aslani - ecm.uwa.edu.au web viewthe soil lateral stiffness (p-y ... between dissipation test...

ENGINEERING AND MATHEMATICAL SCIENCES

Bachelor of Engineering & Master of Professional Engineering

GENG5511/GENG5512 Engineering Research Project Descriptions

Semester 1, 2018

To find a project description, search (Ctrl + F) using the Supervisors surname. The project title and description are listed below each

Academic’s name. Please ensure that the project is applicable to your discipline.

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FACULTY OF ENGINEERING AND MATHEMATICAL SCIENCES

Aman, Zachary, DrCo-supervisors: May, Eric, Prof

Johns, Michael, Prof Stanwix, Paul, Dr Graham, Brendan, Dr Metaxas, Peter, Dr

Flow Assurance and Natural Gas HydratesDisciplines: Chemical, Mechanical, and Oil & Gas

Topic brief description:Natural gas hydrates are ice-like solids that form and can often suddenly stop the flow during oil and gas production. The cost of their prevention during design and production is high and the removal of hydrate plugs is expensive and dangerous. Today hydrates are still a major flow assurance concern especially as production moves to deeper water, and many of Australia’s major new gas field developments are considering innovative approaches to this long-standing problem. These projects aim to provide the knowledge needed for a risk-based approach to hydrate management by establishing quantitative model to assess plugging potential, optimize inhibitor doses, and develop methods to detect hydrate formation and location. The outcomes will help reduce chemical use by the industry, provide better methods to locate plugs and provide safer methods for their remediation, ultimately allowing for the reliable and economic development of marginal oil and gas fields. Students working on these projects will measure and/or model hydrate formation, agglomeration and dissociation processes. Naturally-occurring gas hydrates also represent a tremendous energy reserve: in 2013, first production was reported from a naturally occurring hydrate reserve located offshore the coast of Japan. Projects will also be available in which various properties of these natural hydrates are quantified, such that more informed decisions about exploiting natural hydrates can be made.

An, Hongwei, Dr

Hydrodynamic force on a inline cylinder groupDisciplines: Civil, Environmental, Mechanical, Mining, and Oil & Gas Topic brief description:A group of inline cylinders is often seen in offshore strictures. The flow field around the cylinder group involves a wide range of interesting flow mechanics features. A series of physical model tests will be conducted using the O-tube facility to measure the hydrodynamic force and flow

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velocity on the cylinder. The force coefficients and vortex shedding frequency will be examined. This project gives students an opportunity to access to multi-awards winning research facility (the O-tube) and to gain experience on research about hydrodynamics of offshore structures.

Aslani, Farhad, DrCo-supervisor: Chakrabortty, Anup, Dr

New types of self-compacting concrete (SCC)Disciplines: Materials Prerequisite skills:

Topic brief description:Self-compacting concrete (SCC) can be placed and compacted under its own weight with little or no compaction. It is cohesive enough to be handled without segregation or bleeding. Modifications in the mix design of SCC may significantly influence the material’s mechanical properties. Therefore, it is vital to investigate whether all the assumed hypotheses about conventional concrete also hold true for SCC structures. This project is particularly examining the effect of fly ash, ground granulated blast-furnace slag and micro silica content on strength and the durability of the concrete.

Aslani, Farhad, DrCo-supervisors: Gunawardena, Yas, Mr

Hollow and geopolymer concrete-filled GFRP tubes columnsDisciplines: Civil, Materials, and MechanicalPrerequisite skills:

Topic brief description:Deterioration of the Australian’s infrastructure has been well documented and publicized. Glass fibre reinforced polymer (GFRP) composites have emerged as a potential solution to the problems associated with the infrastructure. An economic application of GFRP materials is in the form of composite construction with concrete, such that GFRP could act as load-carrying partner and protective measure for the structural members. And also the concrete industry is responsible for a significant proportion of

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world greenhouse gas emissions. Indeed, manufacture of Ordinary Portland Cement (OPC) is carbon intensive. An increase in research activities related to the development of low carbon concrete technologies, namely Geopolymer Concrete (GC), has occurred in recent years in Australia. GCs result from the reaction between fly ash and/or slag with an alkaline liquid. There is no Portland cement clinker in GC. GC exhibits many of the characteristics of traditional concretes, despite their vastly different chemical constituents and reactions.As the first experimental study reported in the literature on the axial compressive behaviour of normal and high-strength box and circular hollow and geopolymer concrete-filled GFRP tubes columns, this study will present the results of a test program that was aimed at investigating the influence of GC, GFRP Tubes, and critical confinement parameters on the performance of normal and high-strength box and circular hollow and geopolymer concrete-filled GFRP tubes columns.

Aslani, Farhad, Dr Co-supervisor: Gunawardena, Yas, Mr

Hollow and concrete filled spiral welded steel tube columnsDisciplines: Civil, Materials, Mechanical, and Oil & GasPrerequisite skills:

Topic brief description:Spiral welded tube (SWT) structures have found worldwide application in pipeline construction, wind turbine towers, foundation piles, and columns in tall buildings. Despite this, the understanding of SWT structures fundamental behaviour is still insufficient and efficient analysis and design methods have not been developed owing to the lack of experimental and numerical research on these types of structures. In this project, SWTs will be used in a new and innovative approach for both hollow and concrete filled steel columns, and the research will be conducted to characterise the engineering and manufacturing properties of SWTs. The goal of this project is “to provide insight into the ultimate strength and ductility of hollow and concrete filled SWT columns subjected to concentric axial loading, eccentric axial loading and pure bending loading through a comprehensive experimental study and theoretical model for adoption by engineers and Standards bodies”.

Aslani, Farhad, DrCo-supervisor: Liu, Yinong, Prof

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Superelastic SMA reinforced concrete beamsDisciplines: Civil, Mechanical

Topic brief description:The use of superelastic shape memory alloys (SMAs) as a reinforcing material in concrete structures is gradually gaining interest among researchers. Because of SMAs’ different mechanical properties compared to regular steel, use of SMA as reinforcement in concrete may change responses of structures under seismic and repeating loads. The objective of this study is to investigate the structural performance of superelastic SMA reinforced concrete beams under repeating loads and to develop a preliminary understanding of these beams.

Aslani, Farhad, DrCo-supervisor: Gunawardena, Yas, Mr

Behaviour of reinforced concrete bridge beam jointsDisciplines: Civil, Mechanical

Topic brief description:Bridge beam joints or 'half-joints', which are located away from the bridge supports , are typically used in pre-cast concrete bridge construction. This project proposes to investigate the behaviour of a unique reinforced concrete half-joint located on an in-service bridge, through an experimental programme using scaled test specimens, which will be the first time the joint detail of interest will be investigated experimentally.

Basarir, Hakan, A/Prof

The prediction of powder factor using drilling machine operational parameters

Disciplines: Civil, and Mining

Topic brief description:Blasting is one of the main components of open pit mines. Powder factor (PF) defines the amount of necessary blasting agent to disturb a unit volume or per tons of rock. The prediction of powder factor is important as it may be used as an indicator of how hard the rock is, or for the prediction of the cost of the explosives needed. Different methods are available for

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the prediction of powder factor such as Blastability index (BI), a variable calculated from the rock mass properties. Researcher used seismic P wave velocity or some drilling related factors such as Rock Quality Index (RQI) for the prediction of PF. The purpose of this project is to derive new empirical equations based on drilling machine operational parameters such as Thrust (T), RPM and penetration rate (PR) as an alternative to existing measurement while drilling (MWD) methods. For this purpose data from open pit lignite mines will be used.

Basarir, Hakan, A/Prof Co-supervisors: Wesseloo, Johan, Dr

Construction of damage risk model for underground openingDisciplines: Mining

Topic brief description:Most of drift support design focus on stability criteria and yields in a single number FOS. Whereas it is known that FOS based designs do not consider reliability. Therefore, new design methodologies including probability of failure and acceptability criteria are needed. Such approaches has been started to be used some civil engineering projects. Whereas, there are very limited number of researches using rick based design in mining engineering projects. The purpose of this project is to develop a risk based design approach that can be used at preliminary stages of design projects.

Basarir, Hakan, A/Prof Co-supervisors: Karrech, Ali, A/Prof

The prediction of the thickness of fractured zone around advancing longwall face: A parametric study

Disciplines: Civil, and Mining

Topic brief description:Longwall mining is a widely used method in underground coal mines. The assessment of the fractured zone above the advancing longwall face is very important regarding the caving process. Conventionally empirical and semi empirical methods are used for the prediction of the thickness of

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fractured zone. These methods are restricted by simplifying assumptions (Basarir et al., 2014). Therefore more realistic prediction tools are needed. The purpose of this project is to analyze the effect of different parameters such as rock properties, seam thickness, inclination, and production sequences. For this purpose 2D and/or 3D finite element (FE) method based software will be used. The results of numerical modeling will be analyzed in detail and guideline charts relating the parameters to the thickness will be proposed.

Basarir, H., Oge, I. F., Aydin, O., 2015. Prediction of the stresses around main and tail gates during top coal caving by 3D numerical analysis. International Journal of Rock Mechanics and Mining Sciences, 76, 88-97.

Bekki, Kenji, ProfCo-supervisor: Bennamoun, Mohammed, W/Prof

A new video-based action recognition system for astrophysical simulations

Disciplines: Electrical & Electronic, Mechatronic, and SoftwarePrerequisite skills: Programming skills (Python etc). It is great if students are familiar with Keras or Tensorflow. Interview will be done before the project starts.

Topic brief description:Galaxies are formed from various physical processes, such as galaxy merging and hydrodynamics of gas. Astronomers use high-resolution computer simulations of galaxy formation in order to identify these formation processes. However, it has been time-computing for them to do so by checking images one by one by their naked eyes. In this project, we will develop a new video-based `action recognition’ system by which astronomers can automatically identify key physical process of galaxies. The new system is now being developed through a new collaboration between scientists working on astronomy and computer vision.

Bennamoun, Mohammed, ProfBoussaid, Farid, Prof

Virtual reality (VR) based trainingDisciplines: Electrical & Electronic, Software

Topic brief description:In this project, you will develop a virtual reality simulator to provide a cost effective yet authentic and immersive training experience to users for an application of your choice.

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The project will provide you with an opportunity to engage with relevant stakeholders and experience VR hardware and software technologies.Bosveld, Joel, Dr Co-supervisor: Chu, Qi, Dr

Wen, Linqing

Gravitational wave detectionDisciplines: Electrical & Electronic, Mechatronic, and SoftwarePrerequisite skills: Programming; physics, mathematics or signal processing background is helpful but not required.

Topic brief description:Detection of gravitational wave signals from coalescing binary compact stars (e.g. neutron stars, black holes) has been achieved through the matched filtering of data with a modelled template waveform. In order to allow rapid follow-up of events, a large number of template waveforms must be matched against the data with low latency. The SPIIR pipeline achieves these goals through approximating each waveform as a sum of exponentially damped sinusoids; the matched filtering is then be implemented as a parallel set of IIR filters using GPU acceleration.

Various projects exist within this domain, relating to: the waveform approximation; optimising the implementation; significance estimation; localisation evaluation.

Bourhill, Jeremy, DrCo-supervisor: Tobar, Michael, Prof

Design and testing of cryogenic vibration isolation system

Disciplines: Mechanical, and MechatronicPrerequisite skills: Familiarity with MATLAB, Labview or Python

Topic brief description:The vibration caused by commercial dilution refrigerators can be very disruptive for extremely sensitive experiments. One such experiment aims to construct a quantum gravimeter capable of navigation in a GPS denied environment. The aim of this project will be to test an experimental platform capable of isolating such sensitive experiments from the noisy external environment.

Bourhill, Jeremy, DrCo-supervisor: Ivanov, Eugene, W/Prof

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Extremely high quality factor resonance search softwareDisciplines: Electrical & Electronic, and SoftwarePrerequisite skills: Familiarity with a programming language

Topic brief description:The world's best frequency standards are used in many applications from radar to tests of fundamental physics. They rely on spectrally narrow resonances within some media, such as crystals or a cloud of ultra-cold atoms. Locating these resonant features in frequency space can be a very time consuming task - trying to find a needle in a hay stack. This project will focus on creating software designed to automate this search.

Boussaid, Farid, Prof

Bio-inspired gas recognition for electronic nosesDisciplines: Electrical & Electronic, Software

Prerequisite skills: Background in mechanical engineering, or software or mechatronics

Topic brief description:Sniffing-dogs are able to detect thousands of chemicals with high sensitivity and selectivity using only biological components. These nasal powerhouses have been successfully used to search for pipeline leaks, drugs, or explosives. In this project, you will investigate the potential application of biologically inspired machine learning methods (e.g. deep learning, evolutionary algorithms) for the task of gas recognition. The project will give you the opportunity to discover and apply advanced machine learning techniques to automatically extract features and train classifiers. Projects offer an opportunity to discover and apply neuroscience principles into made-made engineering systems. Projects will be tailored around your interests.Boussaid, Farid, Prof

Camera on a chipDisciplines: Electrical & Electronic

Prerequisite skills: ELEC5503

Topic brief description:

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The current trend in Digital Imaging Technology is towards building camera-on-a-chip imaging systems, i.e., CMOS imagers. The fully integrated product results in significant manufacturing cost savings, reduced system size, but also in lower power consumption. The unique concept of CMOS imagers offers the opportunity to integrate photo-sensing array and signal processing circuitry on a single silicon chip, enabling the development of a new generation of smart mobile imaging systems. Half the size of a small postage stamp, a CMOS imager chip can even be swallowed (pill-camera) to transmit images from inside the body. Besides biomedical, CMOS imagers have numerous commercial applications in cell phones, PC notebooks or any application for which a “micro-camera” can be requested. Proposed final year projects will involve building such a camera, and optimize its performance in terms of dynamic range, resolution and/or power consumption.

Bräunl, Thomas, Prof

Driverless CarsDisciplines: Software, Electrical & ElectronicPrerequisite skills: Completion of ELEC4403 Digital and Embedded Sys. or CITS2200 Data Structures with 75+. Good programming skills in C or C++ are absolutely essential

Topic brief description:We are currently operating two autonomous vehicles, a donated BMW X5 and a student-built Formula SAE-Electric vehicle. Both vehicles already have full drive-by-wire technology implemented and are equipped with several sensor systems, including GPS, camera, Ibeo Lux Lidar, Xsens IMU (inertial measurement unit) and wheel encoders.We are using the latest automotive control hardware with an Nvidia Jetson TX1 board that provides real-time sensor processing and deep learning capabilities.

2018 Goals: Autonomous navigation on UWA-internal roads and on external race

track Sensor fusion of GPS, Lidar, inertial measurement system, odometry Map building Path planning and collision avoidance Vision sub-system for road and vehicle detection using OpenCV

http://opencv.org Exploring of deep-learning systems such as Caffe

http://caffe.berkeleyvision.orgFurther Details:http://revproject.com/vehicles/bmw.php http://revproject.com/vehicles/sae2010.php

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http://revproject.com/vehicles/sae2010.php

http://revproject.com/vehicles/bmw.php

http://caffe.berkeleyvision.org/

http://opencv.org/

Bräunl, Thomas, Professor

Robots and Virtual RealityDisciplines: Software, Electrical & Electronic, MechatronicPrerequisite skills: Completion of ELEC4403 Digital and Embedded Sys. or CITS2200 Data Structures with 75+.Good programming skills in C, C++ or Python.

Topic brief description:We are using advanced mobile robots: driving robots similar to the ones you know from "Embedded Systems" as well as underwater robots and autonomous boats for building practical intelligent applications systems.

2018 Goals:• Completion of autonomous boat that should sail around Rottnest • Autonomous navigation and path planning for driving robots • Visual Navigation• Robot Swarms (in real and in VR)• SLAM (Simultaneous Localization and Mapping)• Integration of robots and EyeSim-VR simulator on Oculus Rift and HTC ViveFurther Details:http://robotics.ee.uwa.edu.au/eyebot7/EyeBot7-UserGuide.pdf

http://robotics.ee.uwa.edu.au/eyesim/ http://robotics.ee.uwa.edu.au/auv/

Cardell-Oliver, Rachel, A/ProfCo-supervisors: Keating, Adrian, A/Prof

Energy Neutral Sensor NetworksDisciplines: Electrical & Electronic, Mechatronic and SoftwarePrerequisite skills: Applicants will require skills in one or more of the following areas: embedded programming skills (Raspberry-Pi, Arduino); electronics (bread boarding, controlling actuators, energy efficiency); machine learning algs; data analysis (data collection, analysis and visualisation of experiments)

Topic brief description:This project is intended for a multidisciplinary team of up to 4 students. Applicants will require skills in one or more of the following areas: embedded programming skills (Raspberry-Pi, Arduino); electronics (bread

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http://robotics.ee.uwa.edu.au/auv/

http://robotics.ee.uwa.edu.au/eyesim/

http://robotics.ee.uwa.edu.au/eyebot7/EyeBot7-UserGuide.pdf

boarding, controlling actuators, energy efficiency); machine learning algs; data analysis (data collection, analysis and visualisation of experiments)

This project involves the development and testing of new hardware and software towards zero-energy, wireless sensing systems. Internet-of-things (IoT) technologies promise a new, lower cost and more flexible solution for asset monitoring in which self-powered, self-organising sensors wirelessly communicate. However, to realise this promise, the energy use of each sensor needs to be shrunk by an order of magnitude over current systems. This project will investigate four steps towards zero-energy sensing: 1) experimental investigation of Lora (long-range) low power radio for communication; 2) development of general-purpose data-aware lossless compression algorithms to minimise the amount of sensor data that must be transmitted; and 3) design of energy harvesting systems for sensor nodes. Recommended Reading: New Directions: The Future of Sensing is Batteryless, Intermittent and Awesome, Hester and Sorber, http://josiahhester.com/cv/files/newdirssensys2017.pdf

Cardell-Oliver, Rachel, A/ProfCo-supervisors: Keating, Adrian, A/Prof

Smart Sensing with Low Resolution Thermal ArraysDisciplines: Electrical & Electronic, Mechatronic and SoftwarePrerequisite skills: This project is intended for a multidisciplinary team of up to 4 students. Applicants will require skills in one or more of the following areas: embedded programming skills (Raspberry-Pi, Arduino); electronics (bread boarding, controlling actuators, energy efficiency); machine learning algs; data analysis (data collection, analysis and visualisation of experiments)

Topic brief description:Occupancy detection is the problem of identifying the number of people in a given space with a sensor that is non-invasive, privacy-preserving, reliable, low-cost and energy efficient. Low pixel count sensor arrays satisfy these requirements. However, detector arrays can not directly sense occupancy, but must be coupled with intelligent software algorithms to infer occupancy counts. The goal of this project is to investigate: 1) the properties of newly available thermal detector arrays (e.g. FLiR Lepton 80 x 80); 2) machine learning classification algorithms for predicting occupancy from thermal data; 3) a proactive sensing system that works correctly under different building conditions (e.g. temperature range) and can communicate with actuators to adjust those conditions (e.g. turn on a fan or open a window); 4) energy efficient sensing to support long term unattended operation of the sensor. Recommended Reading: Occupancy

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Estimation Using a Low-Pixel Count Thermal Imager, Tyndall et al, IEEE Sensors, 16(10) 2016, doi: 10.1109/JSEN.2016.2530824

Cardell-Oliver, Rachel, A/Prof

Understanding public transport travel patternsDisciplines: Civil, Environmental, and Software Prerequisite skills: Essential: Programming (eg R or Python or Java), knowledge of data mining algorithms. Desirable (one or more of): Databases, Web programming and visualization (e.g. Javascript, D3, visualization libraries), GIS programming.

