Date |
Presenter |
Topic |
| 08 Dec |
Tahmina Hossain (PhD) |
Shear Behavior of HSC Beams at Low and High Strain Rates |
| 05 Dec |
Alex Zahnd |
A Holistic Community Development Project in Partnership with the Remotest and Poorest Mountain Communities in the Nepal Himalayas |
| 01 Dec |
Mukesh Soni (PhD) |
Fire Behaviour of High Strength Concrete Columns |
| 30 Nov |
Dr Ed Kim (Visiting Academic) |
“Just how much snow is there? -
Remote sensing of snow, your water for life” |
| 24 Nov |
Cressida Savige (PhD) |
Remote Sensing of Evapotranspiration in an Irrigation District |
| 17 Nov |
Mochamad Teguh (PhD) |
Seismic Performance of Prestressed Concrete Pile-to-Pile Cap Connections |
| 10 Nov |
Shuqin Wen (PhD) |
Eddies and Rossby Waves in a Well Mixed Coastal Environment |
| 6 Oct |
Leo Lymburner (PhD) |
Mapping the Functions of Riparian Vegetation using Remote Sensing and Terrain Analysis |
| 29 Sept |
Stephen Wealands (PhD) |
Comparing spatial fields in hydrology |
| 22 Sep |
Christoph Ruediger (PhD) |
Streamflow data assimilation for the retrieval of soil moisture states in a hydrological model |
| 15 Sept |
WINE TASTING |
There will be a special wine tasting session following the seminar on this date. Wines from the Gippsland region will be sampled and 'tasters' will be asked to evaluate each wine. This will be followed with dinner at a nearby restaurant. Let Nick Haritos know if you will be attending the wine tasting. |
| 15 Sept |
Matthew Turner (PhD) |
Assimilation of Satellite Data into Marine Models |
| 8 Sept |
Kuba Szczepanik (PhD) |
Simulation and Testing of Phase Change Thermal Storage |
| 1 Sept |
Davide Caputo (Visiting Academic) |
Wireless Sensor Networks |
| 25 Aug |
Min Zhu (Conv.) |
Structural Analysis of the Theatre of Beneventum |
| 25 Aug |
Kien Cuong Nguyen (Conv.) |
A Study on the Dynamic Torsional Behaviour of Tall Buildings under Wind Loads using CFD Modeling |
| 18 Aug |
Shelly Sharma (Conv.) |
Determination of wave velocity (sound and shear waves) in a supercavitated flow |
| 18 Aug |
Ther Nen Chong (Conv.) |
Effects of Pavement Rehabilitation Treatments on Malaysian Expressways |
| 4 Aug |
Kittipoom Rodsin (PhD) |
Seismic performance of reinforced concrete soft-storey buildings in low to moderate seismicity regions |
| 28 July |
Mukesh Soni (PhD) |
Fire behaviour of high strength concrete columns |
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| 21 July |
Ririn Erinawati (PhD) |
Linear and non-linear system identification techniques for flood routing |
| 14 July |
Asif Zaman (PhD) |
Estimating regional impacts of temporary water trading through integrated and dynamic hydro-economic modelling |
| 30 June |
Huong Dang (Conv.) |
Modeling of grease trap performance |
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| 23 June |
Nicholas Potter (PhD) |
Timescales of variability of catchment water balance |
| 9 June |
Francis Chiew & Nick Haritos (Staff) |
Advice on Poster Preparation and Presentations for PG Conference |
| 2 June |
Christopher Clifton (PhD) |
Creating a framework for Public Private Partnerships through a relationship contracting approach |
| 26 May |
Matthew Berrisford (Conv.) |
Feasible improvements in irrigation distribution systems including the effects of on-farm water storage |
| 19 May |
Xuan Duong (John) Phan
(PhD) |
Investigation
of non-autoclaved aerated concrete as a load-bearing material |
| 9 May |
Doki Yamaguchi (Conv.) |
Supercritical water gasification of sewage sludge |
| 21 Apr |
Dr Khalad Kheireldin (Visitor) |
Decision Support Systems: A Robust Tool for Integrated Water Resources Management |
| 14 Apr |
Subhadra Jha (PhD) |
Modelling Streambank Erosion at Catchment Scale |
| 7 Apr |
Raymond Lumantarna (Conv.) |
Investigation of Window Glass Behaviour under Blast Load |
| 7 Apr |
David Robertson (Conv.) |
Knowledge Integration for the Evaluation of the Effectiveness of Catchment Management Intervention |
| 24 Mar |
Anant Gupta (Conv.) |
Fragmentation of Concrete Structures Subjected to Explosions |
| 17 Mar |
