Designing for Safe and Durable Structures. This project creates advanced concepts and tools for the analysis/design of new structures, and structural modifications with safety and durability constraints. It involves the marriage of the alternative finite element techniques, for assessing durability, recent developments in structural optimisations, and advances in parallel processing techniques. This project builds on the applicants recent pioneering work, one of which won the best paper award ....Designing for Safe and Durable Structures. This project creates advanced concepts and tools for the analysis/design of new structures, and structural modifications with safety and durability constraints. It involves the marriage of the alternative finite element techniques, for assessing durability, recent developments in structural optimisations, and advances in parallel processing techniques. This project builds on the applicants recent pioneering work, one of which won the best paper award at the 2nd Australasian Conference on Applied Mechanics. By marrying the skills associated with three internationally recognised key researchers this proposal represents a major advance in the basic understanding of structural optimisation and creates unique research linkages.Read moreRead less
Fluid physics of cold gas-dynamic spray process. Cold gas-dynamic spray has the potential to revitalize and revolutionize the Australian manufacturing sector and economy. It is a technologically advanced flexible free-forming process with potential applications in the aviation, automotive, naval and bio-medical sectors. It allows for the design of functional surfaces from the nano-scale to the macro-scale that can be manufactured by spraying material coatings of arbitrary thickness and density o ....Fluid physics of cold gas-dynamic spray process. Cold gas-dynamic spray has the potential to revitalize and revolutionize the Australian manufacturing sector and economy. It is a technologically advanced flexible free-forming process with potential applications in the aviation, automotive, naval and bio-medical sectors. It allows for the design of functional surfaces from the nano-scale to the macro-scale that can be manufactured by spraying material coatings of arbitrary thickness and density on a substrate. The process of the spray particle delivery is crucial and not understood. This research will investigate the fluid physics and spray particle physics to gain the essential understanding necessary to make this process energy efficient and extend its range of application.Read moreRead less
Impinging supersonic jets: stability and control - with application to cold spray. Understanding aero-acoustics instabilities of impinging supersonic jets is vital to improve the energy efficiency of cold spray manufacturing. This project will generate the necessary knowledge to understand and control these instabilities, in order to improve the cold spray process and to extend the range of application of impinging supersonic jets flows.
Linkage Infrastructure, Equipment And Facilities - Grant ID: LE0453398
Funder
Australian Research Council
Funding Amount
$161,075.00
Summary
A Non Contact Facility For Measuring Irreversible Energy, Residual Stress, and Full Field Stresses for Critical Rail Infra-Structure Assessment. To meet the national rail objectives as enunciated in the 2002 Green Paper there is an urgent requirement for a capability for: i) advanced (rail) prototype assessment, ii) rapid assessment of rail infra-structure, iii) for increasing the capacity of existing (rail) infra-structure. To address this we propose a facility with both a dissipative energy m ....A Non Contact Facility For Measuring Irreversible Energy, Residual Stress, and Full Field Stresses for Critical Rail Infra-Structure Assessment. To meet the national rail objectives as enunciated in the 2002 Green Paper there is an urgent requirement for a capability for: i) advanced (rail) prototype assessment, ii) rapid assessment of rail infra-structure, iii) for increasing the capacity of existing (rail) infra-structure. To address this we propose a facility with both a dissipative energy measurement and a 'lock in' thermograpghy capability. Recent Australian developments in thermo-elasticity enables the researchers to extend this facility to measure residual stress in complex components. The ability to measure dissipated energy, residual stress, ultrasonic waves, and full field stress will create a unique research capability.Read moreRead less
Parallel-Link Mechanism Control using new Concept and Techniques. The new knowledge and techniques, as a result of this research project, will have direct relevance to many Australian industries. In particular, they provide opportunities to improve Australia's competitiveness through innovations for the manufacturing sector. For this sector, increasing global competition and tariff reductions pose serious challenges to its continuing international competitiveness. There is an urgent need to deve ....Parallel-Link Mechanism Control using new Concept and Techniques. The new knowledge and techniques, as a result of this research project, will have direct relevance to many Australian industries. In particular, they provide opportunities to improve Australia's competitiveness through innovations for the manufacturing sector. For this sector, increasing global competition and tariff reductions pose serious challenges to its continuing international competitiveness. There is an urgent need to develop cost effective innovative products. The outcomes of this research will produce a faster, more accurate, cheaper and optimally controlled parallel-link robot than currently available. Read moreRead less
Low emission, Gas Turbine Air Compressor (GTAC) demonstrator. Compressed air production consumes a significant portion of electricity generated world-wide. The fragility of power infrastructure in many developed countries, and the growing Chinese economy, has created very large markets for compressed air plants that run off Diesel and natural gas fuels. Australia's reliance on coal introduces the added greenhouse incentive of reduced electricity use.