Topic brief description:This project is part of a group supported by the PATREC transport research centre. Students will build the results of 2016-17 projects to identify customer types based on their TransPerth smartRider log data. The project involves developing and testing data mining algorithms and visualization of the results. Summer research scholarships will be offered for this project subject to good performance during the first project semester. Recommended Reading: Mining Ticketing Logs for Usage Characterization with Nonnegative Matrix Factorization, Poussevin et al, 2016 https://link.springer.com/chapter/10.1007%2F978-3-319-29009-6_8

Chow, Shiahuey, DrCo-supervisor: Bienen, Britta, Dr

Rapid penetration of spudcan footing in sandDisciplines: Civil, and Oil & Gas

Topic brief description:The motivation for this study emanates from the lack of understanding in rapid penetration of spudcan footing in sand for offshore renewable energy application. Offshore renewable energy devices are typically located in shallow water (< 30 m) that predominates with sandy sediments. The renewable energy devices, particularly wind farms are installed and serviced using mobile jack-up rigs. A jack-up rig may experience dynamic leg loading during the set down of its spudcan footing into sand. The current inability to predict the penetration resistance under dynamic or rapid penetration of spudcan footing in sand has introduced substantial risk. Inaccurate prediction of sand resistance at high penetration rates may cause premature refusal for the spudcan, or potential damage to the jack-up rack-and-pinion systems and legs due to high moments and vertical loading introduced by spudcan-seabed impact. Economic consequences are severe (loss in productivity, property or even life), which could amount

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to tens of millions of dollars. Hence this project aims to provide better understanding of rapid penetration of spudcan footing in sand using laboratory model tests. The laboratory model tests will involve pushing an instrumented model spudcan footing into sand covering a range of penetration velocities. This project will require a team of two students, one looking at rapid penetration of spudcan in dry sand and another in saturated sand. Interested students are encouraged to contact Dr Shiaohuey Chow ([email protected]) for more information.

Chu, Qi, Dr Co-supervisor: Bosveld, Joel, Dr

Wen, Linging, Prof

Robust real-time gravitational-wave detection Disciplines: Electrical & Electronic, Mechatronic, and SoftwarePrerequisite skills: Programming; Paper reading

Topic brief description:The summed parallel infinite impulse response (SPIIR) program is one of the four real-time gravitational wave search pipeline programs operated for aLIGO’s first and second science runs. It triggers a gravitational wave event in 30 seconds. However, when the detector noise is fluctuating, the pipeline is tempted to trigger on these noises. This project will simulate a real-time detection environment using realistic aLIGO data and investigate how to reduce glitch detections.

Chu, Qi, Dr Co-supervisor: Bosveld, Joel, Dr

Wen, Linging, Prof

Deep neural network for gravitational wave searchDisciplines: SoftwarePrerequisite skills: Programming; paper reading

Topic brief description:In gravitational wave search, we often use matched filtering technique to detect a signal from noise. The detection efficiency is limited by the linearity of this filtering. Deep neural network has the potential to detect weaker signals due to its inherent non-linear operations of elements. This project will investigate the detection efficiency of given gravitational wave signals using deep neural network techniques.

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mailto:[email protected]

Chua, Hui Tong, Prof

High flux bright light synthesis of valuable nanomaterialsDisciplines: Chemical

Topic brief description:This project makes use of a first-of-its-kind high flux bright light facility to synthesise valuable nanomaterials. For example, we aim to synthesise MoS2 and WS2 nanoparticles from their naturally occuring MoS2 and WS2 materials. The former materials have phenomenal applications in engine and medical applications. They are mainly used as advanced lubricants in those applications, but are also very promising as materials for supercapacitors as well.We will also work on synthesising graphene from graphite particles, which has great applications in batteries, supercapacitors and membranes, as well as boron nitride nanoparticles from boron nitride. This project will be conducted in collaboration with colleagues at the Ben Gurion University of the Negev, Israel and the Taiyuan University of Technology, China.


Geothermal energy applicationsDisciplines: Chemical, and Mechanical Topic brief description:1. Modelling and Controlling geothermal swimming pool - this is an ongoing topic to work with the local councils and schools on managing geothermal swimming pools and specifically the Beatty Park Leisure Centre as well as Hale School. The student needs to physically visit the Beatty Park Leisure Centre and Hale School and even other swimming pools to collect pool data - 1 student. This project will inform the design/consulting sector in terms of the proper sizing of the heating capacity of swimming pools, which has a huge ramification in terms of the adoption of renewable energy.

2. The Cool Earth Project - this is an exciting project in partnership with LandCorp, Geoexchange, ABN builders, AIRAH, Carbonomics and other agencies to monitor the performance of two occupied properties at Craigie, with one being fitted with a ground source heat pump and another with a conventional air source heat pump. - 1 student.

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Catalytic cracking of methane for graphitic carbons and hydrogen

Disciplines: Chemical Topic brief description:This is an ongoing project with the UWA ASX-listed spin-off company, Hazer Group, to focus on producing graphitic carbons by cracking methane. There will be two aspects to this project. One is to work on fine-tuning the catalytic process to get consistent and good yield, another is to work on purifying the as-cracked carbons in favour of graphene and other carbon morphologies.

The Hazer technology has been spun off from UWA lab and is now worth more than $20mil.


Industrial waste heat distillation, desalination, bauxite residue remediationDisciplines: Chemical, and Mechanical Topic brief description:This topic will have 2 sub-topics.1. Reconcentrating spent liquor using waste heat from an alumina refinery - 4 students. Students will get to build and operate an actual pilot plant in collaboration with South32 and making use of actual spent liquor. Students need to travel to Worsley Alumina and Rockingham, Murdoch Uni campus for the actual test. Students will also get to be trained to the safety standard of South32 - a fantastic project to prepare for a career. Chemical engineering students are required.

2. Bauxite residue remediation - using centrifuge to dewater mining residue, an exciting technology - 1 student. This project is to be co-supervised by Prof. Andy Fourie of Civil Engineering. We are investigating the prospect of substituting the traditional impoundment method as practiced by the industry. A mechanical/civil engineering student is good for this project.

Coggins, Liah, DrCo-supervisor: Ghadouani, Anas, Prof

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Flow cytometry for the characterisation of water qualityDisciplines: Environmental Topic brief description:Flow cytometry is rapid, high-resolution measurement technique, originally developed for medical applications. This project will involve the further development of this technique for the characterisation of algal and bacterial groups present in wastewater. Project perks: exclusive access to fancy equipment at the Harry Perkins Institute for Medical Research :)

Datta, Amitava, Prof

Various projects in sociophysics and agent-based simulation of social phenomenaDisciplines: SoftwarePrerequisite skills: Some programming skills in C/Python/Fortran/Matlab are required

Topic brief description:Sociophysics is an emerging discipline for studying social phenomena through agent-based simulation. There are many interesting results that have been already discovered through sociophysics simulations related to finance, opinion dynamics in human populations and evolution of languages. It is possible to frame questions in environmental and ecological studies as simulations in sociophysics. The programming skill required is not very demanding and these simulations can be written in C, Python, Fortran or even in Matlab. Any student interested in simulation and modeling should be able to grasp the basics very fast. Students from all disciplines with some programming background are welcome.

Doherty, James, Dr

Strength and fatigue assessment of well conductorsDiscipline: CivilPrerequisite skills: Soil and structural mechanics, Matlab

Topic brief description:The soil lateral stiffness (p-y response) has a strong influence on the overall strength and fatigue response of well conductors used for offshore oil and gas developments. Current API/ISO guidance is provided only for generic “sand” and “clay” soils and recent research by BP indicates that

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they are too soft for small amplitude well conductor motions. This project will involve the review of centrifuge tests conducted at UWA on a model conductor and the development of guide lines to better predict fatigue life of conductors in carbonate.

Doherty, James, Dr

Performance of infrastructure on soft soilsDisciplines: CivilPrerequisite skills: Geotechnical engineering

Topic brief description:During 2013 a full-scale embankment was constructed and instrumented at Australia’s first National Field Testing Facility (NFTF) for soft soils at Ballina NSW. The instrumentation of this embankment is extensive and includes the measurement of pore pressures, vertical deformations, horizontal deformations, vertical soil pressure, and horizontal soil pressure at a large number of key locations over time. In this project, numerical models will be calibrated using available laboratory and in-situ test data and applied to simulate the performance of the embankment with the aim of developing models to better predict settlement and consolidation.

Doherty, James, Dr

Improved foundation models for offshore wind turbinesDisciplines: CivilPrerequisite skills: Geotechnics, structural analysis

Topic brief description:Offshore wind energy is now cost competitive with some traditional forms of energy, thanks to the development of new design and construction technologies. The aim of this project is to develop improved foundation models for large diameter mono pile foundations for offshore wind turbines by combining m-theta springs with tradition p-y soils springs.

Durham, Richard, Prof

Industry topic (usually based on your vacation work)

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Disciplines: Mining Topic brief description:During your vacation work over the 2017-2018 summer break, you should ask your employer if they have any topic(s) suitable for your thesis. Ask them at the beginning, and then again towards the end. You need to write up the topic on <1 page, and send it to me. There might be a little negotiation whilst I ensure the topic is suitable (basically not too small, not too big, and involves some research type analysis), but once we've agreed on the scope and objectives it's all fine.Usually up to 50% of mining students get industry based thesis topics like this. They tend to be single student projects, but a multi-student topic could be considered.


Ventilation with Electric Vehicles in Underground Mining

Disciplines: Mining Topic brief description:Follow on work from previous student theses by Hewitson (2015) and Jackson (2017).


Discrete simulation of haul trucks and their maintenance

Disciplines: Mining Topic brief description:Previous theses by students have created simulations (with Arena software) of haul trucks and their maintenance within workshops. This work needs to be continued to investigate issues such as:• Good as new. Usually equipment that has been repaired/replaced in the workshop is considered to behave as if it was totally new. This is probably not realistic• Simulating multiple resources with the workshop. Currently the only resource that is included is the workshop bay itself, i.e. totally ignoring the fact that different repairs require different technicians and different equipment.

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Dyskin, Arcady, ProfCo-supervisors: Pasternak, Elena, Prof

Geo- and Mechanical Lasers

Disciplines: Civil, Mechanical, Mining, Oil & Gas, Petroleum, and SoftwarePrerequisite skills: GENG4405

Topic brief description:Modelling of the mechanism of wave amplification in geomaterials produced by grain rotations. Numerical modelling will involve solving large systems of differential equations using the functions provided by Matlab. Sound programming skills or strong interest to acquire them are expected.

Dyskin, Arcady, ProfCo-supervisors: Pasternak, Elena, Prof

MacNish, Cara, Prof Hassan, Ghulam Mubashar, Dr

Deformation measurements using 2D or 3D photogrammetryDisciplines: Civil, Mechanical, Mechatronic, Mining, Oil & Gas, Petroleum, and SoftwarePrerequisite skills: GENG4405 or an equivalent course on programming and numerical methods

Topic brief description:Deformation in solids may be very small hence highly accurate measuring techniques are required. The measurements are complicated by surface features, discontinuities (such as cracks) and environmental noise (such as dust or occlusion). This project will characterise the problems and find robust solutions. There is also a scope to assess viability issues in real-world deployment and collection and analysis of in-situ data.

Elchalakani, Mohamed, DrCo-supervisor: Meek, Alexandra, Ms

Corrosion of steel in geopolymer-stabilised rammed earthDisciplines: Civil, and Materials

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Topic brief description:Students will investigate the corrosion behaviour of steel reinforcement in newly developed geopolymer-stabilised rammed earth. The project will involve a comprehensive programme of testing in the Structures Laboratory to correlate material properties with corrosion susceptibility.

Specimens are manufactured using a jackhammer - students will need to be comfortable with physical work. Contact: [email protected] with any queries.

Elchalakani, Mohamed, DrCo-supervisor: Meek, Alexandra, Ms

Mechanical properties of geopolymer-stabilised rammed earthDisciplines: Civil and Materials

Topic brief description:This project will study the mechanical properties of newly developed geopolymer-stabilised rammed earth. Students will determine properties such as compressive, tensile and bond strengths in various environments. Mixes will largely be composed of industrial waste products and there will also be the opportunity to investigate materials used to construct Egyptian pyramids. Specimens are manufactured using a jackhammer - students should be comfortable with physical work. Contact: [email protected] with any queries.

Elchalakani, Mohamed, DrCo-supervisor: Karrech, Ali, A/Prof

Development of ultra High Strength Fibre Reinforced ConcreteDisciplines: Chemical & Process, Civil, Materials, Mechanical, and Oil & Gas

Topic brief description:Ultra-high performance concrete (UHPC) which is characterised by high strength and, when reinforced with steel fibres, high ductility, has the potential to revolutionise the construction industry. The application of UHPC is currently mainly limited to landmark projects due to the high cost

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of manufacture, which often involve specialist materials such as specially graded sands and the need for complex mixing and curing regimes. Moreover, mix designs are commonly proprietary information or incompletely reported. As a result of the complexity of material requirements and the restricted nature of complete mix design details it can be difficult to reproduce reported results. This project aims to address these issues by investigating the potential for producing UHPC using widely available fine and coarse aggregates. It is expected that UHPC of compressive strengths in the range of 100–160 MPa can be produced using commonly graded aggregates without the requirement for complex mixing or curing regimes. It is expected that the fineness modulus of aggregates as well as the superplasticiser content strongly influences the compressive strength. An investigation of the axial and lateral stress–strain relationship of the mixes may shed some light on the residual stress plateau post softening.


Geopolymer Concrete Structures reinforced with GFRP

Disciplines: Civil, Environmental, Materials, and Mechanical

Topic brief description:Geopolymer concrete is a new concrete which does not have any cement. It is more envinrementally friendly than traditional cement concrete and more durable. The use of Glass Fibre-Reinforced Polymer (GFRP) reinforcement as an alternative to steel for use in Reinforced Concrete (RC) structures has developed significantly in recent years. GFRP’s excellent corrosion resistance, high tensile-strength-to-weight ratio, nonmagnetic, nonconductive make it an excellent solution for projects requiring improved corrosion resistance or reduced maintenance costs. Despite a number of recent studies illustrating the effective use of GFRP bars as longitudinal reinforcement for concrete compression members, the current international design codes such as ACI 440.1R-15 (2015), CAN/CSA S806 (2012), TR55 (2012), ISO 10406-1 (2015), and FIB (2007) do not recommend including GFRP reinforcement in the compression member capacity calculations. Recent Experimental research at UWA showed that GFRP RC columns are more ductile under their steel RC column counterparts. This project is a further step to compare the behaviour and design of circular columns under dynamic loading. In this research project, laboratory tests will be conducted on RC columns reinforced under concentric and eccentric loading.

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Analytical and Numerical modeling of steel structures with and without strengthening using CFRPDisciplines: Civil, Environmental, Materials, Mechanical, Mechatronic, Mining, Oil & Gas, and Petroleum

Topic brief description:In this project, analytical and numerical models will be developed for design presupposes for steel structures reinforced with CFRP. Steel structures all around the world including bridges, offshore platforms and mining infrastructure require retrofitting. Conventional methods for repairing and strengthening steel structures has generally always been to cut out and replace plating, or to attach additional external steel plates that are bulky, heavy, difficult to install and prone to corrosion and fatigue. In addition, welding or bolted connection repair works are not a favourable solution due to further fatigue issues, and extensive installation time respectively. The superior mechanical, fatigue, high strength to density ratio and in-service properties of Carbon Fibre Reinforced Polymer (CFRP) composites make them excellent candidates for strengthening and retrofitting of steel structures.


Reinforced Concrete Circular Columns reinforced with GFRPDisciplines: Civil, Environmental, Materials, Mechanical, and Oil & Gas

Topic brief description:The use of Glass Fibre-Reinforced Polymer (GFRP) reinforcement as an alternative to steel for use in Reinforced Concrete (RC) structures has developed significantly in recent years. GFRP’s excellent corrosion resistance, high tensile-strength-to-weight ratio, nonmagnetic, nonconductive make it an excellent solution for projects requiring improved corrosion resistance or reduced maintenance costs. Despite a number of recent studies illustrating the effective use of GFRP bars as longitudinal reinforcement for concrete compression members, the current

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international design codes such as ACI 440.1R-15 (2015), CAN/CSA S806 (2012), TR55 (2012), ISO 10406-1 (2015), and FIB (2007) do not recommend including GFRP reinforcement in the compression member capacity calculations. Recent Experimental research at UWA showed that GFRP RC columns are more ductile under their steel RC column counterparts. This project is a further step to compare the behaviour and design of circular columns under dynamic loading. In this research project, laboratory tests will be conducted on RC columns reinforced under concentric and eccentric loading.

Faiello, Cosimo, Associate

Sustainability applied to project management & engineering practiceDisciplines: Chemical, Civil, Electrical & Electronic, Environmental, Materials, Mechanical, Mechatronic, Mining, Oil & Gas, Petroleum Prerequisite skills: N/A

Topic brief description:This topic will introduce students to the field of project management and engineering practice with a focus on achieving sustainable results based on a “triple bottom line” (TBL) approach: That is, achieving project objectives, while taking into account the societal and environmental implications of a project. A sustainable approach to project management and engineering practice is recognised globally by many organizations, as being vital to achieving their strategic objectives. By researching this topic students will learn how to apply theoretical concepts and frameworks to ‘real world projects’ in order to achieve sustainable outcomes using a TBL strategy.

Fernando, Tyrone, ProfCo-supervisors: Iu, Herbert, Prof

Stability Analysis of a DFIG Wind Turbine SystemDisciplines: Electrical & Electronic Prerequisite skills: MatLab programming

Topic brief description:Presently there is a global concern about the economic downturn and a green earth which in turn is related to a better and efficient method to generate and transmit electric power. Wind energy systems are becoming popular. Doubly fed induction generator (DFIG) is a popular wind turbine system due to its high energy efficiency, reduced mechanical stress on the wind turbine, and relatively low power rating of the connected power electronics converter. The DFIG is also complex involving aerodynamical,

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electrical, and mechanical systems. With increasing penetration level of DFIG‐type wind turbines into the grid, the stability issue of DFIG is of great importance to be properly investigated. The aim of this project is to study the small signal stability of the DFIG wind turbine system.


Control Strategy of DFIG Wind Turbines for Power System Fault Ride ThroughDisciplines: Electrical & Electronic

Topic brief description:Doubly fed induction generator (DFIG) is a popular wind turbine (WT) system due to its high energy efficiency, reduced mechanical stress on the WT, and relatively low power rating of the connected power electronics converter of low costs. With increasing penetration level of WTs into the grid, the wind power grid connection codes in most countries require that WTs should remain connected to the grid to maintain the reliability during and after a short‐term fault. The ability of WT to stay connected to the grid during voltage dips is termed as the low‐voltage ride‐through (LVRT) capability. The aim of this project is to develop a control strategy for both the rotor and grid side converters to enhance the LVRT capacity of the DFIG WT.