Tuan Ngo (PhD) |
Behaviour of High Strength Concrete Members Subject to Impulsive Loading |
| 10 Mar |
Ris Lee (PhD) |
The Danger in a Crowd |
3 Mar
|
C.Venturato & A.Powell (SGS) and N.Haritos (Pgrad Coordinator) |
PG Information Session |
| 24 Feb |
Liz Irvine (PhD) |
Salinity Processes in Lake Eyre Basin Rivers |
| 17 Feb |
Prof. Len Stevens |
Evolution and Creation of Structural Form |
9 Feb
(Wed - 3:45pm) |
Rob Pipunic (PhD) |
Assimilation of latent and sensible heat flux data into the CSIRO Biosphere Model |
9 Feb
(Wed - 4:15pm) |
Prof. Peter G. Baines and Prof. John D. Fenton |
Tsunami Dynamics |
| 3 Feb |
Bart Kellett (PhD) |
A sustainability framework to guide irrigation development in northern Australia |
| 3 Feb |
Phong Dang Ngo (PhD) |
Acid water modelling for the coastal canal system in acid sulphate soil - Case of study: The Camau Peninsula, Mekong Delta, Vietnam |
Seminars |
Date |
Presenter |
Topic |
| 08 Dec |
Tahmina Hossain (PhD) |
Shear Behavior of HSC Beams at Low and High Strain Rates - How much shear reinforcement is necessary and how such reinforcement should most effectively be used? This old question is still attracting attention to researchers on concrete structures. While HSC offers significant advantages in construction including blast and impact resistance, research and guidelines for shear design of HSC beams are sorely lacking. This PhD project will bring it into focus to study whether the change of material properties due to higher strength has an adverse effect on the shear behavior of RC beams. One of the important adverse effect of HSC on shear is that of loss of aggregate interlock mechanism across cracks with smooth fracture plane. This research has proposed some modified design formula for static beam shear, which fits better with test results from literature while it keeps basic forms of Australian Standards AS 3600 specifications. A fracture energy based constitutive model for concrete has also been developed in this study based on the refined formulae to account for the reducing aggregate interlock friction. The proposed damage model has been validated using the available test results from literature. |
| 01 Dec |
Mukesh Soni (PhD) |
Fire Behaviour of High Strength Concrete Columns - High strength concrete (HSC) is being used in prestigious projects around the world. Its strength, durability, efficiency in delivering exceptional load carrying capacity at normal temperatures is proved remarkable. It has provoked architects to use small sized columns for long span structures using environment friendly high strength concrete. Since its compressive strength is undoubtedly high, it is almost always preferred to have HSC columns. Although HSC sounds similar to the normal strength concrete (NSC) which we are familiar, it is proved that HSC is a different material when it comes to fire (high temperature) situations. Due to a number of factors namely low water cement ratio while production, less porosity due to fine ingredients and greater compressive loads, it has been observed that spalling is the biggest problem when HSC is exposed to high temperatures. Unfortunately spalling is seen at early stages of temperature rise which can drastically reduce the cross section area of concrete exposing reinforcement and core of columns to higher temperatures. Hence it is in urgent need to know the fire behavior of HSC columns to come up with better understanding & solutions thereafter. |
| 30 Nov |
Dr Ed Kim |
“Just how much snow is there? - Remote sensing of snow, your water for life” - The Earth enjoys its profusion of life (vs. Mars and Venus) due in
part to its distance from the sun being neither too great nor too small
so that liquid water is abundant at the Earth’s surface. But we
also live on a world with a substantial cryosphere, with snow, frozen
ground, ice sheets, and sea ice all playing important roles in the
climate system. For example, over 30% of Earth’s total land surface
has seasonal snow, and 10% is permanently covered by snow and ice.