This project will demonstrate a novel air ....Low emission, Gas Turbine Air Compressor (GTAC) demonstrator. Compressed air production consumes a significant portion of electricity generated world-wide. The fragility of power infrastructure in many developed countries, and the growing Chinese economy, has created very large markets for compressed air plants that run off Diesel and natural gas fuels. Australia's reliance on coal introduces the added greenhouse incentive of reduced electricity use.
This project will demonstrate a novel air compressor concept that features a natural gas fuelled micro-gas turbine. This device is expected to have comparable thermal efficiency to other air compressors, but with very significantly reduced greenhouse and overall emissions, much quieter operation, lower cost and increased device compactness.
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Fatigue Behaviour of Dragline Tubular Structures. Fatigue failure is a major concern for dragline tubular structures. Several catastrophic collapses of such structure occurred. The fatigue behaviour of such large tubular structures is unknown. Fatigue cracks were observed in many existing draglines. The latest international design codes are inadequate to address this issue. The project will develop reliable methodologies for design, inspection, strengthening and assessment of such structures. Th ....Fatigue Behaviour of Dragline Tubular Structures. Fatigue failure is a major concern for dragline tubular structures. Several catastrophic collapses of such structure occurred. The fatigue behaviour of such large tubular structures is unknown. Fatigue cracks were observed in many existing draglines. The latest international design codes are inadequate to address this issue. The project will develop reliable methodologies for design, inspection, strengthening and assessment of such structures. The outcome will be reduced manufacturing and operational costs and a reduced catastrophic failure risk. This will increase the international competitiveness of Australian mining industry. Several other industry sectors will be benefited from the technology developed in this project.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
Linkage Infrastructure, Equipment And Facilities - Grant ID: LE0347553
Funder
Australian Research Council
Funding Amount
$175,000.00
Summary
Smart Equipment for Remote Monitoring of Isolated and Mobile Infrastructure. The partners' research involves the collection and assessment of data to determine the condition, maintenance strategies and risk of failure of plant in diverse areas such as transport, cargo and packaging, mining and power. Recent advances in data processing, computing and telemetry mean that it is now possible to actually install small and rugged data acquisition equipment on remote infrastructure or mobile plant. T ....Smart Equipment for Remote Monitoring of Isolated and Mobile Infrastructure. The partners' research involves the collection and assessment of data to determine the condition, maintenance strategies and risk of failure of plant in diverse areas such as transport, cargo and packaging, mining and power. Recent advances in data processing, computing and telemetry mean that it is now possible to actually install small and rugged data acquisition equipment on remote infrastructure or mobile plant. This equipment can acquire, condition and process the signals and use wireless telemetry to transmit the data for remote assessment. The proposed infrastructure will enable the partners' research to be extended to these challenging applications.Read moreRead less
A Microstructure Based Approach to Steel Design for Improved Crash Performance. There is a continual need for the automotive industry to develop vehicles with increased fuel efficiency and safety. This research will establish how different types of new advanced steels can contribute to improved crash worthiness, while also helping to increase fuel efficiency through lighter weight. This will lead to the development of new steels that offer even better crash performance while also providing more ....A Microstructure Based Approach to Steel Design for Improved Crash Performance. There is a continual need for the automotive industry to develop vehicles with increased fuel efficiency and safety. This research will establish how different types of new advanced steels can contribute to improved crash worthiness, while also helping to increase fuel efficiency through lighter weight. This will lead to the development of new steels that offer even better crash performance while also providing more realistic computer models for car designers.Read moreRead less