Power Management and Control Incorporating Renewable Energy Sources, Micro-grids and BatteriesDisciplines: Electrical & Electronic

Topic brief description:An investigation to power management and control incorporating renewable energy sources, micro grids and batteries. It is likely and desirable for homes, companies and suburbs to incorporate battery storage for power generated by renewable sources, such as solar panels. A control system designed to optimize energy contributions to local storage, selling to the grid and micro-grid batteries is desired.

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Fourie, Andy, ProfCo-supervisor: Reid, David, Dr

Investigation of the effects of consolidated state on triaxial extension results for loose sandDisciplines: Civil, Environmental, Mechanical, Mechatronic, Mining, and Ocean Systems Prerequisite skills: Bachelor of Science (Engineering Science)

Topic brief description:The undrained triaxial extension test, while less frequently used than triaxial compression, represents an important loading condition. As triaxial extension testing often shows the lowest undrained strength, it is theorised to be important in the triggering process of static liquefaction. However, all available triaxial extension test data is for samples that were either consolidated isotropically or in anisotropic conditions in compression. However, in a liquefiable soils deposit with material under triaxial extension loading, it is far more likely that anisotropic consolidation will have resulted in extension loading already occurring under a drained condition prior to subsequent failure. Such drained loading prior to failure is likely to increase the strength of the material in undrained shearing, and potentially reduce the actual strength anisotropy relevant in the field. To investigate this possibility, this project will comprise carrying out and interpreting a comprehensive set of to investigate the effects of drained shearing in the extension direction prior to subsequent undrained shearing.

Fourie, Andy, Prof

CPT correlations to infer consolidation characteristicsDisciplines: Civil, Environmental, Mechanical, Mechatronic, Mining, and Ocean Systems

Prerequisite skills:Bachelor of Science (Engineering Science)

Topic brief description:The cone penetration test (CPT) represents the leading method to investigate the strength and in situ conditions of tailings. However, correlations for the CPT typically assume either “drained” or “undrained” cone penetration, whereas for many tailings materials it is likely the penetration will be partially drained. The potential for partial drainage can be inferred through dissipations tests, however these are time consuming

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and are only carried out intermittently in a CPT sounding. To develop better correlations between the CPT and drainage conditions, this project will involve review and analysis of a large amount of CPT data provided by Perth-based tailings consultants and mining companies. This data will be used to develop correlations between dissipation test behaviour and the “soil behaviour type” indicated by the CPT for the tailings at that location. Depending on the outcome of this review and analysis, updated correlations on when partial drainage is occurring may be proposed.

Fourie, Andy, Prof

Using electric fields to extract minerals from mine wasteDisciplines: Chemical, Civil, Environmental, Materials, Mechanical, Mechatronic, Mining, and Ocean Systems Prerequisite skills: Bachelor of Science (Engineering Science)

Topic brief description:There are many mine waste deposits (tailings) that still contain high grades of unrecovered minerals, e.g. the tailings storage facility of a mine in Queensland is now the world's tenth largest zinc resource. The objective of the project will be to recover minerals without needing to excavate and process the waste; rather, the process will be in-situ treatment, which is environmentally far more favourable. A recent final year project at UWA demonstrated excellent recovery of zinc from tailings from the Qld mine. This project will continue this work, using previously designed equipment, and evaluate the recovery potential of valuable minerals from tailings that will be sourced from a range of sites in WA. It will also focus on optimising the process, e.g. using pulsed voltages, polarity reversal, etc.

Fridjonsson, Einar, DrCo-supervisors: May, Eric, Prof

Johns, Michael, Prof

Industrial and Oilfield Water Management

Disciplines: Chemical, Mechanical, and Oil & Gas Topic brief description:Projects are available across a range of industrial and oilfield water management topics.

(i) Natural gas and oil extraction results in the production of substantial quantities of (formation) water which needs to be discharged back into the

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sea. We are currently developing technologies to both monitor ppm oil contamination of this discharge water such that it is compliant with environmental legislation, as well as the use of novel NMR-based multi-phase flow metering methods for oil/gas/water production flow quantification.

(ii) Desalination and waste water treatment are areas of growing global importance (47% of Perth’s water now comes from desalination!). Membranes are important for the separation of contaminants from liquids across a range of industrial processes. A critical issue with membrane separation is fouling, projects are available on membrane fouling, forward osmosis and the development of NMR based clamp-on monitoring technology, as well as associated process modelling and optimisation.

(iii) 80-95% of all crude oils existing at some stage in an unwanted emulsified state. Typically these form water-in-oil emulsions which increase corrosion, transportation costs and hydrate formation risk. We are currently developing various chemical treatment options to break these emulsions into their constituent parts.

(iv) Projects are also available on Nanofluids which have the potential to substantially reduce both the OPEX and CAPEX and water usage of heat exchange processes for LNG production facilities.

Ghadouani, Anas, ProfCo-supervisor: Coggins, Liah, Dr

Decentralised water and wastewater treatment systemsDisciplines: Chemical, Civil, Environmental, Mechanical, and MiningPrerequisite skills: Hydraulics

Topic brief description:As we move into the future, increasing population requires innovation of flexible solutions for the treatment of water and wastewater in both small towns and large cities. This is a multidisciplinary topic which would be suitable Environmental, Civil, Mechanical, Mining and Chemical engineering students. This topic could include design, social innovation, planning and management strategies.


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Greenhouse gas emissions from wastewater pondsDisciplines: Chemical, Civil, Environmental, Mechanical, Mining, and Software

Topic brief description:This topic is around the development of tools for the measurement and assessment of Greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions and fluxes from waste stabilisation ponds. This could include the development of accounting frameworks and policy considerations.


Microplastics in the water cycle Disciplines: Chemical, Civil, Environmental, Mechanical, and MiningPrerequisite skills: Hydraulics

Topic brief description:Microplastics are growing area of concern in the water cycle. This project could involve the characterisation, fate and transport of microplastics through wastewater, stormwater, and environmental flows.

Ghadouani, Anas, Prof

Ecological engineering solutions for urban waterDisciplines: Chemical, Civil, Environmental, Mechanical, and Mining Topic brief description:This project revolves around the integration of ecological engineering principles in the design and management of water infrastructure in urban settings.

Ghadouani, Anas, ProfCo-supervisors: Ginige, Maneesha, Dr (CSIRO), Coggins, Liah, Dr

Development of technologies to treatment waste in barns that house cows in dairy farms

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Disciplines: Chemical, Environmental Topic brief description:This project is based at CSIRO, under the primary supervision of Senior Research Scientist, Dr Maneesha Ginige.Modern dairy farms increasingly house dairy cows in barns in order to facilitate comfort of herd during extreme summer and winter conditions. Maintaining hygiene in barns is critical for animal health and hence collecting and treatment of waste from barns is important. Dairy cow waste (cow dung and urine) is often a slurry due to mixing with urine and use of water during summer to cool dairy cows further increases water content in waste discharged from barns. The waste is rich in nutrients and has the potential to be an excellent organic fertiliser. Both solids and nutrients dissolved in dairy waste could essentially become a revenue stream for farmers and this project aims to develop technologies to effectively treat the dairy waste while maximising recovery of nutrients (e.g. ammonia and phosphorus) and organic solids as fertilisers.


Aerobic granular sludge for effective treatment of municipal wastewaterDisciplines: Chemical, Environmental Topic brief description:This project is based at CSIRO, under the primary supervision of Senior Research Scientist, Dr Maneesha Ginige.Current municipal wastewater treatment plants heavily rely on biological processes to remove carbon and nutrients (ammonia and phosphorus) from wastewater. Most of all municipal wastewater treatment plants in Australia are activated sludge systems, where active bacteria are utilised to biologically treat wastewater. These bacteria naturally flocculate together and as a consequence, the bacterial mass can be separated from bulk water at the end of treatment. Depending on how well the bacteria agglomerate together, gravity separation of bacteria becomes effective. In the recent past, it has been demonstrated that bacteria could also be made to agglomerate tightly to facilitate formation of “rock like” granular structures. Compared to bacterial flocks, granules readily settle under gravity and its dewatering properties are far superior compared to bacterial flocks. Additionally, the bacterial density of granular sludge is also a magnitude high and all of the above properties of granular sludge help wastewater utilities treat more wastewater and also reduce operational costs. Australia is however yet to embrace this technology due to difficulties faced to facilitate formation and maintenance of granular sludge. This project aims to examine simple strategies that utilities could

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use to facilitate granulation of bacteria in municipal wastewater treatment plants.Ghadouani, Anas, ProfCo-supervisors: Ginige, Maneesha, Dr (CSIRO), Coggins, Liah, Dr

Smart use of alum for effective removal of suspended solids and organics from waterDisciplines: Chemical, Civil, Environmental Topic brief description:This project is based at CSIRO, under the primary supervision of Senior Research Scientist, Dr Maneesha Ginige.Suspended solids removal from drinking water is widely carried out using alum (aluminium sulphate). Currently the drinking water industry uses a large quantity of alum to produce water that is low in suspended solids and organics. Although much of the alum precipitates out as aluminium hydroxide upon coagulation, some trace aluminium still persists in drinking water that gets distributed. There is indirect evidence in literature that suggests aluminium in drinking water is contributory towards the Alzheimer's disease. The addition of alum also introduces sulphate into drinking water and this sulphate is largely responsible for the creation of a corrosive environment in sewers (once potable water finally reaches the sewer). These negative aspects of using alum can be minimised but reducing usage of alum to treat drinking water. This study aims to develop technologies to reduce use of alum while still continuing to achieve effective removal of suspended solids and dissolved organics from drinking water.


Examine innovative and simple strategies to clean the river Ganges in IndiaDisciplines: Chemical, Civil, Environmental Topic brief description:This project is based at CSIRO, under the primary supervision of Senior Research Scientist, Dr Maneesha Ginige.River Ganges is the life line of northern India. This river has cultural, religious, agricultural and economic significance to people of India. Today river Ganga is one of the most polluted rivers in the world. One of the main reasons for its pollution is discharge of municipal and industrial waste into the river. While a long-term solution to the problem demands a well

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establish sewer network and centralised treatment of municipal and industrial wastewater, establishing such infrastructure incur significant costs and also demands a cultural change. In order to prevent an imminent ecological disaster, there is an immediate need to manage pollution of Ganga. Hence, there is an urgent need to examine simple, yet effective strategies to minimise pollution of Ganga. This desktop study aims to review the current literature and evaluate simple and cost-effective strategies that India could put in place to minimise pollution of Ganga.Graham, Brendan, Dr

Surface Active Agents for Flow Assurance Mitigation

Disciplines: Chemical, Mechanical, and Oil & Gas Topic brief description:Water in oil emulsions and hydrate formation/plugging are two major flow assurance issues being investigated at UWA. This project is looking at naturally occurring surface active components in crude oil that interact with the droplet/hydrate surface thereby affecting their agglomeration behaviour and reducing the severity of the resultant flow assurance problems. Work by previous FYP and PhD students have shown very promising results and the desire of this project is to complete the research with the aim of writing a paper for journal publication. The project is mainly experimental with successful students being trained in all relevant techniques so prior experimental background is not required. The project is suitable for both chemical and mechanical engineering students.

Grime, Andrew, DrCo-supervisor: Chen, Lifen, Dr

Testing of an innovative concept design for self-installing spar structure

Disciplines: Civil, and Mechanical, and Oil & GasPrerequisite skills: Hydrodynamics, wave-structure interaction, experimental methods

Topic brief description:Arup is a leading independent consulting organisation providing strategic, commercial and technical services for offshore oil and gas projects. Arup is developing a self-installing spar “ACE” structure which will fill the gap between subsea tie-backs and full facility floaters. The hydrodynamic response of the as-installed spar structure will be investigated in this project through scale model experimental testing using the Riverlab

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facility. This will be complemented by performing hydrodynamic and mooring system analyses of the spar using state of the art software.

Grime, Andrew, DrCo-supervisor: Pinna, Rod, Dr – Aker Solutions

Post-yield behavior of bolted end plate connections Disciplines: CivilPrerequisite skills: Structural analysis, Finite element analysis

Topic brief description:Bolted end plate connections are regularly used in onshore structures. As clients seek to extend the life of existing structures there is a need to critically reassess connection behaviour in both the elastic and post-yield regimes, stepping outside of the usual codified methods. In this project students will establish the codified approach to connection assessment and compare their findings to results of finite element modelling. One of the potential outputs of this parametric study will be an update to the ASI prying action factor.

Grime, Andrew, DrCo-supervisor: Pinna, Rod, Dr – Aker Solutions

Use of directional metocean data in offshore platform design

Disciplines: Civil, and Oil & GasPrerequisite skills: Structural analysis, Hydrodynamics, Structural design

Topic brief description:New-build offshore structures typically use omni-directional metocean data as it represents a conservative basis for design. The use of directional wave data is permitted by ISO 19902, but the wave data is required to be adjusted so as to result in a design with the same probability of failure as one designed to omni-directional waves. There is no agreed upon method for doing this, though typically it is done by increasing the return period of the directional wave. For this project it is proposed to design a number of simplified example fixed jacket structures using both omni-directional and scaled directional wave data. The return period of failure of the structure will be found for the various structures. Comparisons of the reliability of the structures will then be made. The reliability will be assessed through push-over analysis.

Grime, Andrew, Dr33


Co-supervisor: Pinna, Rod, Dr – Aker Solutions

Accurate modelling of the response of gravity based structures

Disciplines: CivilPrerequisite skills: Structural analysis, Geotechnical background

Topic brief description:Determining the natural frequency response of gravity based structures is a key factor in their design. In particular, the frequency response of offshore wind turbines is of concern in their design. Current practice generally relies on fairly crude models, with the soil represented by discrete springs. This is generally driven by the requirements of typical offshore design packages. Little work has been done to demonstrate the accuracy of these simplified methods. More accurate modelling, such as modelling the soil as a 3D continuum is possible, but not generally performed.The aim of this project is to compare the accuracy of simplified models to more complex models. Preliminary work has suggested that typical simplified models may not accurately represent the true response. This project will extend this work.

Guzzomi, Andrew, DrCo-supervisor: Peressini, Carlo, Dr

Agricultural engineering (1): novel machinery development for cropping systemsDisciplines: Mechanical, and Mechatronic

Topic brief description:Engineering must contribute to agriculture if we are to increase global food production. UWA's AgEng group's $1.5M Targeted Tillage GRDC project has developed commercial mechanical weeding technology for the grain's industry which is considered state-of-the-art. This R&D project offers exciting prospects for machine design, mechanism dynamic analysis, Discrete Element Modelling (DEM) of tool-soil-plant impact phenomena and multi-physics models.

Guzzomi, Andrew, DrCo-supervisor: Erickson, Todd, Dr (School of Biological Sciences)

Merritt, David, Dr (Kings Park and Botanic Gardens)

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Restoration engineering: rendering lab science practical at scale

Disciplines: Civil, Environmental, Mechanical, Mechatronic, and Mining

Topic brief description:In 2016 the Restoration Engineering team won the WA Innovator of the Year and 2017 a $1.3M Global Innovation Linkage Project "Eco-engineering solutions to improve mine-site rehabilitation outcomes". This project will improve our ability to restore sites using native seed. Research topics include: the development of seed coating/pelleting technologies, large-scale/broadacre precision sowing, robotics and automation/mechanisation. The outcomes will be applicable to the agricultural sector (i.e. farming) and areas suffering from desertification as well as mine site restoration.

Guzzomi, Andrew, DrCo-supervisor: Silva, Dilusha, Dr

Peressini, Carlo, Dr

Agricultural Engineering (2): Engineering innovations for food production

Disciplines: Civil, Electrical & Electronic, Environmental, Mechanical, and Mechatronic

Topic brief description:Recognising the need to provide engineering solutions to agriculture for sustainable growth of net farm-yield, reduction of wastage, and minimisation of environmental impact the UWA Institute of Agriculture (IOA) has recently added an Agricultural Engineering 'Engineering innovations for food production' research theme. This project will develop and research topics from 'sensors' to 'effectors' for cropping, horticulture and livestock. Projects in the sheep industry may be supported through sheep industry scholarships.

Guzzomi, Andrew, DrCo-supervisor: Mian, Ajmal, Assoc/Prof

Agricultural Engineering (3): Computer vision facilitated smart automation

Disciplines: Electrical & Electronic, Mechanical, Mechatronic, Software

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https://www.agric.wa.gov.au/livestock-research-development/western-australian-sheep-industry-university-scholarship-program

Topic brief description:High labour costs are prohibitive to Australia’s agricultural export competiveness. Whilst mechanisation and robotics could offer solutions success is highly dependent on robust computer vision and software platforms. This project will aim to develop technologies to aid farmers in the cropping (e.g. weed species classification), horticulture (e.g. fruit, insect, etc. classification) and livestock (e.g. sheep classification) industries. Projects in the sheep industry may be supported through sheep industry scholarships.

Hassan, Ghulam, DrCo-supervisors: French, Tim, Dr, Reynolds, Mark, A/Prof

Tabletop model for vehicle protocol simulationsDisciplines: Electrical & Electronic, Environmental, Mech, Mechatronic, Mining, and SoftwarePrerequisite skills: Strong programming skills essential

Topic brief description:The aim of this project is to utilize and improve a recently developed table top traffic testbed for investigations of autonomous vehicle networks. The model consists of Bluetooth controlled vehicles, raspberry pi microcomputers, a data projector and a machine vision camera.This is a part of complex large scale project, where the first phase focused on building a basic control loop that can detect the location of different vehicles, and based on this pass driving instructions onto those vehicles. In this project, students will be modelling observability and implementing traffic routing algorithms.Hodkiewicz, Melinda, Prof

Co-supervisors: Liu, Wei, Dr French, Tim, Dr

Cognitive Computing of Maintenance RecordsDisciplines: Electrical & Electronic, and SoftwarePrerequisite skills: Requires >75% in any of CITS2200, CITS3001, CITS3002 or CITS4404

Topic brief description:There is a huge interest from major manufacturing and resource companies in being able to automate the processing of manually completed maintainer work orders. These work orders capture information

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about the state of the equipment and work done by the maintainer. This information is vital in assessing the reliability of the equipment. We have been working with a major resource company for a number of years on this exciting area. This project is for CSSE students or computing literate EE’s with the right experience (see below) who are doing MPE. We are looking for someone interested in ontology development, text mining, and other cognitive computing methods and their application to an important industry problem.

Hodkiewicz, Melinda, ProfCo-supervisors: Travaglione, Ben, Adjunct Defence Science

Design and Build MEMS Test UnitsDisciplines: Electrical & Electronic, Mechanical, and MechatronicPrerequisite skills: ELEC4403 or GENG5508 with >70%. Coding (experience with python, or a willingness to learn), Scientific computing (eg Matlab, Mathematica, SciPy, R), electronics , CAD, microcontroller/arduino experience, general workshop skills.

