Avoiding catastrophic failure of cable bolts in underground mines. This work aims to identify the factors responsible for the emerging problem of catastrophic failure of high-load cable bolts in underground mines and develop strategies for resisting their failure. The work is of high importance since failure of cable bolts is now being reported in several mines across Australia and is expected to become a problem world-wide. The work is novel as it intends to be the very first study of catastrop ....Avoiding catastrophic failure of cable bolts in underground mines. This work aims to identify the factors responsible for the emerging problem of catastrophic failure of high-load cable bolts in underground mines and develop strategies for resisting their failure. The work is of high importance since failure of cable bolts is now being reported in several mines across Australia and is expected to become a problem world-wide. The work is novel as it intends to be the very first study of catastrophic cable bolt failure. The expected outcome is the development of economically viable solutions for avoiding catastrophic cable bolt failure. It is anticipated that the findings will also be relevant to the civil engineering sector.Read moreRead less
An investigation into the relationships between geology, geometry and wind blast magnitude & intensity in underground coal mining. In some underground coal mines where the roof comprises massive rock, the roof strata do not cave regularly as extraction progresses but hang up, leading to extensive areas of unsupported roof. These areas can suddenly collapse, compressing the air beneath and forcing it out of the void through surrounding openings giving rise to a potentially hazardous phenomenon kn ....An investigation into the relationships between geology, geometry and wind blast magnitude & intensity in underground coal mining. In some underground coal mines where the roof comprises massive rock, the roof strata do not cave regularly as extraction progresses but hang up, leading to extensive areas of unsupported roof. These areas can suddenly collapse, compressing the air beneath and forcing it out of the void through surrounding openings giving rise to a potentially hazardous phenomenon known as wind blast. The aim is to develop a fundamental understanding of the phenomenon and thus provide a basis on which to develop strategies to mitigate the hazard. Outcomes are expected to be improved levels of mining safety, technical viability and economics.Read moreRead less
Sewer Monitoring and Management in the Digital Era. Overflow, flooding, corrosion, and odorous emissions are persistent issues for utilities managing sewers. Current sewer maintenance is reactive, and focuses on solving problems in local networks, despite that optimal solutions require a system-wide approach. Capitalising on recent development in IoT sensors, wireless transmission, and machine learning, this multidisciplinary project aims to develop digital-twin supported data analytics for proa ....Sewer Monitoring and Management in the Digital Era. Overflow, flooding, corrosion, and odorous emissions are persistent issues for utilities managing sewers. Current sewer maintenance is reactive, and focuses on solving problems in local networks, despite that optimal solutions require a system-wide approach. Capitalising on recent development in IoT sensors, wireless transmission, and machine learning, this multidisciplinary project aims to develop digital-twin supported data analytics for proactive sewer management including network-wide real-time control. The project aims to generate significant social, environmental and economic benefits by enabling utilities to better protect public and environmental health, reduce sewer odour and greenhouse gas emissions, and extend sewer asset life.Read moreRead less
Particle scale modelling and analysis of the multiphase flows in coal preparation. Australia is the world's biggest coal exporter, and black coal is Australia's largest export, with an annual value >$20 billion. Optimum design and control of the processes in coal preparation play a critical economic role in coal production. This project aims at providing substantial improvements through the application of a novel combined continuum and discrete modelling method. Specifically, the improvements ta ....Particle scale modelling and analysis of the multiphase flows in coal preparation. Australia is the world's biggest coal exporter, and black coal is Australia's largest export, with an annual value >$20 billion. Optimum design and control of the processes in coal preparation play a critical economic role in coal production. This project aims at providing substantial improvements through the application of a novel combined continuum and discrete modelling method. Specifically, the improvements targeted relate to better process and product control, a decrease in unit energy consumption and improvements in productivity, which, together with the research training offered, will further enhance Australia's leading position in global coal industry.Read moreRead less
New techniques to detect fetal heart abnormalities. Australia’s national fetal death rate is 6.7 per one thousand births. In Australia’s Indigenous community it surges to 12.3 deaths per one thousand births. Early diagnosis (and management) of abnormal fetu.ses with cardiac defects will go a long way in reducing these numbers. The proposed technology will help set up easy-to-use systems for fetal cardiac abnormality screening and reduce fetal deaths and congenital heart disease burden in adult l ....New techniques to detect fetal heart abnormalities. Australia’s national fetal death rate is 6.7 per one thousand births. In Australia’s Indigenous community it surges to 12.3 deaths per one thousand births. Early diagnosis (and management) of abnormal fetu.ses with cardiac defects will go a long way in reducing these numbers. The proposed technology will help set up easy-to-use systems for fetal cardiac abnormality screening and reduce fetal deaths and congenital heart disease burden in adult life. This project will also provide domain trained researchers with cutting edge international academic and industry expertise.Read moreRead less