The tremendous impact of the cryosphere especially snow on society is
becoming increasingly recognized by weather and climate forecasters,
water resource managers, a wide range of other sectors, and the general
public, both in the US and abroad. In many regions around the
world, nearly all the renewable fresh water for drinking, agriculture,
industry, and hydropower is derived from seasonal snowpacks.
However, even basic information, such as current estimates of the
location and amount of water stored as snow (and related “Cold Lands”
quantities), would benefit greatly from improved accuracy.
To achieve this, exciting new efforts within the Cold Lands scientific
community, NASA Goddard, and at other agencies have been directed toward
future Cold Lands satellite concepts and new remote sensing
techniques. I will discuss some of these efforts, as well as
describe (with plenty of pictures) the NASA Cold Land Processes
Experiment, a major backcountry field experiment conducted recently in
Colorado and designed to support these efforts. |
| 24 Nov |
Cressida Savige |
Remote Sensing of Evapotranspiration in an Irrigation District - With current irrigation practices in Australia contributing to a number of environmental problems - including salinity, waterlogging, nutrient washoff and altered flow regimes in rivers - it is important that we can effectively monitor where irrigation water goes and how efficiently it is managed. One approach to monitoring irrigation water use efficiency is to assess the ratio between actual evapotranspiration (ET) and the amount of irrigation water supplied. However, the rate of actual ET is highly variable across an irrigation district and difficult to measure. The aim of this project is to use remote sensing estimates of ET to monitor irrigation water use efficiency. Remotely sensed data are available at a range of spatial scales (10s to 1000s of metres) and provide information on the spatial distribution of vegetation cover and land surface temperature. These data were used as input in two land surface models to estimate the rate of ET at the surface. Ground measurements of ET were made in an irrigation district in northern Victoria during the 2002-03 and 2003-04 irrigation seasons to test how well these models predict actual ET. Eddy correlation measurements of ET were also made from a light aircraft in January 2003. The measurements were used to test the remote sensing estimates at a range of spatial scales, from site specific to regional, and to develop a method to extend the ET estimates to the times between satellite overpasses. |
| 10 Nov |
Shuqin Wen (PhD) |
Eddies and Rossby Waves in a Well Mixed Coastal Environment - In highly turbulent coastal regions, the ocean flows are well stirred and tend to have a spatial uniform potential vorticity. Such flows are natural in turbulent regions, and the approximation of flow of uniform potential vorticity provides technical advantages. This study focuses on the behaviors of ocean eddies in such environments. Both the dynamical description of a single ocean eddy and the statistical-mechanical description of the chaotic motions of large numbers of eddies in the well mixed coastal environments are investigated. The presentation will focus on the latter: the statistical-mechanical study. A highly idealized statistical-mechanical model was established to predict some average behaviors of the eddy system, which is naturally separated from the background flows. It was found that at the equilibrium state, a mean cross-shelf potential vorticity gradient is generated among the eddies. This mean PV gradient theoretically makes possible the existence of long (much longer than typical distance between two eddies) Rossby waves in even very turbulent oceans (such that PV is uniform everywhere expect the eddies that survive the cascading process). It is suggested that the chaotic motions of the eddies can be the cause of existence of long Rossby waves in highly turbulent coastal regions, where the persistent PV gradient in the background flows is excluded. |
| 17 Nov |
Mochamad Teguh (PhD) |
Seismic Performance of Prestressed Concrete Pile-to-Pile Cap Connections - Damage in recent earthquakes has resulted in the design of pile foundation systems becoming more conservative, particularly pile-to-pile cap connections. Seismic ground movement has led to potential inelastic deformations forming in the piles and near their connection to the pile cap. In an attempt to address these concerns, the application of current international design practice results in pile cap joint details having congested steel reinforcement in the pile cap and this is extremely difficult to construct. 