Topic brief description:The Internet-of-Things has arrived. Our world is becoming filled with vast numbers of small sensors, capable of collecting and processing data in real time, and streaming data to the cloud. The sensors are becoming smaller and cheaper. The wifi-enabled microcontrollers attached to these sensors are becoming faster and more powerful. In order to explore this new and rapidly changing landscape, the System Health Lab has developed an IoT device called the "Blue Box". This device uses a small COTS MEMs accelerometer and a cheap wifi-enabled microcontroller to stream data to the cloud. The student(s) undertaking this project will design and build a series of test apparatus to compare the Blue Box performance to a number of (more expensive) commercial/scientific alternatives. Interested students must have a strong background in the open-source software used in programming modern single-board microcontrollers. A familiarity with electronics will also be helpful. There will also be a requirement to manipulate the collected data and build appropriate models of the underlying physics.

Hodkiewicz, Melinda, Prof

Optimising maintenance for Mobile unitsDisciplines: SoftwarePrerequisite skills: Java, Python, Good Stats


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All the iron ore in WA is moved with heavy haulage trains. As we look at autonomous trains the reliability of locos is crucial. The aim of this project is to incorporate real life considerations into an existing simulation and optimization model for maintenance of locomotives on a heavy haulage rail. It is an extension of a FY17 project. Students need a strong understanding of reliability analysis concepts (Distinction or above in Geng5507 or similar stats unit), and an ability to program in Java. Ideally you would have done a number of CSSE units.

Hodkiewicz, Melinda, ProfCo-supervisors: Sercombe, Tim, Prof

Travaglione, Ben, Adjunct Defence Science

Experimental work – UV degradation of 3D printed partsDisciplines: Materials, and MechanicalPrerequisite skills: There is a large test component in this project so the students will need to have a strong practical and time management skills. You will need to do laser, Instron, and possibly microscopy training. You will learn a lot of skills and work with a good team but will need to dedicate at least one day a week to this project throughout both semesters. We suggest you only consider this if you have >70% in core Materials units as there is a strong technical component. There was a previous project on this if you need more information. See Poster outside System health Lab 1.53 in Mech Eng.

Topic brief description:In 2017 System Health Lab developed testing facilities for comparing the UV degradation of 3D printed vs machined nylon. The 2018 project will involve experimental design, procurement, test execution, tensile testing and microscopy of samples degraded using facilities on the roof and an accelerated test facility.

Hu, Xiaozhi, W/ProfCo-supervisor: Yuan, Bingyan, Dr

Impact resistant carbon fibre composites

Disciplines: Civil, Materials, and Mechanical

Topic brief description:Even low energy impact can induce delamination in laminar carbon fibre composites. This project involves design, manufacturing and testing of

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carbon fibre composites with interfacial toughening. Potentially, research papers can be published in international journals.


Repair of drilling damage in carbon fibre composite

Disciplines: Civil, Materials, and MechanicalPrerequisite skills: Basic knowledge of materials, able to take initiative and work hard

Topic brief description:Drilling and machining can induce edge delamination in carbon fibre composites. The delamination crack tip opening is measured in sub-micron and hard to repair. We have developed a special technique, which can fill the crack tip with epoxy resin. Potentially, research papers can be published in international journals.


U n- bonded non-woven veils using Kevlar pulps

Disciplines: Civil, Materials, and MechanicalPrerequisite skills: Basic knowledge of materials, able to take initiative and work hard

Topic brief description:The ultra-thin veils will be used to manufacture impact resistant carbon fibre composites.We have successfully made the veils using short Kevlar fibres from 2 - 8 mm. The length of Kevlar fibre pulps is less than 1 mm. Mechanical testing will be required. Potentially, research papers can be published in international journals.

Hu, Yuxia, ProfCo-supervisors: Geoff Cocks, Mr., Senior Principal (Industry Partner)

Fred Verheyde, Dr., Manager/Principal (Industry Partner)

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Investigation of Perth sand characteristics and ground improvement using sand overlayDisciplines: CivilPrerequisite skills: This project involves lab testing and field testing. Hands-on works are essential.

Topic brief description:Perth sands include Tamala sand, Safety bay sand and Bassendean sand. Although sands are good foundation soils for construction, they may behave differently when fines are present in the soil. The soil characteristics, such as capillary rise, permeability and compressibility of Perth sand with different amount of fines need to be investigated for foundation design.

With the population growth of Western Australia, the residential establishment expands to areas with soft ground for residential buildings and roads. A sand overlay method is normally used to improve the ground condition before construction. This project is to investigate the performance of soft ground soils with different sand layer laid on top.

Hu, Yuxia, ProfCo-supervisors: Hossain, M. Shazzad, A/Prof

Offshore foundation designDisciplines: Civil, and SoftwarePrerequisite skills: Numerical analysis experience and geomechanics knowledgeTopic brief description:Jackup rigs are a popular offshore structure to support offshore platforms up to 150 m in water depth. The rigs are normally supported by three individual legs with a footing at the bottom called spudcan. The mobility of the rigs means that it will be installed at a location for oil/gas exploration and retrieved after the exploration, before it is moved to the next location. The common issues are:(a) spudcan retrieving process - using innovative spudcan to reduce pullout resistance;(b) sand overlay method to reduce spudcan penetration depth for wind turbine installation. This project will investigate different issues above. Finite Element analysis will be conducted to investigate different options.

Hu, Yuxia, ProfCo-supervisors: Reynolds, Mark, Prof

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Qindong Li, WAMR

Optimisation of Road Maintenance and SchedulingDisciplines: Civil, and SoftwarePrerequisite skills: Some programming experience (need to be confident with simple data structures, basic iteration, I/O, etc.) and some road construction/maintenance knowledge, working with WA MainRoad department (communication skills)

Topic brief description:Road performance has been monitored after the road construction in the road network around Perth and WA. For existing road networks, roads are deteriorating with age. Road maintenance work needs to be scheduled based on the budget and optimum performance of the overall network. This project is to examine the road performance monitoring data and the current road deterioration models, with the constraint of annual road maintenance budget, to optimise the road maintenance scheduling. This project is to combine datamining with optimisation techniques based on genetic algorithms to determine the most effective ways to keep a maintenance schedule up to date. The decisions will be guided by a simple mechanical model of road deterioration along with data about failures and faults appearing.Huang, David, Prof

Mining plan based wireless network design for open-pit minesDisciplines: Electrical & Electronic, Mining,Prerequisite skills: N/A

Topic brief description:Mine site wireless communications with seamless coverage and Quality of Service guarantees are a key element to improving operational efficiency and employee safety of contemporary open pit mines. The topography of a typical pit consists of benches and slopes with mineral-rich reflective surfaces, and its size and form can change quickly during the lifetime of the mine. This makes the radio propagation conditions of open pit mining very different from typical commercial wireless communication systems.

Mining is a carefully planned activity. Mine planning determines the extent of the terrain profile that will be modified and provides estimates of materials to be moved and equipment to be deployed. From mine planning, it is possible to determine the communication requirements, e.g.

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the amount of data traffic (including when and where) required to be transmitted, and the radio propagation conditions.

Geographic Information System (GIS) has been extensively used in the mining industry for development and production. Using the GIS and the mining plan, a quasi-deterministic communication traffic dimensioning can be determined. It is then possible to identify a proper combination of wireless technologies that are appropriate for the mining site. In this project, we will investigate how to select the optimal locations of key communication nodes (e.g. access points and base stations) and the optimal parameters associated with them, through the simulation and modeling of the radio propagation environment and data traffic, with the aid of GIS.

This approach includes:

• 3D radio propagation modeling for typical open pit mine structure such as benches and slopes.• Radio coverage analysis for different antennas over typical mining pits.• Data traffic modeling for typical devices employed in an open pit mine.• Developing analytical models for the deployment of various wireless networks.• Modeling and analysis of capital and operating expense of various wireless networks

Huang, David, Prof

Resource Optimization in Broadband Wireless CommunicationsDisciplines: Electrical & ElectronicPrerequisite skills: N/A

Topic brief description:For future broadband wireless communications, we need not only to build a link with the capability of providing high data rate but also to divide the link wisely to accommodate the various requirements of different applications from different users. From this perspective, how to utilize a link is as important as how to build a link. In this project, you are going to investigate and propose ways to effectively and efficiently allocate resources to different users and different applications using the principle of “opportunistic communications”. The principle of opportunistic communications is actually simple: it always allocates the resources to the users or applications that can best utilize them. This is somehow similar to the fact that the school normally awards students with best performance.

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Huang, Yimiao, Dr

Explosion Safety Assessment of Urban Underground Utility Tunnel

Disciplines: Civil, Materials, and Oil & Gas

Topic brief description:In order to fulfill the requirements of new-type urbanization and city modernization, the development of urban underground utility tunnels is required. Since pipes with hazardous materials such as natural gas and heating power are installed in the utility tunnel together with other pipes, high confinement and congestion conditions may be formed and significant consequences will occur if gas cloud from a leak pipe is ignited. This project aims at proposing risk analysis and evaluation methods which consider multiple explosion risk factors based on the specific characteristics of underground utility tunnels. Meanwhile, numerical modelling methods will be applied to model the complicated environments of underground utility tunnels and estimate explosion effects.

Ivey, Greg ProfCo-supervisor: Branson, Paul, Mr

Island wakes and downstream flows in shallow water

Disciplines: Civil, and EnvironmentalPrerequisite skills: Matlab, Fluid mechanics

Topic brief description:In the topographically complex Kimberley Region there are over 1000 islands, which are subjected to strong tidal forcing due to the very large tidal range (up to 10m). The tidal flow around islands form wakes and secondary circulation regions that are thought to have an ecologically significant influence on the vertical and cross shelf mixing processes. A purpose built Shallow Tidal Flow Flume has been constructed in the Geophysical Fluid Dynamics Laboratory at UWA to study this system. The wake form and vertical transport (upwelling) are functions of the relative tidal excursion to island size in conjunction with bed friction on the shallow shelf region.

This project will utilise flow visualisation techniques to examine the secondary influence of the Reynolds number on two processes 1) the in water column wake form and 2) distribution of bed shear stress across the parameter range relevant to shallow islands. Semi-quantitative image analysis techniques will be applied examine the flow structure and spatial distribution.

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Ivey, Greg ProfCo-supervisor: Zulberti, Andrew Mr

Near bottom flows in deep water and forces on bottom structuresDisciplines: Civil, and EnvironmentalPrerequisite skills: Matlab, Fluid mechanics

Topic brief description:A variety of Engineering codes are used to guide the design of offshore structures. In this project, we will look at the relative performance of these codes with simple idealised near-bottom infrastructure. The key feature of the project is that we will use measured mean velocity data from a recent field experiment conducted offshore of Broome in 250 m of water offshore of Broome in April 2017. The data shows a complex and unsteady tidally-driven near-bottom velocity field, and the project would involve comparing this actual oceanic forcing with the idealised velocity fields that are assumed in design codes.

Johns, Michael, ProfCo-supervisors: May, Eric, Prof

Carbon SequestrationDisciplines: Chemical, Mechanical, and Oil & Gas Topic brief description:Western Australia has several major offshore gas assets containing significant quantities of carbon dioxide. Scenarios for dealing with this CO2 must be developed before these gas fields can be developed. One scenario involves the re-injection of carbon dioxide produced from one reservoir into the extremities of a different natural reservoir for the purpose of both CO2 disposal and enhanced gas recovery. However, such a strategy is only viable if the probability of breakthrough by the re-injected CO2 to the producing wells is small. Simulating reliably this novel reservoir production scenario requires an improvement in our fundamental understanding of the hydrodynamic behaviour of supercritical CO2 in heterogeneous gas and water-saturated rock. Research projects are available measuring this behaviour for its inclusion into relevant field simulations.

Jones, Nicole, Dr

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Internal wave dynamics on the Australian Northwest Shelf Disciplines: Chemical, Civil, Environmental, and MechanicalPrerequisite skills: Desirable: Matlab skills (or equivalent); Strong interest in fluid mechanics

Topic brief description:Internal waves are a ubiquitous feature of the Australia Northwest Shelf. They have a significant impact on the design of offshore infrastructure as they often provide the strongest near-bed currents. Furthermore, they cause vertical mixing and cross-shelf transport that delivers nutrients to support primary productivity. This project will examine 2.5 y of existing field observations to better characterize, understand and increase predictability of internal waves.

Jones, Nicole, DrCo-supervisor: Rayson, Matt, Dr

Riverlab- Swan River physical dynamics project

Disciplines: Chemical, Civil, Environmental, and MechanicalPrerequisite skills: Desirable: Matlab skills (or equivalent); Strong interest in fluid mechanics

Topic brief description:The RiverLab – a collaboration between Woodside and The University of Western Australia – is a unique initiative aimed at developing innovations in offshore engineering via research, education and outreach. http://www.oceans.uwa.edu.au/collaborations/woodside-futurelab/riverlabThis project will explore the physical dynamics of importance within the Swan River using existing and new field observations. For example:1) Salt fluxes in the Swan River- quantifying the movement of the fresh and marine water in the estuary using new observations. 2) Turbulent mixing in the Swan River- developing techniques to observe turbulence using new instrumentation.

Karnowski, Karol, Research AssociateCo-supervisors: Sampson, David, Prof

Untracht, Gavrielle, Ms (PhD Student)

Miniaturized, handled, fiber probes for optical coherence tomographyDisciplines: Electrical & Electronic, Mechanical, Mechatronic Prerequisite skills: Electronics, Machatronics, 3D design.

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Topic brief description:Our microscope in a needle won The Australian newspaper’s Innovation Challenge in 2015. We are looking for passionate students who would like to participate in the prototyping of next generation needle microscopes. We are aiming for light, hand-held imaging probes that can be used with our existing OCT systems. Within this project, we can accommodate students with different background and interests, from 3D designing, electronics, and mechatronics; through designing, making and experimental testing. Come and talk to us about this project.

Karnowski, Karol, Research AssociateCo-supervisors: Sampson, David, Prof

Li, Qingyun, Mr (PhD Student)

Real time processing of biomedical measurements with GPUDisciplines: Software Prerequisite skills: Experience in GPU programming

Topic brief description:We collect tens of GB of data during out OCT measurements. Multi-stage processing to get final image or quantitative information is crucial for many of clinical applications. In this project, we aim to develop GPU based processing that will allow real time preview of measured quantities during measurement. With this project, you can help us help clinicians to help people. Come and talk to us about this project.

Karrech, Ali, A/Prof Co-supervisor: Attar, Mostafa, Dr

In-Situ Leaching - Feasibility and OptimizationDisciplines: Chemical, Environmental, and Mining

Prerequisite skills: Good knowledge of geochemistry would be helpful

Topic brief description:Decreasing grades of mineral deposits have resulted in tremendously increasing volumes of fragmented, mined and processed rock masses to meet the global demand on precious metals. Immense surface and underground mining projects have been made possible because of modern highly sophisticated mining and processing machinery. The abundance of low-cost energy and water contributed significantly to the success of conventional surface and underground mining. However, maintaining the

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current level of energy and water costs and availabilities is questionable. The fluctuation of commodity prices is exerting additional pressures on conventional mining approaches.

In-Situ Leaching (ISL) is receiving renewed attention as an appealing alternative that requires lower investments and consumes less energy compared to conventional mining technologies. ISL is a promising technology that currently delivers 48% of the global supply in uranium with recoveries that can reach up to 90%. The purpose of this project is to investigate the applicability of ISL for precious metals through non-equilibrium thermodynamic approaches (chemical/environmental engineering) and to optimise the extraction-injection processes.

Karrech, Ali, A/Prof Co-supervisor: Tasker, Lee, Mr

Attar, Mostafa, Dr

Comparing modeled and measured strain changes of a concrete wall experiencing an increasing applied load, with measured 3D Multi-channel Ground Penetrating Radar amplitude response dataDisciplines: Civil

Topic brief description:The objective is to observe if there are similarities in the modeled strain distribution of a concrete wall that is experiencing increasing load and the measured amplitude response of 3D Multi-channel Ground Penetrating Radar (GPR) data collected during wall loading. The wall sample will have a simple set of steel rods acting as reinforcement in the base of the wall.

Karrech, Ali, A/Prof Co-supervisor: Tasker, Lee, Mr

Attar, Mostafa, Dr

Comparing modeled and measured strain changes of a steel mesh buried within in a concrete wall experiencing an increased applied load

Disciplines: Civil

Topic brief description:47


The objective is to observe if there are similarities in the modeled strain distribution of steel mesh buried within a concrete wall that is experiencing increasing load and the measured strain response of a steel mesh with same material properties and dimensions. The concrete wall sample will have a vertical mesh of steel bar acting as reinforcement, located approximately through the central axis of the wall. Ground Penetrating Radar (GPR) amplitude response data has also been collected for the wall sample using a Multichannel 3D GPR system to observe for changes in position of the steel mesh during loading.

The modelled strain distribution of the concrete wall and steel mesh should be modeled for an incrementally increasing 4-point load. The finite element model will require 2D visualisation of strain distribution along the steel mesh.

The mesh strain models will be compared to measured GPR radar amplitude response data, which are observing for displacement/positional changes of the steel mesh under load.

The student will analyse engineering data collected from the experiment (e.g. Load, displacement, strain). The measured engineering data will be used as input parameters for Finite Element Models (FEMs) created by the student.

GPR amplitude response data will be provided to the student to present alongside visualised FEM engineering results.

Keating, Adrian, A/Prof

Sugar cube sized energy harvesting and wireless sensors for the internet ofDisciplines: Mechanical, Mechatronic, and SoftwarePrerequisite skills: Much of the work leverages electrical engineering, design skills, instrumentation and data collection and analysis. Mechanical design is also required – this is an interdisciplinary project

Topic brief description:This project has significant industrial interest. Students will investigate novel energy harvesting technologies, extracting energy from unused heat, motion or electromagnetic radiation. We have a desire to create extremely small wireless sensors than can be used almost anywhere, but which require extremely low power technology to work with the energy being harvested. All students working on this project will focus on a sub-system of the overall system, as there is a high degree of interconnection.

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Keating, Adrian, A/ProfCo-supervisor: Parish, Gia, Prof

Materials and sensors made from thin air - porous film propertiesDisciplines: Electrical & Electronic, Materials, Mechanical, and Mechatronic

Prerequisite skills:Modeling and experimental design skills, instrumentation and data collection and analysis.

Topic brief description:This project investigates how the addition of nanometer sized pores in a material can alter the mechanical, electrical, thermal and optical properties. Such "meta"-materials are useful in a range of applications, from sensors, to cloaking devices. This project offers opportunities for electrical, mechanical and/or material students to learn more about this technology and it's applications. Investigations of both electrical (noise) and thermal (conductivity, time constants) properties is required.

Kimiaei, Mehrdad, A/Prof

Effects of combined environmental loads on fatigue design of risersDisciplines: Civil, and MechanicalPrerequisite skills: Familiarity with offshore engineering concepts (enrolled in CIVL5505 or already passed it) and structural / mechanical engineering background are necessary.

Topic brief description:Offshore platforms are always under randomly generated and combined wave, current and wind loads. Steel Catenary Risers (SCRs) are one of the main components for development of offshore fields in deep water areas and their structural response is strongly affected by time varying environmental loading and dynamic characteristics of the system.Leggoe, Jeremy, Dr

Finite Element Modelling of Bolted Flanged Connections in LNG Processing

Disciplines: Mechanical, and Materials

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Prerequisite skills: Strong Performance in Solid Mechanics, Materials & Manufacturing, Numerical Methods& Modelling; if not already taken, students should plan to enrol in Degradation of materials and Finite Element Modelling during the project.

