Future Proofing Transportation Infrastructure Assets. This project seeks to develop a model to predict construction project overruns. Transportation infrastructure assets are prone to cost and schedule overruns during their construction, which have negative impacts on asset owners and users. This project aims to develop a systemic model that can be used to determine the causal nature of cost and schedule overruns and their probability of occurrence. By enabling the predication of overruns, the p ....Future Proofing Transportation Infrastructure Assets. This project seeks to develop a model to predict construction project overruns. Transportation infrastructure assets are prone to cost and schedule overruns during their construction, which have negative impacts on asset owners and users. This project aims to develop a systemic model that can be used to determine the causal nature of cost and schedule overruns and their probability of occurrence. By enabling the predication of overruns, the project aims to ensure that the public and private sector are able to put in place mitigation strategies to reduce the impact of the economic and productivity issues that arise due to overruns.Read moreRead less
Performance, Evaluation, and Enhancement of Hydrated Cement Treated Crushed Rock Base (HCTCRB) as a Road Base Material for Western Australian Roads. The development of knowledge of HCTCRB, an advanced material in the pavement engineering discipline, will underpin growth in the highway and road construction industry. The key outcomes of this study will enhance and change highway and road organisations, contractors, engineers and others interested in the use and design of pavement materials. This ....Performance, Evaluation, and Enhancement of Hydrated Cement Treated Crushed Rock Base (HCTCRB) as a Road Base Material for Western Australian Roads. The development of knowledge of HCTCRB, an advanced material in the pavement engineering discipline, will underpin growth in the highway and road construction industry. The key outcomes of this study will enhance and change highway and road organisations, contractors, engineers and others interested in the use and design of pavement materials. This is particularly so in light of the recent change to a new era of analytical approaches, rather than the empirical approach of the past. When the outcomes of this project are applied, they will result in an improvement in overall road and highway quality. Read moreRead less
Discovery Early Career Researcher Award - Grant ID: DE170101502
Funder
Australian Research Council
Funding Amount
$360,000.00
Summary
Life cycle assessment of greenhouse gas emissions for road infrastructure. This project aims to develop an assessment model to accurately measure greenhouse gas emissions that roads generate over their life cycle. The project will integrate recent methodological developments and practical advances from road construction and maintenance into its proposed assessment model. The expected outcome will be an assessment model and mapping tool which will visualise emissions levels and better map these e ....Life cycle assessment of greenhouse gas emissions for road infrastructure. This project aims to develop an assessment model to accurately measure greenhouse gas emissions that roads generate over their life cycle. The project will integrate recent methodological developments and practical advances from road construction and maintenance into its proposed assessment model. The expected outcome will be an assessment model and mapping tool which will visualise emissions levels and better map these emissions into the cost-benefit analysis of roads. This will make greenhouse gas reduction more effective and cheaper, and make the Australian infrastructure sector more competitive.Read moreRead less
Containment and Reduction of Rework in Transport Mega Projects. Mega transport projects (>$1 billion) are poorly managed during their construction with significant cost and schedule overruns and benefit shortfalls regularly being experienced. Having to perform rework has been identified as a major factor that contributes to these unintended consequences. As there has been limited research that has empirically examined rework causation, an inability to develop effective rework containment and red ....Containment and Reduction of Rework in Transport Mega Projects. Mega transport projects (>$1 billion) are poorly managed during their construction with significant cost and schedule overruns and benefit shortfalls regularly being experienced. Having to perform rework has been identified as a major factor that contributes to these unintended consequences. As there has been limited research that has empirically examined rework causation, an inability to develop effective rework containment and reduction strategies prevails. This research aims to develop a theoretical model that can be used to develop robust containment and reduction strategies to mitigate the adverse economic, productivity and safety consequences that materialize from performing rework during the construction of mega transport projects.Read moreRead less
Development of hot-mix asphalt layer thickness design for longer-life asphalt pavements. This project will bring about an advance in pavement analysis and design, based on a more realistic approach to design inputs, analysis and design. The contribution of the project outcomes to knowledge in the field will be extremely important and a move away from empiricism will benefit pavement building industries world-wide.
