read moreRead less
Mechanism and Control of In-situ Minerals Extraction. By introducing the theory of coupled hydraulic-mechanical-thermal-chemical processes and the well technology in petroleum engineering into in-situ minerals extraction, mineral values will be extracted directly from ore deposits without the need for mining. This work will have the potential to convert the known sub-economic mineral resources (about 37 million tonnes in Australia alone) into reserves. The five-year project will lead to a comput ....Mechanism and Control of In-situ Minerals Extraction. By introducing the theory of coupled hydraulic-mechanical-thermal-chemical processes and the well technology in petroleum engineering into in-situ minerals extraction, mineral values will be extracted directly from ore deposits without the need for mining. This work will have the potential to convert the known sub-economic mineral resources (about 37 million tonnes in Australia alone) into reserves. The five-year project will lead to a computer simulation assisted in-situ minerals extraction methodology for application in mining industry.Read moreRead less
The micro-thermo-mechanics of sand crushing in geotechnical collapse problems. Oil and gas exploration is a major industry in Australia. Collapse problems in the soil to which structures such as oil rigs are anchored are a major challenge, involving issues of safety, longevity and maintenance. Research on this topic has been devoted to non-crushable sands, but Australia's offshore seabed is rich in breakable calcareous sediments. We will create a novel theory and visualisation techniques that wi ....The micro-thermo-mechanics of sand crushing in geotechnical collapse problems. Oil and gas exploration is a major industry in Australia. Collapse problems in the soil to which structures such as oil rigs are anchored are a major challenge, involving issues of safety, longevity and maintenance. Research on this topic has been devoted to non-crushable sands, but Australia's offshore seabed is rich in breakable calcareous sediments. We will create a novel theory and visualisation techniques that will allow us to gain a deep understanding of sand crushing and will be a major step towards minimising the occurrence of catastrophic failures in the offshore oil and gas industry. Read moreRead less