Topic brief description:The integrity of sealing in bolted flanged connections (BFC) can be compromised when large temperature differentials exist across the connection, as can be the case when cold liquid LNG partially fills a pipeline that is otherwise exposed to ambient conditions.This is a significant practical issue in LNG plants, as a loss of sealing integrity implies a loss of containment of hydrocarbons.

Finite element analysis is being used to investigate BFC integrity under a range of conditions. Given the broad range of temperatures, even characterising the material properties for the flanges, bolts and gaskets accurately for use in FE models is challenging. Students in this project will focus on various aspects of modelling the connection:- The seating of the gasket, and the response of the gasket material when exposed to different temperatures (noting that gaskets are often composites themselves)- Modelling the individual bolts, and the effects of the sequence of bolt tightening- Understanding the effect of pipe layout (and thus boundary conditions) on the connection- Understanding the effects of flange dimensions on BFC performance

This project is aligned with an ongoing investigation being undertaken by a PhD candidate. The PhD candidate will join weekly group meetings, and his previous work in this area will provide background for the project

Leggoe, Jeremy, DrCo-supervisor: Aman, Zach, A/Prof

Computational Fluid Dynamics Modelling of Jet break up for Oil & Gas Well Blow Outs and other jet spraying applications in the Oil & Gas industry

Disciplines: Chemical, and MechanicalPrerequisite skills: Previous completion of ENSC3003 (and ideally strong performance in the unit) is essentialfor this project. Completion of CHPR 4407 would also be an advantage – if not already undertaken, students undertaking this project should plan to enroll in CHPR4407 in 2018.


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In the event of jet releases such as a well blowout or MEG spray, the nature of the turbulent flow field in the feed pipe and the surrounding the resulting jet are significant but poorly understood factors in determining the ultimate dispersion of the released material.

This project will develop and interpret CFD models of jet releases into a quiescent environment to explore the relation between jet dynamics and the distribution of droplet sizes produced by the process. Particular emphasis will be directed towards:- Characterising multi-scale processes of droplet formation- Characterising the effect of the presence of multiple immiscible phases on turbulence- Evaluating different turbulence modelling approaches, in particular scale resolving techniques such as SAS, DES, and LES

Students should expect to work with the software ANSYS/Fluent - previous experience with the software is not essential, but would be a significant advantage.

The students undertaking this project will join a group including PhD student, and significant progress was made by the students working on the project in 2016 and 2017. The PhD student has presented papers on this work at international conferences in 2016 and 2017 (and will again in 2018), and that work will provide background for the project.

Lehane, Barry, ProfCo-supervisor: Vulpe, Cristina, Dr

Exploring the potential of hybrid gravity-suction caissons Disciplines: Civil, and Oil & Gas

Topic brief description:Proposed developments in wind and wave energy as well as in new oil and gas fields have identified a need for more cost effect anchoring systems at soft clay sites. This project is a numerical study that explores the potential of combining the benefits of suction caisson anchors with gravity anchors. The students will employ existing techniques developed at UWA for this study. The final research output will be a series of design charts to assist Industry.

Lehane, Barry, ProfCo-supervisor: Grime, Andrew, Dr

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Reducing foundation costs using optimised construction sequencing

Disciplines: Civil

Topic brief description:Integration of the design of a building’s substructure and superstructure is not generally performed in a way that optimises the overall design, minimises the foundation costs and mitigates the risk of an ultimate limit state or serviceability limit state failure. This proposal uses a simple structural analysis package combined with finite element analysis for pile foundations to address a number of deficiencies in current approaches. The project aims to provide guidelines for optimum sequencing and construction forms for typical substructures.

Lehane, Barry, ProfCo-supervisor: Hu, Yuxia, Prof

Stiffness and capacity of foundations on layered claysDisciplines: Civil Topic brief description:Recent experiments have shown that the stiffness and capacity of a footing founded on a stiff clay underlain by a soft clay cannot be predicted accurately using existing (small-strain) approaches. This is largely because the footing moves progressively closer to soft clay layer with increasing load. This project will examine the influence of significant parameters in a series of footing tests conducted in a laboratory pressure chamber. The results will be compared with small-strain and large-strain prediction techniques and assist the development of a revised simple design approach.

Lehane, Barry, ProfCo-supervisor: Hu, Yuxia, Prof

Fourie, Andy, ProfSeasonal ground movements and their implications for design

Disciplines: Civil Topic brief description:Ground movements due to seasonal changes in the water content (and hence suction) in clay soils have a significant influence on the cost of

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foundations in the Perth region. This study will centre around a field experiment in Rockingham where changes in water content and soil movements at various depths will be recorded over the course of the year. Parallel soil tests in the laboratory and simplified analyses will be conducted and these will be used together with the experimental data to assess the applicability of the current Australian standard.

Lehane, Barry, Prof Co-supervisor: Butterworth, Craig (CMW Geosciences)

McDonald, Louise (CMW Geosciences)

Design Friction Angles in Perth SandsDisciplines: Civil

Topic brief description:Based on available laboratory and insitu tests results, assess appropriate design angles of friction for various types and densities of Perth sands compared to their grading and mineralogy.

Lehane, Barry, Prof Co-supervisor: Gaone, Fillippo, Dr (CMW Geosciences)

Butterworth, Craig (CMW Geosciences)

Pile Design Parameter Selection MethodologyDisciplines: Civil

Topic brief description:Use a database of pile test and site investigation data compiled by CMW Geosciences to assess the applicability of methodologies for selection of pile design parameters.

Lei, Wen, Prof

Semiconductor NanosensorsDisciplines: Chemical, Electrical & Electronic, Materials Prerequisite skills: N/A

Topic brief description:Semiconductor nanostructures are semiconductor materials of nanoscale dimensions, including zero-, one-, and two-dimensional nanostructures. They have many unique properties such as large surface area-to-volume ratio, very high aspect ratio, and strong quantum confinement including

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both carrier and photon. This leads to many unique and desirable electronic and optical properties for semiconductor nanostructures and thus various novel devices with superior performance over existing devices to revolutionise our technological world. These nanodevices include transistors, light emitters, solar cells, and sensors that are used in our daily life such as mobile phones, large-area displays, solar panels, and telecommunication systems. Apart from their super performance, these nanodevices present other advantages such as smaller size, lower cost, and higher energy efficiency, compared to traditional semiconductor devices with larger dimensions.

In this project, we will focus on the development of one- and/or two-dimensional semiconductor nanosensors with numerous potential applications ranging from light sensing, to environment sensing, and to telecommunication. This project can be divided into two main modules in which students choose both or either modules or any aspects of each module depending on interests of the students and duration of the program:

(1) Synthesis of high quality semiconductor nanostructures using CVD and/or MBE material growth tools, and understand, through various structural, electrical, and optical characterisation techniques, how to (i) improve the material quality, (ii) control the composition and material, and (iii) to engineer the bandstructure of nanostructures;(2) Fabrication and characterisation of semiconductor nanosensors which involve (i) the design of the sensor structures, (ii) the use of state-of-the-art device fabrication facilities to make nanosensor devices, and (iii) characterising the performance and properties of the nanosensors to understand the underlying physics of the devices.

Through this project, the students will develop practical expertise and experience needed by semiconductor and other industries, including:

(1) Material synthesis/growth using CVD and/or MBE material growth facilities;(2) Design and modeling of semiconductor devices;(3) Material processing and device fabrication technologies within a cleanroom environment;(4) Nanoscale material and device characterisation;

Required background:Electronic and Electrical Engineering, Material Science, Physics, and Chemistry

Li, Jianxin, Dr

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Emotion learning: location-aware social media sentiment analysisDisciplines: Electrical & Electronic, and Software Prerequisite skills: Significant programming skills; Python is required.

Topic brief description:Tracking sentiment helps you understand what the individual behind a social media post is feeling. Knowing the emotion behind a post can provide important context for how you proceed and respond. For example, Martin sets up his Twitter mentions on Hootsuite to scan for Tweets containing positive terms such as ‘thank you,’ ‘love,’ and ‘amazing.’ He also makes sure to search for sentiment-indicating emojis, such as the thumbs up or smiley face. Hootsuite Insights provides an overview of sentiment with an easy-to-read meter. This allows you to quickly see how your brand is doing from a sentiment point of view, and monitor for any changes. Reference https://blog.hootsuite.com/social-media-sentiment-analysis-tools/

Li, Jianxin, Dr

Social media driven finance data analyticsDisciplines: Electrical & Electronic, and SoftwarePrerequisite skills: Python programming skills, OR have strong finance modelling background

Topic brief description:Nowadays, the use of social media has reached unprecedented levels. Among all social media, with its popular micro-blogging service, Twitter enables users to share short messages in real time about events or express their own opinions.We have developed the preliminary methods to derive people’s opinions and stock data information. Now we are looking for FYP students to further investigate the prediction models using Machine Learning techniques or AI techniques or Finance Models.

Liu, Jishan, Prof

Shale Gas Extraction: Roles of Different Controlling FactorsDisciplines: Chemical, Oil & Gas, and Petroleum

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Prerequisite skills: Already taken OGEG5803 or going to take OGEG5803 in 2018

Topic brief description:Horizontal drilling and hydraulic fracturing are two enabling technologies to create a shale gas reservoir. For the created reservoir scale, gas flow processes are affected by a number of factors, including (1) shale microstructures; (2) flow regimes; (3) gas diffusion; (4) gas adsorption/desorption; and (5) shale permeability. The objective of this project is to investigate the impact of each controlling factors on the extraction of shale gas. COMSOL, a commercial package, will be applied to achieve this goal. Research tasks include (1) Literature Review; (2) Learn COMSOL; (3) Formulate the Problem; (4) Implement into COMSOL; (5) Conduct the Investigation; and (5) Analyse the Results.

Liu, Jishan, Prof

Coal Seam Gas Extraction: Roles of Different Controlling FactorsDisciplines: Chemical, Oil & Gas, and PetroleumPrerequisite skills: Already taken OGEG5803 or going to take OGEG5803 in 2018

Topic brief description:Coal seam gas has been an important component of world energy mix. Coal gas flow processes are affected by a number of factors, including (1) coal gas diffusion in matrix; (2) gas desorption/desorption in matrix; (3) gas flow in fractures; (4) coal porosity changes; and (5) shale permeability. The objective of this project is to investigate the impact of each controlling factors on the extraction of coal gas. COMSOL, a commercial package, will be applied to achieve this goal. Research tasks include (1) Literature Review; (2) Learn COMSOL; (3) Formulate the Problem; (4) Implement into COMSOL; (5) Conduct the Investigation; and (5) Analyse the Results.

Liu, Wei, DrCo-supervisors: Liu, Wei, Dr

French, Tim, Dr Hodkiewicz, Melinda, Prof

Cognitive Computing of Maintenance RecordsDisciplines: Electrical & Electronic, and Software

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Prerequisite skills: Requires >75% in any of CITS2200, CITS3001, CITS3002 or CITS4404

Topic brief description:There is a huge interest from major manufacturing and resource companies in being able to automate the processing of manually completed maintainer work orders. These work orders capture information about the state of the equipment and work done by the maintainer. This information is vital in assessing the reliability of the equipment.

We have been working with a major resource company for a number of years on this exciting area. This project is for CSSE students or computing literate EE’s with the right experience (see below) who are doing MPE. We are looking for someone interested in ontology development, text mining, and other cognitive computing methods and their application to an important industry problem.

Liu, Yinong, Prof

Characterization of corrosion monitoring probesDisciplines: Chemical, Civil, Mechanical, Mechatronic, and MiningPrerequisite skills: MECH4428

Topic brief description:Corrosion probes are widely used to monitor corrosion and structure integrity of pipelines, reaction vessels, equipment and infrastructure by many industries, such as oil and gas, mining, chemical processing and transportation industries. This project aims to characterize the performances of three common industrial corrosion monitoring probes. Such knowledge are of direct benefit to the industry making use of these probes.

Liu, Yinong, Prof

Mechanical performance of a bio-inspired metal nanocompositeDisciplines: Chemical, Materials, and MechanicalPrerequisite skills: love of knowledge and good ability of logical thinking

Topic brief description:Inspired by the unique structure of nacre, we designed a metallic nanocomposite containing a phase transforming matrix and a hard intermetallic compound in lamellar configuration. The topic of this project is materials engineering. It involves metallography (microscopic

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examination), mechanical testing, and good understanding of solid phase transformations in metals. This project applies the knowledge of nanoscience to engineer applicable engineering materials, and is intellectually challenging and much in depth of materials science. Some of the materials we have design are breaking many records of metal materials and we hope this could be another breakthrough. I highly recommend this project if you have aspiration to continue your intellectual development into higher degree research.

Lowe, Ryan, Prof Co-supervisors: Hansen, Jeff, Dr

Rijnsdorp, Dirk, Dr

Designing artificial surf reefs for Perth's coastlineDisciplines: Civil, EnvironmentalPrerequisite skills: Basic knowledge of coastal processes (including waves) and some proficiency in Matlab/Python programming would also be helpful.

Topic brief description:Interest in artificial surf reefs has increased recently in part due to the successful design of a number of surfing “wave pools”. However, designing a functioning artificial surf reef, at a reasonable cost, is potentially more challenging. The project will aim to design one or more artificial reefs suitable for Perth’s geography and oceanographic conditions. Special consideration will need to be payed to cost, design life, as well as potential changes to adjacent beaches (e.g. erosion), as these are all factors that have resulted in the “failure” of a number of existing artificial surf reefs. The project will use several types of wave models that will allow the prediction of both the wave breaking over a potential reef design as well as the currents and sediment movement.

Male, Sally, Associate

Development and trial of virtual work integrated learning modulesDisciplines: Civil, Electrical & Electronic, Environmental, MechanicalPrerequisite skills: An interest in engineering practice, good communication skills

Topic brief description:Students of accredited engineering programs in Australia must engage with engineering practice. This project will contribute to an overarching project on virtual work integrated learning (WIL) for engineering students.

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In the overarching project, learning modules are being developed to expose students to practice without real work placements. Previous final year students have investigated learning outcomes and learning activities for virtual WIL in engineering. Current and new final year students are and will develop and test virtual WIL modules, building on the work of the previous students. Students will collaborate with the Virtual WIL Project Team which includes researchers from UWA, CingleVue International, Curtin University, The University of Queensland, Murdoch University, Engineers Australia, and the Australian Council of Engineering Deans. Students will select modules on which to focus. Topics taught in the modules include tendering, roles of engineers, engineering communication, and safety in design, among others. Some of these projects use virtual reality or immersive environments.

Male, Sally, Associate ProfCo-supervisors: Hassan, Ghulam Mubashar, Dr

Development and trial of virtual work integrated learning environmentsDisciplines: Civil, Electrical & Electronic, Environmental, Mechanical, SoftwarePrerequisite skills: An interest in engineering practice, good communication skills

Topic brief description:Students of accredited engineering programs in Australia must engage with engineering practice. This project will contribute to an overarching project on virtual work integrated learning (WIL) for engineering students. In the overarching project, learning modules are being developed to expose students to practice without real work placements. Previous final year students have investigated learning outcomes and learning activities for virtual WIL in engineering. Current and new final year students are and will develop and test virtual WIL modules, building on the work of the previous students. Students will collaborate with the Virtual WIL Project Team which includes researchers from UWA, CingleVue International, Curtin University, The University of Queensland, Murdoch University, Engineers Australia, and the Australian Council of Engineering Deans. Students will select modules on which to focus. Topics taught in the modules include tendering, roles of engineers, engineering communication, and safety in design, among others. These projects involve developing virtual reality or immersive environments.

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Martyniuk, Mariusz, A/ProfCo-supervisors: Lei, Wen, Prof

Umana-Membreno Gilberto, Associate Prof

Investigation of mechanical properties of mercury cadmium selenide thin films via nanoindentationDisciplines: Electrical & Electronic, Materials, Mechanical Prerequisite skills: Physics/engineering/materials science

Topic brief description:This is a hands-on project involving a series of experimental instrumented nanoindentation runs on thin film samples. Data analysis and scientific reporting is a significant part of the project. The outcome of the project is to report the mechanical properties (Young’s modulus, hardness, etc) of novel thin films of mercury cadmium selenide grown by molecular beam epitaxy at the Western Australian Node of the Australian National Fabrication Facility. The student should have a physics/engineering/materials science background, and potentially with specific prior knowledge/experience in instrumented nanoindentation.

May, Eric, ProfCo-supervisors: Graham, Brendan, Dr

Stanwix, Paul, Dr Mylona, Sofia, Dr Al Ghafri, Saif, Dr Rowland, Darren, Dr

Natural Gas & LNG Properties

Disciplines: Chemical, Mechanical, and Oil & Gas

Topic brief description:Unplanned shutdowns of LNG plants caused by hydrocarbon solids blocking cryogenic heat exchangers are a major, ongoing problem for the industry. Current methods of avoiding them are costly and energy intensive. In addition, LNG production systems are over-engineered because the predictions of process simulators are unreliable, and this has significant implications for the cost of modern plants, especially FLNG. More generally, the natural gas industry needs new physical property data at high-pressures and low temperatures to develop more efficient processes capable of handling more problematic gas reserves. These projects aim to produce the required new data and develop new predictive models relevant to natural gas processing and LNG production to help avoid unexpected shutdowns, improve plant efficiency, and increase safety.

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McCormick, Paul, E/Professor

Photovoltaic Energy SystemsDisciplines: Civil, Electrical & Electronic, Materials, and Mechanical

Prerequisite skills:Maths and computing

Topic brief description:1. Batteries for solar systems

• Effect of current fluctuations on battery performance• Characterization of battery degradation• Mitigation of fluctuations in battery current caused by

intermittent solar radiation.

2. Solar modeling• Comparison of one-minute and one-second radiation

measurements• Modeling of battery current fluctuations• Pumped water storage• Modeling and optimization of remote stand-alone solar

systems.

McFerran John A/ProfCo-supervisor: Ivanov Eugene Prof

Electronic feedback systems for an optical-atomic-lattice clock

Disciplines: Electrical & ElectronicPrerequisite skills: Some experience with circuit design software

Topic brief description:Optical-atomic-lattice clocks are the most stable and, arguably, accurate clocks produced by humankind so far. Their accuracy is equivalent (analogous) to a few seconds disagreement over the age of the universe. The UWA lattice clock, which is in a preliminary stage of operation and aims to be part of an international network of atomic clocks, relies heavily on electronic feedback systems to control the frequency of various lasers. This project will involve designing and implementing improved control system components, such as lock-in amplifiers and auto-lock systems. Circuit design and laser frequency measurements are important aspects of the project. It is part of the ARC’s Centre of Excellence for Engineered Quantum Systems (EQuS) 2018-2024.

