Adaptive daytime radiative cooling and heating for buildings . This project aims to develop an adaptive daytime radiative cooling and heating technology suitable for the for the reduction of the energy consumption in buildings for the mitigation of the urban overheating in the built environment. The project expects to generate new knowledge in this area to exploit adaptive strategies in the development of future cooling and heating solutions for buildings. Expected project outcomes consist of th ....Adaptive daytime radiative cooling and heating for buildings . This project aims to develop an adaptive daytime radiative cooling and heating technology suitable for the for the reduction of the energy consumption in buildings for the mitigation of the urban overheating in the built environment. The project expects to generate new knowledge in this area to exploit adaptive strategies in the development of future cooling and heating solutions for buildings. Expected project outcomes consist of the establishment of the new adaptive daytime radiative technology for use on building envelopes to support cooling requirements in hot weather and heating needs under cold conditions. This should lead to significant benefits for the Australian building and construction industry. Read moreRead less
Mud pumping under rail tracks: from Micromechanics to Predictions. Mud pumping under rail tracks is identified as the most frequent issue causing the degradation of rail tracks and increasing their ongoing maintenance cost across Australia and worldwide. This project aims to further the understanding of mud pumping mechanisms across different scales. A novel combined experiment-computational approach will be developed to observe, analyse and link different material properties and external condit ....Mud pumping under rail tracks: from Micromechanics to Predictions. Mud pumping under rail tracks is identified as the most frequent issue causing the degradation of rail tracks and increasing their ongoing maintenance cost across Australia and worldwide. This project aims to further the understanding of mud pumping mechanisms across different scales. A novel combined experiment-computational approach will be developed to observe, analyse and link different material properties and external conditions governing the mud pumping process. It will lead to better criteria for mud pumping and numerical tools for field scale failure analysis and risk assessments. The expected outcomes include the enhanced capability to assess the integrity and stability of rail tracks and better design criteria against mud pumping.Read moreRead less
Building green roads with gasified municipal solid waste composites. This project aims to develop gasified municipal solid waste composites as a novel and green road material. This project expects to generate new knowledge on the fundamental properties of the developed waste composites when used as road subgrades and bases, through experimental study, physical modelling, numerical simulation, and field trials. Expected outcomes include understanding the mechanical behaviour of these waste compos ....Building green roads with gasified municipal solid waste composites. This project aims to develop gasified municipal solid waste composites as a novel and green road material. This project expects to generate new knowledge on the fundamental properties of the developed waste composites when used as road subgrades and bases, through experimental study, physical modelling, numerical simulation, and field trials. Expected outcomes include understanding the mechanical behaviour of these waste composites under static and cyclic loads, development of versatile constitutive models and numerical analysis tools, and determination of their optimal performance. Benefits include diversion of municipal and demolition wastes from landfills and the development of sustainable materials and technology for future roads.Read moreRead less
Assessment of structural integrity and deterioration of masonry walls. Brickwork for housing and medium-rise buildings is a traditional material, also much used for modern construction, with aesthetic appeal and modest cost. However, building regulators and others are increasingly concerned about evidence of slow building deterioration, particularly of older buildings. This increases public safety risks, even under normal conditions and more so under high winds or earthquake-induced ground-shaki ....Assessment of structural integrity and deterioration of masonry walls. Brickwork for housing and medium-rise buildings is a traditional material, also much used for modern construction, with aesthetic appeal and modest cost. However, building regulators and others are increasingly concerned about evidence of slow building deterioration, particularly of older buildings. This increases public safety risks, even under normal conditions and more so under high winds or earthquake-induced ground-shaking. This project will help address this issue. It will obtain unbiased evidence of typical masonry building deterioration. It will couple this with mathematical modelling and state-of-the-art non-destructive visual and dynamic techniques to develop tools for making fast, low-cost practical building risk assessments.Read moreRead less
Rare Event Simulation: Protecting vital infrastructure from flood extremes. This research aims to develop Rare Event Simulation to quantify the future risk of very rare to extreme floods. Expected outcomes include a framework for the design and maintenance of critical Civil Engineering infrastructure such as dams, extrapolation of extreme storm events beyond the observed record, and an assessment of change in rare flood risk across Australia. The significance of this world-first research lies in ....Rare Event Simulation: Protecting vital infrastructure from flood extremes. This research aims to develop Rare Event Simulation to quantify the future risk of very rare to extreme floods. Expected outcomes include a framework for the design and maintenance of critical Civil Engineering infrastructure such as dams, extrapolation of extreme storm events beyond the observed record, and an assessment of change in rare flood risk across Australia. The significance of this world-first research lies in adapting rare event simulation techniques that have only been applied to computer system failure before, to water engineering design. With Australian riverine flooding projected to cause $170 billion in losses by 2050, the benefit of this proposal in reducing future infrastructure damage costs and liability is overwhelming.Read moreRead less
Industry Laureate Fellowships - Grant ID: IL230100020
Funder
Australian Research Council
Funding Amount
$3,528,655.00
Summary