2D and 3D finite element models have been utilised to analyse the nonlinear behaviour of prestressed concrete pile-to-pile cap connections (PPC) under seismic actions. Plain and headed embedment lengths, bond-slip, connection details, and soil response are a list of parametric studies that have been investigated. It has been found that the use of a suitable headed embedment significantly improves the seismic behaviour of PPC. The use of spiral confinement at the joint and along the pile has been found as a better performance through the use of headed reinforcement than continuation of the pile into the pile cap (plain embedment). Bond-slip effects in the headed reinforcements and the use of simplified soil-pile interaction have shown unavoidable concerns particularly in the nonlinear pushover and cyclic analyses of PPCs. Based on the analysis, it is recommended that using 1.2-1.5 of pile width (or diameter) for embedment length of headed reinforcement produces adequate connections that have reduced stress concentration and crack damage at the interface between pile and pile cap. Monolithic analysis of a group of piles connected to the pile cap should be performed to seek reliable seismic performance of the connection by simulating a complex dynamic response and taking into account bond-slip effect and soil response. |
| 6 Oct |
Leo Lymburner (PhD) |
Mapping the Functions of Riparian Vegetation using Remote Sensing and Terrain Analysis -
Vegetation beside rivers and streams (riparian vegetation) provides a range of important biophysical functions. The functions include reducing the amount of sediment that enters the stream by reducing overland flow and minimizing bank erosion; improving the aquatic habitat by providing large woody debris and shade for the stream; and improving water quality by reducing in-stream nitrogen loads via denitrification. All of these functions have been well studied at small scales, but the distribution of these functions at the catchment scale remains a gap in knowledge. This seminar details how remote sensing data from the ASTER, MODIS and SRTM sensors have been analyzed to 1. describe the distribution of riparian vegetation in a large semi-arid catchment in Queensland and 2. Identify which riparian vegetation functions dominate in different parts of the catchment. The insight into riparian vegetation function gained through this research will inform catchment management decisions aimed at reducing the amount of sediment reaching the Great Barrier Reef . |
| 22 Sep |
Christoph Ruediger (PhD) |
Streamflow data assimilation for the retrieval of soil moisture states in a hydrological model :
Soil moisture is an important variable in hydrological and climatic modelling. However, obtaining satisfactory observations of soil moisture is difficult. While point ground observations are useful to determine the spatial variability of soil moisture, they are limited to a regional scale, retrieving data from space-borne platforms allows for the coverage of large areas with a relatively high repeat cycle. Nevertheless, some limitation to the data apply. For example, it has long been known that factors such as slope or vegetation cover interfere with satellite measurements of soil moisture, thus limiting the acquisition of reliable data to areas of low to moderate vegetation and regular surface conditions. While satellite remote sensing is limited to regions with low-to-moderate vegetation, point measurements on the ground cannot be seen as an adequate replacement, due to the lack of accessibility of sites and logistical problems such as the number of measurements needed for a complete coverage due to their high spatial variability and the necessity to achieve a good temporal cover. Finally, hydrological models can only predict environmental variables to a certain extent, as knowledge of physical processes in the atmosphere and the ground, and their respective interactions is limited. Such a limitation may lead to a large uncertainties in the model output.
While the three techniques described above (remote sensing, point measurements and modelling) have their individual limitations, they have been used in the past to complement each other. It is therefore proposed to infer soil moisture states through the assimilation of streamflow and remotely sensed surface soil moisture (where available) observations into a hydrological model, making use of the water balance within the hydrological model and therefore the correlation between soil moisture and streamflow. The rationale for the approach is to develop computationally efficient on-line methods to automatically determine soil moisture for initialisation of global climate and weather prediction models where remote sensing cannot be used, such as in the heavily forested regions of the Amazon. This is achieved by using a Bayesian non-linear regression method, which allows for the simultaneous assimilation of different observations for the retrieval of model states and parameters.