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Further details at: www.physics.uwa.edu.au/research/frequency-quantum-metrology

Metaxas, Peter, DrCo-supervisor: Kostylev, Mikhail, Prof

Magnetic nano-oscillators for biological sensingDisciplines: Electrical & ElectronicPrerequisite skills: Experience with microelectronics and electrical transport measurements preferable but not required

Topic brief description:This project is aimed at the experimental development and testing of novel magnetic nanoparticle detectors for downstream application in biological sensing and medical diagnostics. The student will focus on a unique frequency-based particle detection method using nano-scale electronic devices known as spin torque oscillators.

Metaxas, Peter, Dr

Magnetism in 2D materialsDisciplines: Electrical & Electronic, and Materials Topic brief description:In this project the student will use a state-of-the-art SQuID magnetometer to search for ferromagnetic behaviour in two-dimensional materials such as graphene.

Metaxas, Peter, Dr

Simulation of chaotic magnetisation dynamicsDisciplines: Electrical & Electronic, and Materials Topic brief description:This is a simulation-focussed project being run in collaboration with the Université Paris-Saclay. The student will run micromagnetic simulations with an aim to understand chaotic dynamics of nano-scale objects known as magnetic vortices [e.g. Sushruth et al., Physical Review B, 94, 100402(R), 2016]. The student will primarily use a micromagnetic simulation package known as MuMax3 which runs on graphics processing units (GPUS).

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http://www.physics.uwa.edu.au/research/frequency-quantum-metrology

http://www.physics.uwa.edu.au/research/frequency-quantum-metrology

Mian, Ajmal, A/ProfessorCo-supervisors: Gilani, Syed, Dr, Hassan, Ghulam, Dr

Automatic age and gender classification from facial imagesDisciplines: Electrical & Electronic, and SoftwarePrerequisite skills: Computer vision, Matlab

Topic brief description:Automatic age and gender classification have many applications in marketing and planning of resources at public places. Recently, deep learning has achieved higher accuracy than human observers at estimating the age of a person from a single image. In this project, the student will use deep neural network models to develop an end-to-end system that performs face detection, age estimation and gender classification. Existing pre-trained networks will be fine-tuned to achieve higher accuracy on video streamed from a local webcam.

Mian, Ajmal, Assoc ProfessorCo-supervisors: Hassan, Ghulam, Dr, Gilani, Syed, Dr

Automatic pedestrian detection in videosDisciplines: Electrical & Electronic, and Software

Prerequisite skills: Computer vision, Matlab

Topic brief description:Automatic pedestrian detection is an important component of autonomous cars and is also useful for city planning. In this project the student will use deep learning to develop an automatic pedestrian detection algorithm. The algorithm should exploit spatio-temporal features from moving camera and moving pedestrian to increase the accuracy of the system. The output of the system should be the locations of all pedestrians visible in image as well as their scales. The results should be displayed as bounding boxes around the pedestrians. The project will use existing benchmark datasets for fine-tuning CNN models and data collection is not a part of this project. Benchmark datasets can be found at http://www.vision.caltech.edu/Image_Datasets/CaltechPedestrians/

Miller, Karol, W/Prof

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Biomechanics: Stress and strain in abdominal aortic aneurysm

Disciplines: Civil, Mechanical, and Computer Science

Topic brief description:This is a finite element simulation project using Abaqus and our one code BioPARR http://bioparr.mech.uwa.edu.au/ . This project is in collaboration with Harvard’s Martinos Center for Biomedical Imaging https://www.martinos.org/ , Fraunhofer MEVIS institute in Germany http://www.mevis.fraunhofer.de/ and Katolieke Universitat Leuven

The best students will have an opportunity to travel to collaborating labs.

The project will be conducted within Intelligent Systems for Medicine Laboratory http://school.mech.uwa.edu.au/ISML/index.php/Main_Page . For over fifteen years ISML has collaborated with leading laboratories of Harvard Medical School and currently we have this opportunity for you.


Computer Simulation of breast deformation for surgical navigation in breast cancer

Disciplines: Civil, Mechanical, and Computer Science

Topic brief description:Computer Simulation of breast deformation for surgical navigation in breast cancer (with Surgical Planning Laboratory http://spl.harvard.edu, Harvard and PERK Lab http://perk.cs.queensu.ca/ at Queens University, Canada)

Projects in collaboration with Harvard Medical School.

The best students will have an opportunity to travel to Harvard.


Computer simulation of brain deformations for epilepsy treatmentDisciplines: Civil, Mechanical, and Computer Science

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http://school.mech.uwa.edu.au/ISML/index.php/Main_Page

Topic brief description:Computer simulation of brain deformations for epilepsy treatment (with Computational Radiology Laboratory http://crl.med.harvard.edu/, Harvard) and tumour resection (with Surgical Planning Laboratory http://spl.harvard.edu, Harvard)

Projects in collaboration with Harvard Medical School.

The best students will have an opportunity to travel to Harvard.

Mohr, Henning, Dr

Mapping the erosion characteristics of the Swan River

Disciplines: Civil, Environmental, and MechanicalPrerequisite skills: Swimming/snorkelling

Topic brief description:The net movement of sediment (i.e. scour) around subsea structures can be difficult to predict in practice, but must be estimated accurately to ensure offshore structures are designed reliably. Much of the difficulty lies in predicting the erosion properties of sediment, and then using these properties to estimate scour. In this project, erosion testing will be carried out using a novel flume developed at UWA to measure erosion properties in-situ. Trial experiments will be conducted in the Swan River determining erosion properties of the river bed at various locations.

Nener, Brett, Prof

Optical communications and atmospheric scintillationDisciplines: Electrical & Electronic, Mechanical, Mechatronic, Software Prerequisite skills: C, C+ and MATLAB programming necessary, Physics desirable

Topic brief description:There is a world-wide trend to use light to communicate between satellites, and from satellites to a ground-station. Light has a larger bandwidth than microwaves, it is also more secure and can use quantum methods such as

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quantum-key-distribution (QKD). However, one of the major limitations is the effect of the atmosphere itself on the signal-to-noise ratio due to scintillation effects. Code currently exists to simulate this effect over short distance like a few 10's of kilometers. This project will involve the improvement of the code and the testing against known results for long-range communications like low-earth-orbiting satellites (LEO).

Nener, Brett, ProfCo-supervisors: Parish, Giacinta, Prof

Advanced Sensing Technologies: Transistor-based biosensorsDisciplines: Electrical & Electronic, Materials, Mechanical, MechatronicPrerequisite skills: N/A

Topic brief description:Students will work together on the one or more of following integrated project components (and will also work alongside students working in the adjacent projects on “transistor-based chemical sensors for contaminant monitoring”).1. Physical, chemical, materials and biological characterisation of functionalisation methods, particularly surface and cell studies2. Electrical, chemical, biochemical and physical characterisation and optimisation of functionalised ion sensors3. Mechanical, electrical and chemical characterisation and optimisation of packaging techniques4. Design and integration of complementary sensors (pH, temperature, drift compensation) to maximise reliability.5. Adapt device design, packaging, measurement protocols for reliable, reference electrode free, operation.6. Modelling of individual devices, packaged devices and the device-functionalisation layer-solution interface.

Ocampo, Carlos, DrCo-supervisor: Dallas, Stewart, Dr (JB&A Consultant)

Oldham, Carolyn, Prof

Hydrologic performance of innovative landscaped infiltration basinsDisciplines: Civil, Environmental

Prerequisite skills:

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Hydrology unit (desirable) – Data analysis (e.g, Excel, Matlab, or programming language).

Topic brief description:Infiltration basins for stormwater runoff in urban areas are common features in the Perth urban landscapes aiming to reduce stormflow runoff via infiltration. Traditional infiltration basins (or sumps) in Perth become a maintenance problem for councils and unusable landscape for the local communities – fenced off, overgrown with weed, and unsafe attracting anti-social behaviour. New technologies and innovative approaches allow now the landscaping of such basins as an usable community asset while maintaining its drainage function and infiltration capacity via the use of infiltration cells as underground storage. Although infiltration cells become a key part of the business case for innovation in the urban development industry, their onsite hydrologic performance after construction remains unclear. The project will undertake hydrologic monitoring and numerical computation to determine the hydrologic efficiency and functioning of a landscaped infiltration basin constructed in 2016 at the innovation-awarded White Gum Valley development within the City of Fremantle (WA). The candidate will have the opportunity to undertake the work on a team involving researchers from the CRC for Water Sensitive Cities and industry consultants involved in the design and water management of the WGV development. More details can be found at: https://youtu.be/n 7f ynBw8l (video on Innovation through demonstration at the WGV).

Oldham, Carolyn, Prof Co-supervisor: Ocampo, Carlos, Dr

Urban hydrology - exploring altered water and contaminant dynamics under urbanization

Disciplines: Chemical, Civil, Environmental, and Mining

Topic brief description:Rapid urbanisation is occurring in many parts of the world, with potential impact on the security of water supplies and surrounding environments. To better manage urbanization and improve urban design, we must improve our understanding of how land use change alters water and contaminant pathways. The complexity of these processes increases when groundwater is close to the surface, intersects urban drainage and can impact urban infrastructure.

We are offering a range a projects in the area of urban hydrology, with a focus on high groundwater contexts. There is scope in these projects for

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hydrological sciences (both surface water and groundwater), numerical modeling, big data processing, GIS experience, field work.

Pan, Jie, Prof Co-supervisor: Bao, Chaoying, Dr

Matthews, David, Dr

AI Microphone Array for Condition Monitoring in Mining SiteDisciplines: Electrical & Electronic, Mechanical, Mechatronic, and Software


Topic brief description:Most condition monitoring of machinery in mining site can be effectively performed by the acoustical signature emitted from each machine. Microphone array technique is capable of collectively detecting both acoustical signature and location of all noise noise sources in space. The aim of this project is to develop small potable microphone array units for noise source detection and to use wireless transmission (WT) and artificial intelligence (AI) techniques to demonstrate the feasibility and efficiency for detecting multiple mining site noise sources.

Pan, Jie, Prof Co-supervisor: Matthews, David, Dr

Sun, Hongmei, Ms

Smart Acoustical SurfaceDisciplines: Electrical & Electronic, Mechanical, Mechatronic, and Software


Topic brief description:The function of a smart acoustical surface is that it has multiple functions of radiating required sound (as a good loudspeaker), absorbing incident noise (as an efficient noise absorber), and detecting incident and radiating sound field (as a surface microphone array). The aim of this team project is to develop experimental and numerical model of a smart surface using thin layered acoustical material with distributed sensors and actuators.

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Parish, Giacinta, ProfCo-supervisors: Nener, Brett, Prof

Advanced Sensing Technologies: Transistor-based chemical sensors for contaminant monitoringDisciplines: Chemical, Electrical & Electronic, Environmental, Materials, Mechanical, MechatronicPrerequisite skills: N/A

Topic brief description:Reliable, economically accessible technology for in situ monitoring of contaminants in water has the power to transform health, industry, and society the world around. Applications of such monitoring range from process control monitoring and optimisation for industry, to water supply quality and wastewater monitoring, to environmental monitoring for resource extraction, and beyond.The microelectronics-based technology under investigation in this project will enable in situ, real-time contaminant monitoring that is accurate, reliable and low-cost. Semiconductor-based technology offers high performance and can also be mass produced at low-cost with flexible functionalisation allowing for a variety of analytes. Furthermore, it offers the ability to integrate multiple sensors into one chip, along with wireless communication technology for maximum benefit of the in situ monitoring capability.Students will work together on the one or more of following integrated project components (and will also work alongside students working in the adjacent projects on “transistor-based biosensors”).1. Physical, chemical, materials characterisation of functionalisation methods, particularly surface studies2. Electrical, chemical and physical characterisation and optimisation of functionalised ion sensors3. Mechanical, electrical and chemical characterisation and optimisation of packaging techniques4. Design and integration of complementary sensors (pH, temperature, drift compensation) to maximise reliability.5. Adapt device design, packaging, measurement protocols for reliable, reference electrode free, operation.The ability to monitor biological and chemical signals with an electronic device is a tremendously innovative approach for cell research and process control in pharmaceutical and microbiological production, and chemical sensing applications. A bio-friendly, chemically inert and stable III-Nitride-transistor-based bio/chem-sensor will be developed to detect responses to various specific compounds/chemicals, particularly through cell receptors. The successful development of this electronic biosensor technology has the potential to improve health and disease treatment through major

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improvements in throughput, precision, quality, speed and simplicity of, for example, drug and disease testing methods.

Pasternak, Elena, ProfCo-supervisor: Dyskin, Arcady, Prof

Asteroid miningDisciplines: Civil, Mechanical, and MiningPrerequisite skills: GENG4405, Finite Element or Discrete Element Methods

Topic brief description:Research into and modelling of mining methods and anchoring methods necessary for construction and extraction of resources from asteroids and other extraterrestrial bodies as well as destruction of the asteroids on collision course with the Earth.

Ragni, Raffaele, Dr Co-supervisors: Bienen, Britta, Dr

Numerical investigation of spudcan uplift capacity in clay

Disciplines: Civil Prerequisite skills: Basic understanding of fundamental principles of geomechanics.

Topic brief description:Jack-up units are mobile self-elevating platforms extensively used in the oil & gas industry and as installation vessels for offshore wind turbines. The structure features a buoyant hull and a number of retractable legs. Larger jack-ups feature circular foundations called spudcans, typically six to twenty meters in diameter for oil & gas applications, at the end of each leg. When embedded into the seabed, the spudcans provide the necessary bearing capacity to support the super-structure.Due to the nature of the metocean actions acting on the structure, such as waves, currents and winds, some of the foundations may be required to support an upwards vertical loading. The uplift capacity of the foundation must be thoroughly assessed, as it affects its overall combined bearing capacity. A better understanding of the spudcan extraction process is also essential, particularly in terms of the resistance offered by the spudcan when the jack-up legs are retracted.The present study aims at defining the uplift capacity for spudcan installed in clay. The problem is tacked numerically, running a series of numerical analyses on the finite element code Abaqus. Previous studies have already concentrated on the installation problem, and would provide a starting

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platform for the future analyses. The student should have a basic understanding of the fundamental principles of geomechanics.Reynolds, Mark, A/ProfCo-supervisors: Braunl, Thomas, Prof

Simulating Autonomous Vehicles 1Disciplines: Electrical & Electronic, and SoftwarePrerequisite skills: Good programming skills in C or C++ are a prerequisite for this project.

Topic brief description:We want to develop realistic simulations of autonomous vehicles with convenient interfaces to mapping and communication systems in order to allow easy prototyping and development of path finding and (car to car, or car to infrastructure) collision avoidance.

Reynolds, Mark, A/ProfCo-supervisors: Sun, Chao, Dr (UWA Business School), McDonald, Chris, Dr

Simulating Autonomous Vehicles 2Disciplines: Civil, Electrical & Electronic, Mechanical, SoftwarePrerequisite skills: Programming, preferably Python or C++; data analysis

Topic brief description:Autonomous (driverless) Vehicles (AVs) are expected to fundamentally change the transport system. Despite the surge of research activity regarding to their potential impacts, there are still many unanswered questions. For example, how would AVs change the road capacity and by how much? Can intersections be controlled without signals? Can we make these autonomous agents cooperate rather than competing with each other? Currently, microsimulation is the best way to answer these questions. Students will program in their customised AV behaviour models in the traffic simulation package Aimsun and use it for scenario testing.

Reynolds, Mark, A/ProfCo-supervisors: Richard, Thomas, Dr

Deep Learning for Bat Species Identification from Recorded CallsDisciplines: Electrical & Electronic, and SoftwarePrerequisite skills: Python programming

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Topic brief description:Bat calls classification is a task to identify bat species from their echolocation calls. Various methods are applied to classify the bat calls: eg full-spectrum analysis and zero-crossing analysis. Compared with zero-crossing data, full-spectrum data provides amplitude domain information as well as higher resolution and higher quality faithful renderings of the time-frequency domain of the calls: although it requires much larger storage space it is not a problem for modern computers. On the other hand, utilizing additional information in full-spectrum data increases robustness and accuracy of the models. In this project we will work with Bush Heritage Australia researchers and their labeled WA bat call data to trial a new machine learning approach to automated identification of bat species from call recordings. Pre-trained CNN models and dataset are available at https://data.vision.ee.ethz.ch/cvl/rrothe/imdb-wiki/

Reynolds, Mark, A/Prof Co-supervisors: Huynh, Dr Du, Surname, Hu, Prof. Yuxia

Using Computer Vision for Asset AssessmentDisciplines: Software Engineering Prerequisite skills: Matlab programming or C/C++ programming. Some basic knowledge in computer vision and video processing would be desirable.

Topic brief description:WA roads are deteriorating with age, use, and weather. Main Roads WA is currently investigating the use of cheaply recorded video from their fleet of moving vehicles to identify maintenance issues and asset problems. This project is to combine datamining with computer vision techniques to determine the priorities for maintenance tasks.

Reynolds, Mark, A/ProfCo-supervisors: Sun, Chao, Dr (UWA Business School)

Machine Learning for Predicting Traffic CongestionDisciplines: Electrical & Electronic, and SoftwarePrerequisite skills: Good programming skills.


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We want to develop accurate machine learning methods for short term predictions of traffic congestion problems. We have large amounts of frequent and regular traffic flow data from Main Roads WA for many important sections of Perth roads. The aim is to devise algorithms to identify likely feeder roads to a given link and then use machine learning to make predictions about upcoming congestion events.

Reynolds, Mark, A/Prof Co-supervisors: Smith, Brett, Dr (UWA Business School)

Machine Learning from Online Marketing SurveysDisciplines: SoftwarePrerequisite skills: Good programming skills.

Topic brief description:The UWA Business School (Marketing Discipline) is to collect a three year wave of data from a commercial online survey provider. We need to create a database structure that is capable of taking the data feeds over the years. The student project involves machine learning and pattern matching to identify trends and relationships in the data.

Reynolds, Mark, A/Prof Co-supervisors: Fernando, Tyrone, Prof

Iu, Herbert, Prof

Evaluating the robustness of power distribution networks to cascade failureDisciplines: Electrical & Electronic, and SoftwarePrerequisite skills: Some programming skills (Matlab/Python preferable, other programming such as C++/Java also ok).

Topic brief description:Electrical network utilities aim to supply electricity to society in a way that is safe, reliable and affordable. Previous work has identified numerous alternative power network topologies through applying genetic algorithms for the purpose of minimising costs. However, the susceptibility of various power network topologies to cascade failure following a fault has yet to be analysed.

The first objective of this project is to develop a model to measure system robustness for the application of power distribution networks. The second

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objective of this project is to apply the outcome of objective one to evaluate the robustness of a variety of different power network topologies.

Reynolds, Mark, A/Prof Co-supervisors Fernando, Tyrone, Prof, Iu, Herbert, Prof

Large scale network optimisation for power gridsDisciplines: Electrical & Electronic, and SoftwarePrerequisite skills: Some programming skills (Matlab/Python preferable, other programming such as C++/Java also ok).

Topic brief description:Electrical network utilities aim to supply electricity to society in a way that is safe, reliable and affordable. Previous work has applied genetic algorithms (GAs) to identify optimal network topologies for sections of the power network, specifically downstream of distribution substations. However, previous work has assumed customers are already supplied via the optimal distribution substation. As power distribution networks expand over multiple decades to supply new customers, this assumption may not be realistic. This project will likely involve:• Modeling a large scale power network.• Applying GAs or clustering approaches to optimally supply each customer from the set of available substations.• An application of the model towards real large-scale power distribution networks.

