ARC Grant Success
In the highly competitive annual ARC grants, the School of Civil and Environmental Engineering has won a record nine Discovery Project grants, totalling $3.26Million, the largest number of Discovery grants and funds in this round received by any School at UNSW, which in turn has received the most ARC funding of any university in the State.
School projects carried out through the two main research centres, the Centre for Infrastructure Engineering and Safety (CIES) and the Water Research Centre (WRC) involve innovative research in areas of structural engineering, coastal engineering, computational mechanics, hydrology, water resources, and environmental engineering. Topics include research into breaking wave effects, the upheaval buckling of concrete pavements, reinforced concrete framed structures, new strategies for flood design, mapping Australia’s water cycle, and new research into the use of nanoparticulate silver in purification of contaminated drinking waters.
Our congratulations to School researchers Prof Mark Bradford, Dr Richard Collins, Prof Stephen Foster, Dr Ehab Hamed, Dr Matt McCabe, Dr Raj Mehrotra, A/Prof Bill Peirson, Prof Ashish Sharma, A/Prof Chongmin Song, Em Prof Francis Tin Loi and Prof T David Waite.
Fuller details of CVEN Successful Proposals for Discovery Projects for Funding Commencing in 2012
DP120101701 Project Title: Transitions in wave breaking from deep to shallow water
Banner, Prof Michael L; Peirson, Dr William L; Dias, Prof Frederic
2012 $130,000.00 /2013 $120,000.00/ 2014 $110,000.00
Total $360,000.00
Project Summary: The predominant impact on coastal geomorphology, marine safety and coastal structures is from breaking waves, especially from storms. This project will provide the first unified formulation of breaking wave effects from deep to shallow water, which will increase wave forecast model accuracy and hence improve coastal zone design and safety outcomes.
DP120104554 Project Title: Thermal-induced unilateral plate buckling of concrete pavements: design and evaluation
Bradford, Prof Mark A
2012 $200,000.00/ 2013 $120,000.00/ 2014 $120,000.00
Total $440,000.00
Project Summary: The project addresses the upheaval buckling of concrete pavements, which is caused by increasingly frequent heat spells. It will consider both the vulnerability assessment of existing pavements, and the design of new pavements made from low-carbon geopolymer concretes (which are lighter than conventional pavements) against upheaval buckling.
DP120103328 Project Title: Progressive collapse resistance of reinforced concrete framed structures with membrane action
Foster, Prof Stephen J; Valipour, Dr Hamid
2012 $120,000.00/ 2013 $100,000.00 /2014 $100,000.00
Total $320,000.00
Project Summary: The past ten years, or so, has seen increasing emphasis on extreme event scenarios such as blast, impact and earthquake and more regular and intense cyclonic wind events. This study investigates the reserve of strength in reinforced concrete framed structures to withstand such forces.
DP120102762 Project Title: Nonlinear long-term behaviour and analysis of high strength concrete panels
Hamed, Dr Ehab H; Foster, Prof Stephen J
2012 $110,000.00/ 2013 $110,000.00/ 2014 $90,000.00
Total $310,000.00
Project Summary: This project investigates the nonlinear long-term response of high-strength concrete panels. As these panels find widespread use in many civil and industrial engineering applications, the outcomes of this project will enhance the understanding of their long-term behaviour and will provide a theoretical basis for their analysis and design.
DP120104718 Project Title: Closing the water cycle using land surface modelling, remote sensing and an Australian hydrological observatory
McCabe, Dr Matthew F; Wood, Prof Eric
2012 $130,000.00/ 2013 $130,000.00/ 2014 $120,000.00
Total $380,000.00
Project Summary: Australians live in the driest inhabited continent on Earth. Water supply and its variability have been constant problems throughout our history. This project will use space based satellites, sophisticated ground based instruments and advanced modelling tools to provide a 21st century characterisation of our nation's water resources.
DP120100338 Project Title: A new strategy for design flood estimation in a nonstationary climate
Sharma, Prof Ashish; Mehrotra, Dr Rajeshwar; Westra, Dr Seth
2012 $105,000.00/ 2013 $110,000.00/ 2014 $105,000.00
Total $320,000.00
Project Summary: Evidence suggests that global warming will result in an increase in the frequency and/or magnitude of heavy rainfall, leading to flooding with potentially devastating consequences. This study provides a renewed focus on design flood estimation that takes into account a changing climate where assumptions that the future climate will be similar to the past are no longer tenable.
DP120100742 Project Title: Scaled boundary finite-element approach for safety assessment of plates and shells under monotonic and shakedown loadings
Song, A/Prof Chongmin; Tin-Loi, Em/Prof Francis; Becker, Prof Wilfried
2012 $120,000.00/ 2013 $100,000.00/ 2014 $100,000.00
Total $320,000.00
Project Summary: This project develops an advanced numerical tool for the safety assessment of plate and shell structures under practical loading regimes. This tool permits timely decision making and is of vital assistance to engineers and government authorities on safe and cost-effective management of infrastructure asset.
DP120103234 Project Title: New perspectives on iron oxide transformations in oxic and anoxic aqueous environments: Implications for iron bioavailability and contaminant mobility
Waite, Prof T David; Rose, A/Prof Andrew L; Collins, Dr Richard N; Waychunas, Dr Glenn
2012 $170,000.00/ 2013 $140,000.00/ 2014 $140,000.00
Total $450,000.00
Project Summary: Transformations in the form and reactivity of iron oxides in oxic and anoxic aqueous environments are considerably more dynamic than previously thought. This project will examine the nature and extent of these transformations and elucidate their impact on supply of iron to organisms and mobility of uranium and arsenic in groundwaters.
DP120103222 Project Title: Reactive oxygen species generation by zerovalent silver nanoparticles; implications to toxicity and contaminant degradation
Waite, Prof T David; Wiesner, Prof Dr Mark R
2012 $130,000.00 /2013 $115,000.00 /2014 $115,000.00
Total $360,000.00
Project Summary: Nanoparticulate silver is now being used for the purification of drinking water yet many questions remain concerning its mode of purifying action. Here we investigate the generation of reactive oxygen species (ROS) by nanoparticulate silver and examine the relationship between ROS generation and the purifying action of "nano-silver".
Top Picture of School ARC Grant winners: Back L-R: Ehab Hamed, Chongmin Song, Richard Collins Front L-R: Mark Bradford, Ashish Sharma, Stephen Foster, David Waite, Bill Peirson