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| 15 Sept |
Matthew Turner (PhD) |
Assimilation of Satellite Data into Marine Models :
Numerical models are used to predict the future state of the marine
environment. In coastal regions prediction is becoming increasingly important
in managing the environment and multiple users. With advances in satellite
technology the ability to observed coastal regions is more possible than in
the past. Using data assimilation techniques, specifically ensemble Kalman
filtering, the prediction ability of models is improved. This is demonstrated
by assimilating sea surface temperature (SST) data into a hydrodynamic model
of Port Phillip Bay. |
| 29 Sept |
Stephen Wealands |
Comparing spatial fields in hydrology : In hydrology, assessing the spatial predictive ability of models is done in a simplistic fashion. Improvement can be made by using methods that quantify multiple aspects of similarity between spatial fields. Many methods exist in other disciplines (image processing, computer vision, pattern matching, landscape ecology) that can be adapted for application in hydrology. This research: 1) identifies the requirements for comparison methods in hydrology; 2) assesses the existing literature relating to spatial field comparison; 3) develops promising methods for application in hydrology; and 4) presents the value of these new methods for common hydrological modelling tasks. |
| 1 Sept |
Davide Caputo (Visiting Academic) |
Wireless Sensor Network :
Davide Caputo is an academic visitor from the "Politecnico di Milano"- Milan, Italy
who is working on his master's thesis titled: "Wireless Sensor Networks for
Real-Time Health Monitoring of Bridges".
His supervisors are Prof Alessandro Gandelli and Prof A.Cigada.
Davide is spending a short stint of ~10 weeks with Nick Haritos, by way of initiating
collaboration between Politecnico di Milano and our Department.
Davide will present an overview of wireless sensor technology,
its advantages and disadvantages, and will provide examples of its implementation. |
| 18 Aug |
Shelly Sharma |
Determination of Wave Velocity (Sound and Shear Waves) in a Supercavitated Flow : Supercavitation is a physical event in which cavitation effect is used to create large bubble of gas inside a liquid, allowing an object to travel at a great speed through the liquid by being wholly enveloped by the bubble. The cavity reduces the drag on object and precisely this makes supercavitation an attractive technology as drag is normally thousand times greater in water than in air. It has long been a subject of intense research interest for warfare technology. If similar phenomena of supercavitated flow could be achieved for pipe flow, it would lead to drastic reduction in head losses due to friction. For this it is very important to get an insight into the processes taking place at the vapor-liquid interface in such a flow. Theory of acoustic waves' propagation has widely been applied to understand various processes taking place in two phase systems. This study focuses on the application of acoustic wave theory to determine the velocity of sound and shear waves in a supercavitated flow, which in turn would give a view of conditions at vapor-liquid interface in such a flow. |
| 4 Aug |
Kittipoom Rodsin |
Seismic Performance of Reinforced Concrete Soft-Storey Buildings in Low to Moderate Seismicity Regions : Soft-storey buildings are well known to be vulnerable to severe damage and collapse under earthquake conditions. The buildings with soft-storey feature are commonly found in an area of low to moderate seismicity regions such as Australia . The potential seismic performance of this class of building has been evaluated by a displacement-based method involving a push-over analysis. Whether the building survives the earthquake depends on the gravitational load carrying capacity of the deflected, and partially damaged ground floor columns. The developed deformation model including ultimate deformation model at axial load collapse has been validated with the soft-storey column test. The development of an accurate deformation model forms part of the displacement-based methodology for the seismic performance assessment of buildings with a soft-storey. |
| 28 July |
Mukesh Soni |
Fire behavior of high strength concrete columns : High strength concrete (HSC) is being used in prestigious projects around the world. Its strength, durability, efficiency in delivering exceptional load carrying capacity at normal temperatures is proved remarkable. It has provoked architects to use small sized columns for long span structures using environment friendly high strength concrete. Since its compressive strength is undoubtedly high, it is almost always preferred to have HSC columns. Although HSC sounds similar to the normal strength concrete (NSC) which we are familiar, it is proved that HSC is a different material when it comes to fire (high temperature) situations. Due to a number of factors namely low water cement ratio while production, less porosity due to fine ingredients and greater compressive loads, it has been observed that spalling is the biggest problem when HSC is exposed to high temperatures. Unfortunately spalling is seen at early stages of temperature rise which can drastically reduce the cross section area of concrete exposing reinforcement and core of columns to higher temperatures. Hence it is in urgent need to know the fire behavior of HSC columns to come up with better understanding & solutions thereafter. |
| 21 July |
Ririn Erinawati |