Reynolds, Mark, A/Prof Co-supervisors: Inglis, Tim, Prof

Bacterial cell metricsDisciplines: SoftwarePrerequisite skills: Java or C++, Data Science

Topic brief description:Several separate projects are available here in helping a larger medical research team in streamlining high speed, high volume data processing to include data mining, visualisation applications and interface construction. The problem they are working on is flow cytometer-assisted antimicrobial susceptibility testing (FAST) for drug resistant infections. The research includes some microbiology lab time working alongside the biomedical scientists who generate the data to gain insight into workflow, raw data generation and the regulatory targets clinical laboratories have to meet.

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This is a rapidly emerging field that has already gained this group a series of innovation awards and will present opportunities to contribute to original biomedical science publications in highly rated journals.

Reynolds, Mark, A/Prof Co-supervisors: Sun, Chao, Dr (UWA Business School), McDonald, Chris, Dr

A smart phone app for automated travel mode detectionDisciplines: SoftwarePrerequisite skills: App development

Topic brief description:Governments around the world conduct travel surveys figure out how people use the transport network. They often cost millions of dollars and are conventionally done using paper based diaries which are very unreliable. Smart phones offer a potential solution for cheaper and more accurate data collection. People’s travel mode (car, public transport, walking, cycling) can be pattern matched from movement data collected by accelerometers and their routes can be tracked through location information. An Android and/or iOS app will be developed as part of the project.Reynolds, Mark, A/Prof Co-supervisors: Sun, Chao, Dr (UWA Business School), While, Lyndon, Dr

Use Artificial Intelligence (AI) techniques to improve mathematical transport modelsDisciplines: SoftwarePrerequisite skills: Programming, familiarity of AI techniques

Topic brief description:AI techniques are often used to produce blackbox solutions that often produce better results than conventional mathematical models. However, the latter is still sometimes preferred since they offer insights and explanations of ‘why it works’. Many transport models have been developed over the years. However, certain models work well for certain conditions and there could be many variations of the same model. Manually testing all the alternatives to find the best fit could be a demanding process. This project aims to utilise modern AI techniques (such as Genetic Programming) to find the explicit mathematical formulas for certain transport problems.

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Sahdi, FauzanCo-supervisors: Gaudin, Christophe, Prof

Chow, Shiaohuey, Dr

Effects of Stress History on the Remoulding and Reconsolidation of Clay Disciplines: CivilPrerequisite skills: Geomechanics, Critical State Soil Mechanics (introductory level)

Topic brief description:With the expansion of the oil and gas industry into deeper waters, there is now a greater reliance on floating production systems to extract hydrocarbon resources. Steel catenary risers (SCRs) form an integral part of deep water oil and gas extraction, enabling hydrocarbon products from the flowline pipelines on the seabed to be transported onto floating production systems/structures. Studies have shown that the fatigue hotspots are concentrated at the portion where a particular SCR meets the seabed soil (i.e. the touchdown zone, TDZ). Unfortunately, estimating the stresses at the TDZ accurately is difficult due the complex nature of riser – soil interaction. In a typical deepwater environment, an SCR usually rests on clay and the cyclic riser–clay seabed interaction involves remoulding of the clay layer, where the cyclic SCR motion is mainly induced by the wave-floating platform interaction. In normally consolidated clays, a calm period following this cyclic episode will result in an increase in the SCR-clay contact pressure beyond that from the previous remoulded magnitude. This ‘healing’ process observed in normally consolidated clays can be attributed to the process of reconsolidation, where positive excess pore pressure generated during the previous cyclic episode dissipates. However, some offshore clay sites exhibit undrained strength profiles, which suggest that the clay layers are overconsolidated. The main objective of this project is to gain an understanding of the effects of stress history on the remoulding and reconsolidation behaviour of clay. This project involves laboratory tests, where T-bar and piezoball penetrometer tests will be conducted in samples of varying overconsolidation ratios. The test programme will involve cyclic T-bar and peizoball episodes interspersed with ‘rest’ periods to allow the soil to reconsolidate. It is envisaged that the proposed project can provide a better understanding of the SCR-soil interaction on seabeds of different stress histories.

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Typical in field processing facility with the associated riser system

Industry relevance This project is part of the Industrial Transformation Research Hub for Offshore Floating Facilities (OFFshore ITRH), Project 3 – Reliable moorings and risers, which is funded by the Australian Research Council, Shell, Woodside, Bureau Veritas and Lloyd’s Register. This project is a good opportunity to gain visibility within the offshore industry fraternity. More information on OFFshore ITRH can be found here: http://offshorehub.edu.au/

Requirements: Good understanding in Geomechanics Some knowledge in Critical State Soil Mechanics

Work scope: Exciting opportunity to work in the renowned National Geotechnical

Centrifuge Facility (NGCF) laboratory (http://www.ngcf.edu.au/). The student will receive good support from the NGCF technical team

during laboratory testing T-bar and piezoball cyclic tests interspersed with ‘rest’ period in

kaolin samples with overconsolidation ratios ranging from 10 to 1. Test data will be analysed and interpreted using the critical state

framework. Close guidance from the supervisory team will be provided.

Supervisors: Main - Fauzan Sahdi ([email protected]), and co-supervisors - Christophe Gaudin and Shiaohuey Chow

Schediwy, Sascha, DrCo-supervisor: Gozzard, David, Dr

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http://www.ngcf.edu.au/

http://offshorehub.edu.au/

Synchronisation of the Square Kilometre Array Radio TelescopeDisciplines: Electrical & ElectronicPrerequisite skills: Work with analogue electronics, PCB design, and optical fibre beneficial

Topic brief description:The aim of this project is to contribute to the development of the frequency synchronisation system for the Square Kilometre Array (SKA) radio telescope.

The SKA will be the largest and most complex astronomical instrument to date, with individual antennas spread over continental scales. One of the most complex technical challenges will be the coherent combination of astronomical signals collected by the hundreds of remote antennas. To achieve this, astronomical observations must be synchronised using timing signals of exquisite accuracy and precision. The SKA will utilise the same optical fibre network to transport the astronomical data to the SKA’s central computer, to also distribute high-quality timing signals to each antenna.

The student will work as part of the international SKA consortium for ‘Synchronisation and Data Transport (SaDT)’ to help design, build, and test an optical fibre-based frequency distribution system tailored to meet the scientific needs and logistical challenges of the SKA. This system will be developed in in our UWA laboratory and tested on Perth’s iVEC and AARNet fibre networks, with the aim to deploy the finished product on the MeerKAT telescope in South Africa, and at the Murchison Radio Observatory in outback Australia. This research will be conducted in collaboration with the SKA Signal and Data Transport Consortium, the University of Manchester’s Jodrell Bank Observatory, and the International Centre for Radio Astronomy Research (ICRAR).

Schediwy, Sascha, DrCo-supervisor: Gozzard, David, Dr

Development of an Optical Phased Array for the Breakthrough Starshot

Disciplines: Electrical & ElectronicPrerequisite skills: Work with analogue electronics, PCB design, and optics beneficial


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The aim of this project to help with the development of an optical phased array for the Breakthrough Starshot project.

In the last decade and a half, rapid technological advances have opened up the possibility of light-powered space travel at a significant fraction of light speed. This involves a ground-based light beamer pushing ultra-light nanocrafts – miniature space probes attached to lightsails – to speeds of up to 100 million miles an hour. Such a system would allow a flyby mission to reach Alpha Centauri in just over 20 years from launch, beaming home images of its recently-discovered planet Proxima b, and any other planets that may lie in the system.

The student will work to help design, build, and demonstrate a novel concept for beam-forming wavefronts emitted from an optical phased array, and show that this design could form the basis for the required high-power light beamer. This system will be developed in in our UWA laboratory and tested via atmospheric trials. This research will be conducted in collaboration with the Breakthrough Starshot project, and the International Centre for Radio Astronomy Research (ICRAR).

Sercombe, Tim, A/ProfCo-supervisor: Liu, Yujing, Dr

Mechanical properties and fracture mechanism of Ti-Cu alloys produced by selective laser melting

Disciplines: Materials, and MechanicalPrerequisite skills: Selective laser melting, grinding and polishing skills, optical microscope, Instron tensile test, hardness test, Young’s modulus test, scanning electron microscope (SEM), Energy Dispersive Spectroscopy (EDS)

Topic brief description:This study focuses on the mechanical properties of SLM-produced Ti–Cu alloys with the hope of developing an antibacterial alloy for biomedical applications, with better mechanical properties than CP-Ti.. This project will develop an understanding of the heat treatment process on the distribution of the Cu, along with the resultant properties.

Sercombe, Tim, A/ProfCo-supervisor: Liu, Yujing, Dr

Mechanical properties of porous Ti-Cu structures produced by selective laser meltingDisciplines: Materials, Mechanical, and Software

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Prerequisite skills: Selective laser melting, grinding and polishing skills, optical microscope, Instron tensile test, Young’s modulus test, scanning electron microscope (SEM), Finite element method (FEM)

Topic brief description:This study focuses on the mechanical properties of SLM-produced porous Ti–Cu structures with the goal of developing an optimised unit cell shape for biomedical. Ti–Cu porous structures can be made by SLM using mixed powder with Cu content 5% wt. The specimens should be heat treatment for Cu homogenous distribution. The compressive strength, yield strength, and ductility will be determined. The stress distribution and fracture mechanism will be studied in terms of elastic and plastic deformation, energy absorption, slip bands generation and effects of strain localization.

Sercombe, Tim, ProfCo-supervisors: Inglis, Tim, Prof

Novel containers from pathology specimen transportDisciplines: Materials, Mechanical, and Mechatronic

Topic brief description:Clinicians are facing major obstacles transporting clinical specimens from patients from/to remote areas in proper conditions. Regional communities in Western Australia are at a considerable disadvantage in accessing pathology tests because of the time it takes to get their specimens to Perth for advanced analysis. There is urgent interest in developing inexpensive specimen containers enabled with phase change contents (i.e., both freezing and incubating capability) to optimise temperature stability during transit of clinical specimens. To meet this need, it is proposed to develop 3D printed containers made of materials capable to withstand/adapt to both very low and very high temperatures.

Additional features for the 3D containers are RFID chips to improve measurement of specimen transport as part of an integrated laboratory systems project.

There is scope in this project for product design, material science, data processing and workflow innovation.

Silva, Dilusha, ProfCo-supervisors: Putrino, Gino, A/Prof

Faraone, Lorenzo, Prof

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Advanced Sensing Technologies: Sensing in liquidsDisciplines: Chemical, Electrical & Electronic, Mechanical, Mechatronic, Software

Topic brief description:Researchers within AST are the leaders in Australia for micro machines (MEMS). One of their recent inventions is an ultrasensitive MEMS based chemical and biological sensor. The technology operates on a tiny cantilever that produces a tiny movement in response to a chemical or biological agent it comes in contact with. At present, the key application of this technology is in gas sensing, and has already demonstrated sensitivities better than parts-per-million. However there are immense applications of this technology, if it could be used in a liquid environment. The broad objective of this project is to deploy and demonstrate this technology in various liquid environments.



Advanced Sensing Technologies: Absorption spectroscopy for organics in solutionDisciplines: Chemical, Electrical & Electronic, Mechanical, Mechatronic, SoftwarePrerequisite skills: N/A

Topic brief description:Absorption spectroscopy can determine chemical components of a material by measurement of which wavelengths of light are absorbed due to interaction with a sample. Applications of this technology range from determining hydrocarbon contamination in water to detecting cancer in skin.This project will evaluate the ability of infrared (IR) spectroscopy to measure the chemical composition of aqueous solutions. Trials with solutions containing a matrix of varying and interfering IR-absorbing components will be performed for applications in environmental and agricultural monitoring.Techniques to improve the component prediction accuracy using techniques such as principle component analysis will be investigated.

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Advanced Sensing Technologies: Nanotechnology SpectrometersDisciplines: Chemical, Electrical & Electronic, Materials, Mechanical, Mechatronic, Software Prerequisite skills: N/A

Topic brief description:Infrared spectroscopy is finding increasing application in many industries including, pharmaceuticals, agriculture, viticulture, remote sensing, and defence. IR spectroscopy has successfully been demonstrated to detect a range of substances, including water, nitrogen and carbon in soil, protein in wheat, and pollution in the atmosphere. Deployments of spectroscopy range from lab-based instruments for high-precision applications, to semi-miniaturised instruments for portable applications, to multi- and hyper-spectral imaging instruments for airborne remote-sensing applications. In the airborne arena, unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) based deployments are looking increasingly attractive. The main limiting factors to more pervasive deployment of infrared spectroscopy are presently, the capital and maintenance costs of the spectroscopy equipment; size and portability; sensitivity to vibration and shocks; and calibration maintenance. Particularly for application in Agriculture and the minerals industry, the need for low cost, small and rugged spectroscopy instruments is immense. Researchers within AST are the leaders in Australia for micro machines (MEMS). One of their recent developments is a suite of nanometer-scale thin-film spectrometer technologies, which stands to address all the requirements to turn infrared spectroscopy into an everyday tool. Just imagine a spectrometer in your mobile phone that can tell you if your fruit is ripe enough or your milk is turning sour. The overall aim of this project will be to assess and develop thin-film spectrometer technologies for various applications. While these projects are highly challenging they can be immensely rewarding.



Advanced Sensing Technologies: Multispectral Camera

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Disciplines: Electrical & Electronic, Mechanical, Mechatronic, Software Prerequisite skills: N/A

Topic brief description:Infrared spectroscopy is finding increasing application in many industries including, pharmaceuticals, agriculture, viticulture, remote sensing, and defence. IR spectroscopy has successfully been demonstrated to detect a range of substances, including water, nitrogen and carbon in soil, protein in wheat, and pollution in the atmosphere. Deployments of spectroscopy range from lab-based instruments for high-precision applications, to semi miniaturised instruments for portable applications, to multi- and hyper spectral imaging instruments for airborne remotesensing applications. In the airborne arena, unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) based deployments are looking increasingly attractive. The main limiting factors to more pervasive deployment of infrared spectroscopy are presently, the capital and maintenance costs of the spectroscopy equipment; size and portability; sensitivity to vibration and shocks; and calibration maintenance. Particularly for application in Agriculture and the minerals industry, the need for low cost, small and rugged spectroscopy instruments is immense.

This project will focus on developing a low-cost spectral imaging camera for agricultural applications. The project will involve assembling the camera module to a Raspberry Pi single-board-computer, incorporating the spectral selectivity elements, and deveoping the software to acquire and process spectral images.

Sreeram, Victor, ProfCo-supervisors: Kharrazi, Ali, Mr (PhD Student)

Study of Optimal Penetration level of Battery Storage System and Battery Management System in Distribution networksDisciplines: Electrical & Electronic Prerequisite skills: Power System Analysis, Power Electronics

Topic brief description:Renewable sources are becoming the dominant source of energy to provide electrical power. They are favoured over conventional fossil fuel-based technologies due to lower or zero emission. Although the renewable energy sources have many advantages, their output power possesses the stochastic and intermittent properties. In order to solve these problems, the energy storage units (ESUs) should be employed to restrain the power fluctuation. Considering the distributed connection of the sources and loads (in form of microgrids) distributed ESUs (DESUs) are communally used. An ESU is usually comprised of series connected battery cells and the

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whole ESU consisting of above battery cells is connected to the common bus with power electronics interfacing converters. The control system of the ECUs is composed of two parts: Battery Management Systems (BMS) and Power Converter Systems (PCS). BMS system are in charge of monitoring the status of each battery unit in an ESU and to balance the State-of-Charge (SoC) of each cells. The function of PCS is to control the output voltage and current, and also to reach the proper load power sharing. The secondary topics of the project could be focused on as follows:• Modeling of Battery systems (Dynamic models)• Battery Management system (Charging scheme and control)• Power Electronic interface Converter Control• DC microgrid topology and management system• Optimum penetration level of ESUs in grids

Sreeram, Victor, ProfessorCo-supervisors: Kharrazi, Ali, Mr (PhD Student)

The Impact of Photovoltaic Panels on Power Quality of Distribution NetworksDisciplines: Electrical & ElectronicPrerequisite skills: N/A

Topic brief description:The level of penetration of rooftop Photovoltaic panels into distribution network has been increasing in recent decades. Government incentives and drop in capital cost of these distributed sources could also hasten the higher level of penetration. Although PV panels provide economical and clean power, but they have negative impacts on power quality of distribution network. Voltage unbalance, reverse power flow, voltage rise and harmonic distortion are common power quality problem that should be assessed to determine the capacity host of PV panels.

Sreeram, Victor, ProfCo-supervisors: Lamsal, Dipesh, Mr (PhD Student)

Fuzzy logic based coordination strategies for sharing the smoothing target power of batteryDisciplines: Electrical & Electronic Prerequisite skills: N/A


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The battery energy system (BESS) is a powerful tool to smooth the fluctuated output power of wind and PV systems. The BESS absorbs or generates power so as to achieve smooth output power. The amount of power absorbed or generated by the battery is known as smoothing target power and this power is to be shared among the different units of the BESS. This smoothing target power of each unit depends on the state of charge (SOC) of each unit. When the battery SOC deviates from the expected range, there is a need for a controller which can adaptively adjust the smoothing target power. A controller based on the Mamdani Fuzzy Logic Controller (MFLC) will be proposed to have coordination among different units of battery for sharing the smoothing target power.


Application of Fuzzy Wavelet Transform to Smooth Wind/PV Output System with Battery Energy Storage SystemDisciplines: Electrical & Electronic Prerequisite skills: MATLAB SIMULINK, Fuzzy System, Renewable Energy Sources

Topic brief description:The battery energy storage system (BESS) is the current typical means of smoothing intermittent wind or solar power generation. This project will present the results of a wind/PV/BESS hybrid power system simulation analysis undertaken to improve the smoothing performance of wind and PhotoVoltaic (PV) power generation. A power smoothing control method will be proposed based on fuzzy logic and wavelet transform for reducing output power fluctuations of wind/PV/BESS hybrid power generation systems. The effectiveness of the proposed control strategy will be verified using MATLAB/SIMULINK software.


Application of STATCOM/BESS for Wind Power SmoothingDisciplines: Electrical & ElectronicPrerequisite skills: MATLAB SIMULINK, STATCOM, Renewable Energy Sources

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Topic brief description:This project will propose static synchronous compensator (STATCOM) incorporated with battery energy storage system (STATCOM/BESS) to smooth the line power of wind farm consists of fixed-speed wind generators. Constant output power reference is not a good choice because there may be some cases where wind speed is very low and then sufficient power cannot be obtained. In that case, energy storage device can solve the problem but large energy capacity may be needed. This paper proposes exponential moving average (EMA) to generate the reference output power, and thus the energy capacity of BESS unit can be small. The effectiveness of the proposed system is verified by the simulation analysis using MATLAB.