A Data-Centric Mobile Edge Platform for Resilient Logistics & Supply Chain. This project aims to develop a secure mobile edge computing platform for resilient logistic and supply chain management. It consists of easy-used functions that help businesses realise low latency, high reliability, low cost, and high security in their logistics and supply chain system. To cope with the vast generated application data, we invent new data replication, placement, and deduplication techniques to optimise th ....A Data-Centric Mobile Edge Platform for Resilient Logistics & Supply Chain. This project aims to develop a secure mobile edge computing platform for resilient logistic and supply chain management. It consists of easy-used functions that help businesses realise low latency, high reliability, low cost, and high security in their logistics and supply chain system. To cope with the vast generated application data, we invent new data replication, placement, and deduplication techniques to optimise the mobile edge computing platform from the computation, storage, and network aspects. The invented mobile edge computing platform will enable more intelligent business applications for various industries, e.g., IT, manufacturing, and media, to appear, thus benefiting both the economy of Australia.Read moreRead less
Virtual Environments for Improved Enterprise Software Deployment. This project aims to improve quality assurance for enterprise IT. Enterprise IT systems are highly interconnected and interdependent — a failure in one system can cause a cascade of failures across multiple systems, bringing business to a standstill. The project aims to create new technologies to automate the provisioning of virtual deployment environments to test the enterprise systems. In particular, it aims to develop new metho ....Virtual Environments for Improved Enterprise Software Deployment. This project aims to improve quality assurance for enterprise IT. Enterprise IT systems are highly interconnected and interdependent — a failure in one system can cause a cascade of failures across multiple systems, bringing business to a standstill. The project aims to create new technologies to automate the provisioning of virtual deployment environments to test the enterprise systems. In particular, it aims to develop new methods for the automatic analysis of service interaction traces and the generation of accurate executable service models, without requiring explicit knowledge of them. The automatic analysis and generation should reduce development cost for enterprise IT systems and increase system quality and reliability. The new software deployment technologies from this project aim to significantly reduce the time, effort and cost of system quality assurance activities in software development organisations, and yet produce higher-quality software leading to uninterrupted business operation in end-user organisations across all sectors.Read moreRead less
INTEGRATED PASSIVE AND ACTIVE CONTROL OF HUMMING NOISE FROM KCGM’S HAUL TRUCKS. This project aims to resolve an environmental noise issue caused by the humming noise of Kalgoorlie Consolidated Gold Mines haul trucks in the areas of Kalgoorlie, Boulder, and Williamstown. This solution utilises integrated passive and active control systems to attenuate the frequency components of humming noise from a truck’s exhaust and engine. A novel aspect of this technique is the use of passive micro-perforate ....INTEGRATED PASSIVE AND ACTIVE CONTROL OF HUMMING NOISE FROM KCGM’S HAUL TRUCKS. This project aims to resolve an environmental noise issue caused by the humming noise of Kalgoorlie Consolidated Gold Mines haul trucks in the areas of Kalgoorlie, Boulder, and Williamstown. This solution utilises integrated passive and active control systems to attenuate the frequency components of humming noise from a truck’s exhaust and engine. A novel aspect of this technique is the use of passive micro-perforated structures to provide the necessary sound absorption capability and to alter the sound propagation and radiation properties of the truck exhaust and engine, and increase the effectiveness of active control.Read moreRead less
Developing a truly intelligent water meter through advanced data analytics. Developing a truly intelligent water meter through advanced data analytics. This project aims to develop intelligent pattern recognition algorithms using international data sets to autonomously categorise household water consumption data into end-uses (e.g. showers, leaks). Despite intelligent meters, big data chokes rather than enables decision making for customers and utilities. This project will resolve information sy ....Developing a truly intelligent water meter through advanced data analytics. Developing a truly intelligent water meter through advanced data analytics. This project aims to develop intelligent pattern recognition algorithms using international data sets to autonomously categorise household water consumption data into end-uses (e.g. showers, leaks). Despite intelligent meters, big data chokes rather than enables decision making for customers and utilities. This project will resolve information synthesis concerns using a combination of non-linear blind source separation techniques adapted from the pattern recognition, signal processing and decision science fields. Expected outcomes are that utilities will be leaders of sustainable water use in the information age, and that customers can use phones to access real-time data of water consumption.Read moreRead less
Depressing pyrite in selective flotation of complex polymetallic ores . This project aims to understand the reactions taking place on the major gangue (waste) mineral during the recovery of base-metal and precious minerals. The mining industry is processing low grade complex ores and experiencing difficulties in rejecting gangue minerals in mineral separation and metal extraction plants. The project will develop new technologies that manipulate these reactions to achieve mineral separation and ....Depressing pyrite in selective flotation of complex polymetallic ores . This project aims to understand the reactions taking place on the major gangue (waste) mineral during the recovery of base-metal and precious minerals. The mining industry is processing low grade complex ores and experiencing difficulties in rejecting gangue minerals in mineral separation and metal extraction plants. The project will develop new technologies that manipulate these reactions to achieve mineral separation and metal extraction efficiently and economically. These technologies may provide value in processing low quality complex polymetallic resources using low quality water, whilst halving the operating costs of mineral concentrators and providing corresponding reductions in harmful emissions.Read moreRead less