Linear and Non-Linear System Identification Techniques for Flood Routing : Accurate flood predictions need to be improved in order to minimize the impact of flooding. Many methods have been proposed to predict incoming floods. Choice of these methods should be considered based on many aspects, such as data, funding, human resources, degree of accuracy, and level of importance. Where the basic data, such as water level, are the only available, it is preferred to implement system identification techniques rather than traditional methods. These are then used to identify a direct mapping between the inputs and outputs without requiring the detail of physical processes of the system. This study investigates three well-established system identification methods, including artificial neural networks (ANNs), fuzzy adaptive system (FAS), and auto regressive moving average with exogenous inputs (ARMAX) for flood forecasting, and evaluates their performance. The linear and non-linear transfer functions are also investigated. A considerable number of case studies are used in this research, so the comprehensive comparison of the results can be obtained. In general, for the time lead less than 24 hours, all gave comparable results. With the increasing time lead, transfer function and ARMAX deviate faster than ANNs and FAS. |
| 14 July |
Asif Zaman |
Estimating regional impacts of temporary water trading through integrated and dynamic hydro-economic modeling - The aim of the research project is to identify the drivers of temporary trade in the Goulburn-Broken Catchment. Then to model the trade based on these drivers through an economic model, integrated to a water allocation model. And finally to conduct scenario analyses to estimate the potential impacts of trade. The results of the research show that the temporary water market is primarily demand driven and the market water price mainly dependent on feed and beef prices. The preliminary results from the scenario analyses suggest that temporary water trading may be restricted by physical constraints in very wet seasons; temporary water trading may exacerbate drought conditions in localized areas over a period of seasons; and the volume traded is not dependent on the market water price. |
| 30 June |
Huong Dang (Conv.) |
Modeling of grease trap performance :
A grease trap is a small reservoir, which slows down the wastewater so that oil and grease float to the top and solids sink to the bottom. However, wastewater discharge to the grease trap at high flow rate and temperature results in a short circuit to the outlet. Consequently, there is a remaining of high density of FOG entering the main sewerage system and leads to the blockage of the sewerage system. In order to investigate the characteristic of the grease trap, a number of research steps are involved: sampling each grease trap by using a water sample along the grease trap, collecting temperature data within the grease trap, and monitoring flow rate. Moreover, a separation process is also developed by Computational Fluid Mechanic in order to study the flow characteristics inside the grease trap. The model of separation process will be used to predict the performance of different grease trap volumes and geometries. |
| 23 June |
Nicholas Potter (PhD) |
Timescales of variability of catchment water balance - Variability of catchment water balance arises from many sources of variability, such as rainfall seasonality, the random nature of storm arrivals and intensities, land use and soil variability, as well as the time variability of soil/atmosphere or water/energy controls on the hydrologic processes. Although the individual effects of these sources of variability on catchment water balance are relatively easy to model, the effects of many of these catchment properties on catchment water balance is more difficult to analyse. Furthermore, the inverse problem, i.e. discovering which sources of variability are causing the variability of Australian water balance, is even more difficult. I will discuss water balance (rainfall/runoff) data of nearly 300 catchments located around Australia . With an underlying "top-down" modelling philosophy, a number of water balance and soil moisture accounting models are used to try to better understand the variability of catchment water balance in Australia.Eildon Dam in Victoria, Australia. |
| 2 June |
Chris Clifton |
Creating a Framework for Public Private Partnerships through a Relationship Contracting approach - Utilising the innovative practices within Relationship Contracting, we have developed a framework which incorporates these techniques into the existing Public Private Partnership policy. The new framework will facilitate enhanced project results creating benefits for all stakeholders. |
| 26 May |
Matthew Berrisford |
Feasible improvements in irrigation distribution systems including the effects of on-farm water storage - In short the aim of my project is to investigate the feasibility of storing rainfall rejection flows within Murray Irrigation Limited's service area either via distributed en-route storage(s) or on-farm storages. Murray Irrigation Limited is a private irrigation company with it's head office located in Deniliquin, in the Riverina Plains area of NSW. The servicing of the company requires that irrigators place water orders four days in advance of the date which they wish to receive water for irrigation. The reason for this is that water must be released from Hume reservoir located four days travel time upstream of Murray Irrigation Limited offtake from the Murray River . If a large rainfall event occurs while water is travelling down the Murray to the Murray Irrigation Limited offtake and irrigators reject their ordered water then this water continues on down the Murray River . If a substantial volume of water is rejected then this leads to unseasonal flooding of the Barmah-Millewa Forest located approximately 100 kms downstream of the Murray Irrigation Limited offtake. |