Geotechnical and soil-structure interaction properties of soils in Perth CBD. A new underground railway (City Project) will shortly begin construction in Perth CBD. This construction, and its associated high level of monitoring instrumentation, offers a unique opportunity for an extensive and thorough examination of the mechanical properties of Perths soils. The research results emanating from the proposed combination of field monitoring, laboratory investigation and numerical analysis, will gre ....Geotechnical and soil-structure interaction properties of soils in Perth CBD. A new underground railway (City Project) will shortly begin construction in Perth CBD. This construction, and its associated high level of monitoring instrumentation, offers a unique opportunity for an extensive and thorough examination of the mechanical properties of Perths soils. The research results emanating from the proposed combination of field monitoring, laboratory investigation and numerical analysis, will greatly improve the reliability (and hence cost) of future foundation and basement designs in Perth and elsewhere.Read moreRead less
Numerical prediction of train and vehicle induced ground vibrations and their effects on structures. This project will develop an innovative new method based on coupled finite element and scaled boundary finite-element analysis for predicting the ground vibrations induced by road traffic and underground or surface trains. The method will have immediate application in transportation engineering to predict traffic-induced ground vibrations, in geotechnical engineering to design isolation trenches ....Numerical prediction of train and vehicle induced ground vibrations and their effects on structures. This project will develop an innovative new method based on coupled finite element and scaled boundary finite-element analysis for predicting the ground vibrations induced by road traffic and underground or surface trains. The method will have immediate application in transportation engineering to predict traffic-induced ground vibrations, in geotechnical engineering to design isolation trenches and wave barriers to dissipate wave propagation, and in structural engineering to estimate in-structure vibration level and design isolators for sensitive equipment housed within. The technique will involve fundamental advances in the scaled boundary finite-element method, as calculations will be performed in a moving reference frame.Read moreRead less
Seabed engineering to unlock Australia's deepwater oil and gas resources. The development of offshore petroleum contributes $25 billion annually to the Australian economy. The majority of our $1 trillion of reserves are currently untapped, being in deep water, remote from shore. This Fellowship will generate a scientific understanding of the mechanics of seabed sediments when disturbed by infrastructure and ocean storms, and lead to procedures for designing the seabed pipelines and facilities ne ....Seabed engineering to unlock Australia's deepwater oil and gas resources. The development of offshore petroleum contributes $25 billion annually to the Australian economy. The majority of our $1 trillion of reserves are currently untapped, being in deep water, remote from shore. This Fellowship will generate a scientific understanding of the mechanics of seabed sediments when disturbed by infrastructure and ocean storms, and lead to procedures for designing the seabed pipelines and facilities needed to unlock Australia's isolated deep water petroleum reserves. These procedures will provide economic solutions for safely transmitting the hydrocarbons to shore. The resulting expertise will enhance Australia's global reputation in offshore geotechnics and engineering and raise the competitiveness of our petroleum industry.Read moreRead less
Analysis and design of interlocking brick system against earthquake loading. This project aims to develop optimised interlocking bricks to resist static and earthquake loads. Using conventional bricks in masonry construction requires skilled labour to connect bricks with mortar. Development of interlocking bricks for mortarless connection has been attracting great interest because the easy alignment improves construction efficiency and quality. Interlocking also leads to better mechanical perfor ....Analysis and design of interlocking brick system against earthquake loading. This project aims to develop optimised interlocking bricks to resist static and earthquake loads. Using conventional bricks in masonry construction requires skilled labour to connect bricks with mortar. Development of interlocking bricks for mortarless connection has been attracting great interest because the easy alignment improves construction efficiency and quality. Interlocking also leads to better mechanical performance of the resulting structures. This project will have significant impact on construction technology and the Australian masonry industry, and greatly improve the competitiveness of the Australian construction industry in the international market.Read moreRead less
Novel wave energy foundation solutions to survive extreme loads. This project aims to develop an economic and efficient anchoring system for taut-moored wave energy converters to enable us to exploit sustainable wave energy resources. Australia’s potential near-shore wave energy resource is four times larger than the current total capacity of our installed power generation. But the development of ocean wave energy is presently hampered by expensive, traditional anchoring systems. Using better es ....Novel wave energy foundation solutions to survive extreme loads. This project aims to develop an economic and efficient anchoring system for taut-moored wave energy converters to enable us to exploit sustainable wave energy resources. Australia’s potential near-shore wave energy resource is four times larger than the current total capacity of our installed power generation. But the development of ocean wave energy is presently hampered by expensive, traditional anchoring systems. Using better estimation of extreme loads, the project will use multidisciplinary approaches to investigate unique anchoring concepts with the aim of developing novel strategies to avoid the most extreme loads and enabling optimum anchor design. The outcomes of the project are intended to help to deliver economically viable wave energy projects.Read moreRead less