Making optimal use of stormwater in cities: a market-driven smart-grid. Cities suffer the cruel irony of both floods and droughts. This program aims to bring the power of markets and Real-Time Control technology to confront these challenges, and in doing so, transform the urban water industry. It will create an optimisation and control platform, along with novel economic incentives, to enable a market-driven smart-grid of stormwater storages, providing consumers with non-potable water supply, wh ....Making optimal use of stormwater in cities: a market-driven smart-grid. Cities suffer the cruel irony of both floods and droughts. This program aims to bring the power of markets and Real-Time Control technology to confront these challenges, and in doing so, transform the urban water industry. It will create an optimisation and control platform, along with novel economic incentives, to enable a market-driven smart-grid of stormwater storages, providing consumers with non-potable water supply, while financially rewarding them for contributions to flood mitigation and environmental flows to waterways. The program will build the capacity and products to accelerate adoption of smart water technology, establishing Australia as an international market leader at a time when the market for this technology is exploding.Read moreRead less
Discovery Early Career Researcher Award - Grant ID: DE240101261
Funder
Australian Research Council
Funding Amount
$429,347.00
Summary
Carbon-negative concrete produced with innovative artificial aggregates. To achieve net-zero carbon emissions in Australia by 2050, this project proposes to develop carbon-negative concrete using two typical industrial wastes, recycled powder from construction and demolition waste and drinking water treatment sludge from the water industry. This project first aims to develop innovative artificial aggregates containing sludge-derived biochar and recycled powder under carbonation curing. The devel ....Carbon-negative concrete produced with innovative artificial aggregates. To achieve net-zero carbon emissions in Australia by 2050, this project proposes to develop carbon-negative concrete using two typical industrial wastes, recycled powder from construction and demolition waste and drinking water treatment sludge from the water industry. This project first aims to develop innovative artificial aggregates containing sludge-derived biochar and recycled powder under carbonation curing. The developed artificial aggregates with superior carbon absorption capacity are then used to produce carbon-negative concrete. The properties of artificial aggregates and carbon-negative concrete will be comprehensively investigated. This project creates a green engineering solution to stockpiled industrial wastes.
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Biocemented recycled glass columns: Green technology for ground improvement. This project aims to develop a green ground improvement technology using biocemented recycled glass column inclusions. This project expects to generate new knowledge on the performance of novel biocemented glass wastes when used as ground inclusions to improve the engineering properties of problematic soils subjected to traffic loads, through experimental, numerical approaches and field trials. Expected outcomes include ....Biocemented recycled glass columns: Green technology for ground improvement. This project aims to develop a green ground improvement technology using biocemented recycled glass column inclusions. This project expects to generate new knowledge on the performance of novel biocemented glass wastes when used as ground inclusions to improve the engineering properties of problematic soils subjected to traffic loads, through experimental, numerical approaches and field trials. Expected outcomes include evaluating the performance of biocemented recycled glass via experiments, establishing constitutive models, developing numerical tools and building enduring collaborations with industry. Benefits include diversion of wastes from landfills, reduction in greenhouse gas emissions and commercial applications of glass wastes.Read moreRead less
Network Calming - Using Smart Sensors to Improve Water Asset Performance. Recent high-frequency monitoring in water distribution networks (WDNs) shows that pressure perturbations are significantly more dramatic than expected and cause pipe failures with highly disruptive consequences. This project aims to hydraulically calm WDNs to improve their performance, informed by smart sensors. The project will generate insightful knowledge of the hydraulic behaviour of real WDNs. The outcomes will be new ....Network Calming - Using Smart Sensors to Improve Water Asset Performance. Recent high-frequency monitoring in water distribution networks (WDNs) shows that pressure perturbations are significantly more dramatic than expected and cause pipe failures with highly disruptive consequences. This project aims to hydraulically calm WDNs to improve their performance, informed by smart sensors. The project will generate insightful knowledge of the hydraulic behaviour of real WDNs. The outcomes will be new strategies to identify, eliminate and suppress harmful pressure perturbations, leading to a reduced burst rate, extended asset life, improved system operation and advanced design principles. The resultant sustainable water assets provide significant economic and environmental benefits to the water industry and society.Read moreRead less
Discovery Early Career Researcher Award - Grant ID: DE240100481
Funder
Australian Research Council
Funding Amount
$388,673.00
Summary
Illuminating Dark Fibres for Smart Water Asset Monitoring. Smart water networks formed by fleets of acoustic sensors to detect developing cracks in water networks have grown rapidly in the past decade but are costly to install and maintain. This project aims to overcome this challenge by exploiting unused underground optical fibre cables that are ubiquitous in cities. The result will be low-cost and ready-made distributed sensing systems that protect critical water supplies, supported by intelli ....Illuminating Dark Fibres for Smart Water Asset Monitoring. Smart water networks formed by fleets of acoustic sensors to detect developing cracks in water networks have grown rapidly in the past decade but are costly to install and maintain. This project aims to overcome this challenge by exploiting unused underground optical fibre cables that are ubiquitous in cities. The result will be low-cost and ready-made distributed sensing systems that protect critical water supplies, supported by intelligent data analytic algorithms that can translate real-time data into valuable information to optimise water asset monitoring. The research outcomes will stimulate a technological revolution in smart water networks, accelerate water digitalisation globally and bring significant economic and social benefits.Read moreRead less