| 19 May |
Xuan Duong (John) Phan (PhD) |
Investigation of non-autoclaved aerated concrete as a load-bearing material -
Non-autoclaved aerated concrete is not normally used for loadbearing applications due to its relatively low strength when compared to normal-grade concrete. Recent development in loadbearing non-autoclaved aerated cellular concrete opens the possibility of using such concrete for structural applications. This research was concentrating on structural properties of non-autoclaved aerated concrete created by concrete research group at CSIRO, for the future application of this material in structural field. Constitutive stress-strain relationship of the material was developed. A C++ program was written based on a numerical method to predict the strength of wall panels made of that particular material. Results predicted from the program were shown to be consistent with experimental results. Design curves for non-autoclaved aerated concrete wall panels were also developed. |
| 9 May |
Doki Yamaguchi (Conv.) |
Supercritical water gasification of sewage sludge -
Since oxidation in supercritical water (SCW) was found to be capable of destroying complex chemical organic compounds to mainly water and carbon dioxide, gasification in SCW has been under investigation. Sewage sludge can be one of renewable energy resources in order to produce a clean energy carrier, hydrogen. A stoichiometric model was developed and found that sewage sludge is a better-suited material, because of high inherent moisture content, to produce hydrogen rather than other biomass. The objective of this study is to develop a computational model which is capable of predicting the transient gaseous composition during SCWG of sewage sludge to produce hydrogen. |
| 21 Apr |
Dr Khalad Kheireldin (Visitor) |
Decision Support Systems: A Robust Tool for Integrated Water Resources Management - Water resources' decision makers usually seek for maximization of the national welfare received from water. They are usually trying to find an optimum solution for the water usage on both the demand and resource sides. Recently, several new issues in this field have been raised such as sustainable development, integrated management, and management under scarcity conditions. The application of these issues in the field of water resources management requires the consideration of changes in the social, environmental, economical and physical aspects. Thus, most of water resources policies are characterized by multi objectives that reflect interests of different stakeholders. Accordingly, decision support system is considered a reliable tool for solving the complexity of new issues proposed within the context of water resources management. |
| 14 April |
Subhadra Jha |
Modelling Streambank Erosion at Catchment Scale - A generic streambank erosion model is developed based upon a process understanding of fluvial and mass failure erosion. In the model fluvial erosion is estimated using an excess shear stress approach while mass failure by a limit equilibrium analysis along a stream network. Widely available databases are used in estimating variables and parameters for the three key model components: stream power, bank strength and bank height. A major challenge is how to estimate the uncertainty in model inputs and the effect this has on uncertainty in model predictions. This is being handled stochastically, typically in three steps. First the variability in the input variables and parameters are predicted; in two ways: (a) by parametric or subjective distribution and (b) by system identification model here multivariate regression model. Second the errors in these statistical models are characterised in terms of a probability distribution with know parameter values. And third the uncertainty in the model associated with the uncertainty in these statistical models is handled by uncertainty method (Monte Carlo simulation technique). This allows a probability distribution of model output (fluvial erosion and mass failure) to be estimated for a location in the stream network. The model is developed in the Goulburn River catchment, Victoria, and tested using the historical records along a 57 km river reach of the Goulburn River downstream of Eildon Dam in Victoria, Australia. |
| 7 April |
Raymond Lumantarna |
Investigation of Window Glass Behaviour under Blast Load - Window glass shards resulting from an explosion has been a great contributor to fatalities and injuries in the event second only to structural failure. The failure of glass could induce further damages to the occupants or the structure due to blast wave propagation into the building. The focus of this research is to improve our understanding of how building facade (glass in particular) behaves under blast load so that further protection to a structure could be done optimally and efficiently. Several studies has been done, especially using the Computational Fluids Dynamics code available to our department. To be used in conjunction with the code as well, further studies on how to develop iso-damage (Pressure-Impulse) curve has been done. Hopefully, after all of this is done, better understanding in glass behaviour would lead to an improvement to the current protective technology. |
