Horizontal convection at ocean-relevant proportions. This project aims to determine the role of buoyancy differences from solar radiation and vertical confinement. Flows created by lateral variation in heat or buoyancy are poorly understood when the horizontal length greatly exceeds the height, precisely the conditions relevant to industry and understanding the role of horizontal convection in Earth's oceans and in turn the delicate current system that maintains Earth's temperate climate. This p ....Horizontal convection at ocean-relevant proportions. This project aims to determine the role of buoyancy differences from solar radiation and vertical confinement. Flows created by lateral variation in heat or buoyancy are poorly understood when the horizontal length greatly exceeds the height, precisely the conditions relevant to industry and understanding the role of horizontal convection in Earth's oceans and in turn the delicate current system that maintains Earth's temperate climate. This project proposes computational and experimental efforts to probe the ultimate regime of heat transport in very shallow horizontal convection, benefiting humankind through improvements to future ocean and climate modelling efforts.Read moreRead less
Engineered interlayers of bio-retardant and nano-reinforcement on polymers. This project will address the important need for a highly effective lightweight coating. Different interlayers of bio-retardants derive from organic compounds and two-dimensional sheet-like nanomaterials are fabricated to enhance the charring, thermal barrier and flammability resistance. Molecular dynamics are adopted to deliver more targeted fabrication to achieve increased efficacy of the engineered interlayers and pro ....Engineered interlayers of bio-retardant and nano-reinforcement on polymers. This project will address the important need for a highly effective lightweight coating. Different interlayers of bio-retardants derive from organic compounds and two-dimensional sheet-like nanomaterials are fabricated to enhance the charring, thermal barrier and flammability resistance. Molecular dynamics are adopted to deliver more targeted fabrication to achieve increased efficacy of the engineered interlayers and provide important insights on the combustibility of polymers undergoing mass diffusivity, thermal diffusion and oxidation process at high temperatures. Expected outcomes of the project are lightweight coated polymers possessing elevated resistance to fire with a significant reduction of toxic gas emissions and smoke releases. Read moreRead less
Gravity Current Driven Smoke Dispersion In a Stratified Ambient. Smoke from bushfires transported by gravity currents, and known to occur nationwide, caused the shutdown of businesses, education and events in Canberra in 2019. Recent scientific investigations have shown that the speed of propagation and concentration of smoke in these three-dimensional gravity currents have a long term ‘memory’ of their initial configuration. In this project, high-fidelity computational and experimental techniq ....Gravity Current Driven Smoke Dispersion In a Stratified Ambient. Smoke from bushfires transported by gravity currents, and known to occur nationwide, caused the shutdown of businesses, education and events in Canberra in 2019. Recent scientific investigations have shown that the speed of propagation and concentration of smoke in these three-dimensional gravity currents have a long term ‘memory’ of their initial configuration. In this project, high-fidelity computational and experimental techniques will be used to elucidate the fundamental mechanisms of gravity current entrainment and propagation. This knowledge will set a strong foundation to improve operational forecasts of smoke transport that will allow government agencies to better respond to the negative impact of these complicated flows.Read moreRead less
Enhancing passive cooling using flexible baffles. The project aims to develop a novel passive strategy using fluid-structure-thermal interactions to enhance passive cooling by natural convection and improve the energy efficiency of engineering systems. Comparing to the existing strategies, the new strategy does not require driving fan or pump and is quiet, reliable, self-adaptive and economical. The Multiphysics embodied in the proposal is at the leading edge of the field. Expected outcomes incl ....Enhancing passive cooling using flexible baffles. The project aims to develop a novel passive strategy using fluid-structure-thermal interactions to enhance passive cooling by natural convection and improve the energy efficiency of engineering systems. Comparing to the existing strategies, the new strategy does not require driving fan or pump and is quiet, reliable, self-adaptive and economical. The Multiphysics embodied in the proposal is at the leading edge of the field. Expected outcomes include advanced understanding of the complex Multiphysics and design rules for enhancing passive cooling by natural convection using flexible baffles. The research is expected to bring direct economic benefit to relevant industry and significant environmental and social benefit to the general public.Read moreRead less
Large Scale Natural Convection Boundary Layers with Non-Boussinesq Effects. This proposal aims to understand and predict heat transfer by turbulent natural convection in two scenarios, firstly at very large environmental scales, such as occur on melting Antarctic ice sheets, and secondly convection involving very large temperature differences such as occur in solar thermal power plants and industrial processes. These natural convection flow regimes are incredibly difficult to investigate directl ....Large Scale Natural Convection Boundary Layers with Non-Boussinesq Effects. This proposal aims to understand and predict heat transfer by turbulent natural convection in two scenarios, firstly at very large environmental scales, such as occur on melting Antarctic ice sheets, and secondly convection involving very large temperature differences such as occur in solar thermal power plants and industrial processes. These natural convection flow regimes are incredibly difficult to investigate directly but by focusing on the fundamental dynamics of the turbulent flows using large scale numerical simulations and innovative experiments, the project is expected to develop better analytical and computational models which will underpin improvements in
global ocean models and improve energy efficiency.Read moreRead less
Thermal transport by design for fast and efficient solar thermochemical fuel production. This project aims to demonstrate the utility of the thermal transport by design approach to develop functionally graded reactive materials that allow for fast and efficient solar thermo-chemical fuel production. Prediction capabilities will be developed to optimise multi-scale radiative and gas transport coupled with non-stoichiometric redox reactions. Synthesis gas production will be demonstrated using the ....Thermal transport by design for fast and efficient solar thermochemical fuel production. This project aims to demonstrate the utility of the thermal transport by design approach to develop functionally graded reactive materials that allow for fast and efficient solar thermo-chemical fuel production. Prediction capabilities will be developed to optimise multi-scale radiative and gas transport coupled with non-stoichiometric redox reactions. Synthesis gas production will be demonstrated using the new structures in a prototype solar thermochemical reactor under high-flux irradiation. This project aims to advance the fields of thermal sciences and high-temperature solar thermochemical processing and expand the engineering knowledge base to pave the way to sustainable transportation with the existing infrastructure.Read moreRead less
Fluid Transport in Materials of Nanoscale Dimensions. This project aims to transform the modelling of fluid transport in materials of nanoscale dimension by determining the coupled interfacial heat and mass-transfer barriers, which critically influence the transport. The outcome will not only be new knowledge on the effects of inherent structural distortion and of the barriers on the fluid flow, but also cutting-edge techniques to estimate system size-dependent transport coefficients in nanoscal ....Fluid Transport in Materials of Nanoscale Dimensions. This project aims to transform the modelling of fluid transport in materials of nanoscale dimension by determining the coupled interfacial heat and mass-transfer barriers, which critically influence the transport. The outcome will not only be new knowledge on the effects of inherent structural distortion and of the barriers on the fluid flow, but also cutting-edge techniques to estimate system size-dependent transport coefficients in nanoscale systems. These will be achieved through a combination of targeted molecular dynamics simulations and experiment, and will have far-reaching implications for nanotechnology and emerging processes in catalysis, gas separation, human health and nanofluidics, and enable design of more efficient systems.Read moreRead less