| 7 April |
David Robertson |
Knowledge Integration for the Evaluation of the Effectiveness of Catchment Management Intervention - In Southeastern Australia, land and water management plans have been promoting interventions to manage irrigation-induced salinity for up to 15 years. However, apart from during the initial development of these plans, there has been little evaluation of the effectiveness of the management interventions in achieving the plan objectives. While considerable scientific and experiential knowledge of the effectiveness of individual management interventions has been gained throughout the development and implementation of the management plans, there are still many uncertainties. In addition, much of the knowledge that does exist is fragmented and therefore does not currently allow for a wholistic evaluation of the suite management interventions currently promoted. My research will develop a process to integrate knowledge of catchment management interventions, allowing for uncertainty in knowledge, to evaluate the effectiveness of catchment management interventions. |
| 24 Mar |
Anant Gupta (PhD) |
Fragmentation of Concrete Structures Subjected to Explosions - Most discussions, testing, accident investigations and explosive accident predictions involve studies of blast waves and their effects. But often, significant damage in explosions is caused by the impact of fragments or objects which are generated during the explosions and hurled against targets (or "receivers") at high speed. This research will investigate the fragmentation and break up of concrete structure to debris as a result of a detonation along with measurement and prediction of debris launch velocity and its characteristics. It is envisaged that findings obtained from this study will aid in methods for prediction of debris dispersion and provide an essential link in hazard assessment methods due to fragments |
| 17 Mar |
Tuan Ngo (PhD) |
Behaviour of High Strength Concrete Members Subject to Impulsive Loading - While high strength concrete (HSC) has been used in many applications, its behaviour under severe impulsive loading has not been investigated in-depth before. This PhD project involves a comprehensive experimental and theoretical investigation into the behaviour of HSC subjected to severe blast and impact. A strain rate dependent constitutive model for concrete was proposed based on Hopkinson bar tests. A finite element computer program for modelling the dynamic response of reinforced concrete structures has been developed. This program has been validated using test results from the Woomera blast trial and other test data available from literature. The research outcomes of this project have been applied to the design of a number of protective systems for important structures in Australia and overseas. |
| 10 Mar |
Ris Lee (PhD) |
The Danger in a Crowd - This research has investigated the mechanics of flows of large crowds of pedestrians in dangerous situations, which could result in loss of life due to either trampling of pedestrians in a crowd or crushing of pedestrians, and has illustrated and explained the development of such situations by developing models using a continuum theory for crowd motion at both high and very high densities of pedestrians. This theory has then been extended for minimising the risks of trampling in a crowd. This was followed by the formulation for predicting pressures generated by crowds attending major events in order to improve their safety in extremely densely populated situations. It is contemplated that the findings obtained from this study will lead to a better understanding of flows of large crowds of pedestrians attending major events, and will help to increase their safety in crowded situations. |
| 9 Feb (Wed - 4:15pm) |
Peter G. Baines and John D. Fenton |
Tsunami Dynamics - Tsunamis may be generated by submarine earthquakes, submarine volcanic eruptions, or submarine avalanches. A number of observed properties of tsunamis as they enter the coastal environment will be described, including observations from the recent Boxing Day tsunami, and contrasts made with waves produced by the above three types of forcing. Considerable variety in tsunami behaviour has been observed at different coastal locations around the world. A common phenomenon that has been frequently described in historical events, including literature from classical antiquity and global folk lore, and including the Boxing Day tsunami in particular, is that the coastal sea level first falls dramatically, to be followed by elevated waves approaching the shore. This is most common at coastal sites that are at a large distance from the source. No generally accepted explanation for this phenomenon seems to exist, and a hypothetical explanation based on dynamics, and its implications, will be presented here. |
| 3 Feb |
Bart Kellett (PhD) |
A sustainability framework to guide irrigation development in northern Australia - Unlike in southern Australia, northern Australia is largely undeveloped. This means there is opportunity to invest in sustainable catchments from the beginning. One challenge is to ensure that if irrigation is to be developed in northern Australia, it is designed and managed so that it contributes to sustainable catchments.
My research will develop a sustainability framework to help community, natural resource managers, developers, and scientists debate and decide on the role irrigation should play in northern Australian catchments. |