Optimized Allocation of Battery Capacity for Smoothing the Wind and PV Output FluctuationsDisciplines: Electrical & ElectronicPrerequisite skills: Wavelet Transform, Renewable Energy Sources

Topic brief description:Wind and PV power parallel operation is an effective way to realize the large scale use of wind power but the fluctuations of power output from these sources may have great influence on power quality. Hence a method for power smoothing and capacity optimized allocation based on hybrid energy storage technology will be proposed. First, power smoothing will be carried out based on first order filter with Proportional Integral Differential (PID) control to realize power smoothing control of wind power. Then wavelet theory will be adopted to realize a multi-layer decomposition of power output of wind and PV into high frequency-low energy and low frequency-high energy to achieve good smoothing effects. The power fluctuations filtered by the wavelet transform is regarded as the target value of BESS. Now, the time constant of first order filter is adjusted unless target value of BESS is achieved as optimized battery capacity. Hence, this project will give the optimized allocation of battery capacity for smoothing the wind and PV power fluctuations as guided by the wavelet transform.

Stanwix, Paul, DrCo-supervisors: May, Eric, Prof

Microwave Cavities for Phase Behaviour Sensing

Disciplines: Chemical, Mechanical, and Oil & Gas

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Topic brief description:Accurate knowledge of the phase behaviour of fluid mixtures is crucial for the design and operation of gas processing and transport systems. This project aims to develop innovative fluid sensing technology using high-precision microwave cavities, which will be capable of accurately investigating the behaviour of fluid mixtures near their phase boundaries. This technology will be used to generate reference-quality data, necessary for development and validation of equations-of-state, and to understand the underlying mechanisms involved in phase transitions. Students working on this project will contribute to the design and modelling of microwave cavities, measurement of fluid mixture phase boundaries and phase fractions, and development of automated measurement and data analysis systems.

Stanwix, Paul, Dr

Developing New Approaches to Skin DiagnosticsDisciplines: Chemical, Electrical & Electronic, Mechanical, Mechatronic, and Software

Topic brief description:Whilst clinical scanners have revolutionised patient outcomes with high-resolution imaging, there are many conditions for which it is either too expensive or doesn't provide the required sensitivity. Skin disorders, for example, are often confined to a small region extending only a few millimetres below the surface, for which a whole-body scan would be excessive and inconvenient for the patient. This project will look at applying compact single-sided Nuclear Magnetic Resonance (NMR) and simple Dielectric Measurements to the profiling of skin and assessing its viability as a diagnostic and monitoring tool. Please contact me if you would like to learn more about the project and how you can be involved.

Stanwix, Paul, Dr

Signal enhancement for low-field NMR sensingDisciplines: Chemical, Electrical & Electronic, Environmental, and Oil & Gas

Topic brief description:Low-field nuclear magnetic resonance (LFNMR) is an attractive technique for the development of sensors to monitor environmental and chemical engineering processes as it is cheap, compact, and portable. It suffers,

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however, from the small signal associated with operating at low magnetic field. This project will implement strategies to improve the signal to noise of LFNMR through signal enhancement techniques and control systems to reduce sensitivity to environmental variations. The intended application will the development of a signal enhancement module for multi-phase flow metering. Students will be involved in developing hardware, performing experiments and optimising analysis of the results. Please contact me if you would like to learn more about the project and how you can be involved.

Stanwix, Paul, Dr

Diamond sensors for investigating chemical processesDisciplines: Chemical, Electrical & Electronic, Environmental, Materials, and Mechanical

Topic brief description:This project will explore the application of diamond based sensors to the study of processes that occur at the micro-scale, for example hydrate formation or gas adsorption in in porous media. Our understanding of and ability to model these processes would be greatly improved by the ability to perform direct measurements of pressure and temperature inside the pores, which requires sensors with resolution below 100 nm. Diamond is a promising platform for development of such a sensor as it is sensitive to a wide range of parameters, even at the nano-scale, and can withstand harsh environments. Students on this project may be involved in the development of laser-based experiments to probe diamond material, software development, and data analysis. Please contact me if you would like to learn more about the project and how you can be involved.

Tavner, Angus, DrCo-supervisor: TBA

Motorsport ProjectsDisciplines: Electrical & Electronic, Mechanical, and Mechatronic Topic brief description:

The UWA Motorsport team have commenced work on the design of an electric race car for 2018. These projects are intended to support this design and construction, and to develop technology for the team's use. Students applying for these projects are expected to be (or become) active

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and engaged members of the UWAM team. A detailed list of project topics will be provided to interested applicants.

Tavner, Angus, Dr

Fire TestingDisciplines: Civil, and Mechanical Topic brief description:There are various methods available to repair steel infrastructure using composite materials, however the repairs need additional protection in the event of a fire. Recent student projects have developed a test rig for fire testing materials to AS1530, and it can also be used for hydrocarbon pool-fire testing. These projects will involve refining the apparatus and testing various materials in different conditions.

Tavner, Angus, Dr

Testing of adhesive bondsDisciplines: Civil, and Mechanical Topic brief description:Repairing infrastructure using adhesive joints is cheaper and safer than welding, but the quality and durability of the adhesive bond is more difficult to predict. These projects will carry on work by recent students looking at different adhesives, surface preparation and priming, tolerance of surface contamination, and durability.

Tian, Yinghui, Dr

Numerical Modelling of Offshore Pipelines on Seabed

Disciplines: CivilPrerequisite skills: Abaqus will be used in the project.

Topic brief description:This project will carry out numerical modelling of the behaviour offshore pipeline (or related structures) on seabed. Abaqus (or/and MS Excel data processing) will be used during the project. Tutorials on how to use Abaqus

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will be given at the beginning of the project. Those who have knowledge (at least interest) about Abaqus are encouraged for this project.Tobar, Michael, ProfCo-supervisor: Goryachev, Maxim, Dr

Ivanov, Eugene, Prof

Low Noise Cryogenic Amplifiers

Disciplines: Electrical & ElectronicPrerequisite skills: Knowledge of solid state amplifiers (Electrical Engineer)

Topic brief description:Cryogenic amplifiers are essential for any cryogenic precision or quantum measurement experiment. Such devices include, HEMTs, SQUIDs and JPAs. This work we be aimed to design a solid state HEMT amplifier with its input stage below 4 K to lower the noise temperature of the amplifier. The target range will eventually be 26 GHz, but lower frequencies can be attempted initially.

Togneri, Roberto, Prof

Audio Surveillance, Source Separation and EnhancementDisciplines: Electrical & Electronic Prerequisite skills: Signal processing, MATLAB or Python

Topic brief description:We live in a very insecure and dangerous world. Around every corner somebody is watching us through that hidden CCTV camera, but most of the time they won't be listening. With the advent of cheap and reliable audio sensors the ability to listen to the world around us, using sound for surveillance has become reality (https://arxiv.org/pdf/1409.7787.pdf and Google for DCASE2017). If you are given a stereo recording of two or more sources which have been mixed together (the sounds overlap and are hard to make out) did you know you can separate out the sources and hear each one individually (https://tinyurl.com/ldt3z74)? In this project investigate and explore how signal processing and pattern recognition can be used for audio event and speech source detection and separation.

Togneri, Roberto, Professor

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Voice Analytics: Keyword Spotting and Speaker SpoofingDisciplines: Electrical & ElectronicPrerequisite skills: Signal processing, MATLAB or Python

Topic brief description:Voice analytics is the process of mining through the large quantity of recorded speech to discover who is speaking, what they are saying and how they are saying it. Keyword spotting of unlabelled data recordings (https://doi.org/10.1109/ASRU.2009.5372931) is an area of growing interest to local technology companies in Perth with clients from the big end of town. But some of these recordings could be forged! Imposters now have the technology to steal your voice and fool speaker recognition systems (https://doi.org/10.1016/j.specom.2014.10.005 and Google ASVspoof2017). In this project you can investigate keyword spotting using unlabelled data continuing the work from one of our CEED projects or speaker spoofing systems and countermeasures in collaboration with a PhD student working in this area.

Togneri, Roberto, Prof

Speech Recognition and Lip ReadingDisciplines: Electrical & Electronic, SoftwarePrerequisite skills: Pattern recognition, good programming skills

Topic brief description:The race is on to get a computer to understand what you are saying when you speak to it using normal conversational speech in ambient noise conditions. Isn't this what naturally speaking is about? The advent in machine learning has pushed the boundaries (https://tinyurl.com/lawkwpj), and if you are brave you can have a taste. But before you can run, you need to walk. In this project you will build your own simple speech recognition system of words or phrases using either your voice (https://tinyurl.com/ljdpm3o and https://tinyurl.com/mxk28ay) or your lips (https://doi.org/10.1109/ICASSP.2013.6638089) or both! You can make it as easy or as challenging as you like, you decide!

Veryaskin, Alexey,Prof Co-supervisor: Tobar, Michael, Prof

Design and testing of cryogenic vibration isolation system

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Disciplines: Electrical & Electronic, Mechatronic, and Software

Topic brief description:Graphical representation of measured data sets is a well established way of assessing different features that can not be identified from original raw data. Well-known examples are mammograms, X-ray images, geophysical maps, etc. UWA has developed the first in the world an Extremely Low Frequency electromagnetic gradiometer that is capable of measuring the quadrature (out-of-phase) spatial gradient components of the secondary magnetic field that is generated inside human tissue. One of the obvious applications of this technology is a possibility of detecting breast cancer at its early stage, when all other existing methods are not effective. The gradiometer measures two spatial B-field gradients (Bxz and Byz) as grid-based or continuosly recorded data sets. This project is aiming at developing most informative graphical representation of such data sets which would identify anomalously conducting spots in human tissue. The B-field gradient components can be visualised independently or as a combination of the two. Examples are density plots, contour plots, etc. Also, such visualisation may include special filtering techniques.

Wallace, Vincent, A/ProfCo-supervisor: Fitzgerald, Anthony, Dr

Terahertz Tomography

Disciplines: Electrical & Electronic, Mechanical, Mechatronic, and SoftwarePrerequisite skills: Practical and programming skills

Topic brief description:The project is to build a terahertz tomography system to take images of 3D objects; the students will use techniques from X-Ray computer tomography (CT). The students will be involved in building a mechanical stages for rotation and translation. Software control of stages and data processing techniques.


Measuring the Hydration of the Cornea (eye)

Disciplines: Electrical & Electronic, Mechanical, and SoftwarePrerequisite skills: System design and set-up, programming and data analysis

Topic brief description:92


This project involves building a THz setup when the THz beam is to be focused on a spherical object, representing the eye. The beam will scan the surface with the ultimate aim in collecting data that can be used to determine the hydration of the cornea.


Photoacoustic system

Disciplines: Electrical & Electronic, and MechanicalPrerequisite skills: System design and building

Topic brief description:This project will involve the design of a photoacoustic imaging system. The system will detect acoustic signals generated by lasers in absorbing media.

Wallace, Vincent, A/ProfCo-supervisor: Hodgetts, Stuart, Dr

Light irradiation for spinal cord injury repair

Disciplines: Electrical & ElectronicPrerequisite skills: Electrical, electronic skills are required

Topic brief description:Design and build a miniature device that will use an led to illuminate and irradiate an injured spinal cord, to aid in it repair.

Wan, Zhijian, DrCo-supervisors: Zhang, Zhezi(Zeno), Mr

Zhang, Dongke, Prof

Spent tyre pyrolysis liquid: speciation, desulphurization, distillation, recovery of valuable chemicals and synthetic fuelsDisciplines: Chemical, Mechanical, Environmental, Oil & Gas, Petroleum, and Materials

Topic brief description:The disposal of biomass and industrial wastes, such as forestry by-products, agriculture residue, municipal wastes, spent tyre, represents a major environmental issue throughout the world. Pyrolysis is a simple,

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robust, and scalable approach for simultaneous production of gas, liquid and char. The raw pyrolysis liquid needs to be upgraded, due to presence of impurities, such as water, particulates and sulphur, before further process and utilisation. This project will screen various commercial adsorbents and catalysts for the sulphur removal.Sub-project 1: mesoporous alumina oxides based adsorbentsThe objective of this sub-project is to investigate the feasibility of the use of some commercial mesoporous alumina oxides based adsorbents for sulphur removal in spent tyre pyrolysis liquid. The experiments will be conducted in a batch reactor. The effect of temperature, alumina oxides loading ratio and operation time on the removal efficiency of sulphur will be studied. The chemical compositions of raw and processed liquids will be analysed using advanced analytical techniques including GC, GC-MS and HPLC for identification of sulphur containing species.Sub-project 2: ZSM-5 zeolites based adsorbentsThe objective of this sub-project is to investigate the feasibility of the use of some commercial ZSM-5 zeolites oxides based adsorbents for sulphur removal in spent tyre pyrolysis liquid. The experiments will be conducted in a batch reactor. The effect of temperature, adsorbent loading ratio and operation time on the removal efficiency of sulphur will be studied. The chemical compositions of raw and processed liquids will be analysed using advanced analytical techniques including GC, GC-MS and HPLC for identification of sulphur containing species.Sub-project 3: Activated carbonThe objective of this sub-project is to investigate the feasibility of the use of some commercial activated carbon for sulphur removal in spent tyre pyrolysis liquid. The experiments will be conducted in a batch reactor. The effect of temperature, adsorbent loading ratio and operation time on the removal efficiency of sulphur will be studied. The sulphur content in the pyrolysis liquid before and after being processed will be measured, respectively. The sulphur containing species will also be identified using GC-MS.Sub-project 4: layered double hydroxides based adsorbentsThe objective of this sub-project is to investigate the feasibility of the use of some commercial layered double hydroxides for sulphur removal in spent tyre pyrolysis liquid. The experiments will be conducted in a batch reactor. The effect of temperature, adsorbent loading ratio and operation time on the removal efficiency of sulphur will be studied. The sulphur content in the pyrolysis liquid before and after being processed will be measured, respectively. The sulphur containing species will also be identified using GC-MS.

While, Lyndon, DrCo-supervisors: Bekki, Kenji, Dr

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Automated simulations of galaxy morphology evolution with deep and reinforcement learningDisciplines: SoftwarePrerequisite skills: Significant programming skills; any language is OK.

Topic brief description:Computer simulations are powerful tools to understand the origin of galaxy morphologies (e.g., spiral arms, bars, rings). However, it is very time consuming for simulations to find the best model that explains the observed morphology of a galaxy. This is firstly because we need to run many separate models, and secondly because we need to compare the simulated and the observed morphologies of galaxies in detail through human eyes. In this project, students will automate these two time-consuming tasks using deep learning and reinforcement learning. First, students develop a reinforcement learning algorithm which can search for a particular galaxy morphology quickly. Second, students develop a deep learning algorithm which can match the observed and simulated galaxy morphologies automatically. Students will combine these two algorithms to auto-simulate the evolution of galaxy morphology in a significantly shorter timescale.

Winterflood, John, Dr Co-supervisor: Ju, Li, Prof

Zhao, Chunnong, Prof

Advanced Low Frequency Rotational Accelerometer (ALFRA)Disciplines: Electrical & Electronic, and MechanicalPrerequisite skills: SolidEdge (SolidWorks), Mathematica, MatLab, Vibration theory

Topic brief description:This project is suitable for Mechanical Engineer, Control Systems Engineer Project involves the design of a rotational accelerometer used to measure ground tilt. Gravitational wave detectors require excellent isolation from seismic ground motion. One method to achieve this is to measure the ground motion and then compensate for it using either feedforward or feedback control schemes.

Wittek, Adam, ProfCo-supervisor: Singh, Surya, Dr (University of Queensland)

Evaluation of Computational Biomechanics Simulations for

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Remote (Robotic) Surgery: Determining Deformations Within the Organ (Brain) PhantomDisciplines: Civil, Materials, and MechanicalPrerequisite skills: Sound background in Solid Mechanics (ENSC3004) and Numerical Methods (GENG4405).

Topic brief description:Integration of computing and robotics has been recognised as one of the key elements of “the wave of third industrial revolution” (a term used in the article in “The Economist” from October 4th, 2014) that affects not only traditional engineering applications but also health care delivery (e.g. surgery).

So far application of surgical robots has been limited. Surgical tool placement/insertion in the body organs (such as e.g. needle insertion when conducting biopsy) is a challenging task that requires to account for changes in the target position caused by organ deformation due to interactions between a surgical tool and the tissue. One may attempt to track a surgical target (e.g. tumour) and tool using medical imaging. However, intraoperative 3D imaging (magnetic resonance imaging MRI, computed tomography, ultrasound US) for surgical tracking is limited using the equipment in standard operating theatres. Predicting the intraoperative organ/tissue deformations using biomechanical can augment the currently used imaging techniques for surgical tracking. Such predictions need to be validated. Although the final validation needs be done against the data obtained using the actual organs/tissue, there are numerous technical (postmortem tissue decay, specimens cannot be moved between different sites) and ethical constraints/challenges when acquiring such data. Therefore, it is not uncommon to use mechanical phantoms of the body organs in the initial validation stage. The validation involves measuring of the forces acting on surgical tools and determining deformations within the body organ (phantom) caused by the tool. Although numerous well-established methods for determining such deformation exist, many of them (including MRI and X-ray/CT) impractical (high cost, strong electromagnetic field, radiation risk) in the context of research on surgical robots.

This project focuses on evaluation of algorithms for computational biomechanics for predicting deformations within the brain undergoing surgery (needle insertion) using the mechanical phantom as the brain substitute. It may involve computational biomechanics simulations, manufacturing of the brain phantom and conducting experiments using the phantom.

The project will be conducted as a part of collaboration between the Intelligent Systems forMedicine Laboratory at the University of Western Australia and Robotics Design Laboratory at the University of Queensland.

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Wittek, Adam, Prof

Open-Source Finite Element Meshes of the Brain for NeurosurgicalSimulation and Brain Injury Analysis and PreventionDisciplines: Civil, Mechanical, and SoftwarePrerequisite skills: Some experience in computer programming. Experience/background in computational mechanics/finite element analysis would an advantage.

Topic brief description:Construction of computational grids (finite element meshes when finite element analysis is used) for computational biomechanics models of the brain and other human body organs tend to be a tedious and time consuming task. It typically start from segmentation of the Magnetic Resonance Images (MRIs) – a process in which the boundaries between different anatomical structures within the organ are distinguished. From the segmentation, the discretised surfaces are created and then used to build a finite element mesh. 8-noded hexahedral elements are often preferred in computational biomechanics as they are well suited for incompressible continua, such as soft tissues. High-quality meshes of the brain and head are often offered as commercial products. However, open-source digital atlases of then brain (and other organs) provide the computational biomechanics community with the opportunity to create open-source meshes that can be used free-of-charge by the research community. In this project such meshes will be created from the open-source multi-modality brain atlas created at Surgical Planning Laboratory (SPL) at Harvard Medical School(http://www.spl.harvard.edu/publications/item/view/2037 and https://dev.openanatomy.org/atlases/nac/brain-2016-09/viewer/ - /state/53d74539-8edb-4a34-8014-6e13c146b6bd).Your task is not only to create meshes of the selected anatomical structures of the brain, but,more importantly, to formulate and verify process/processes that would facilitate replacing meshes of the specific anatomical structures to fit specific needs of the analysed problems(e.g. meshes for neurosurgical simulations tend to be more detailed than for injury analysis/prevention). This may include mesh parametrisation, creating specific data structures to handle meshes with different resolution etc. It is expected that your results will be incorporated into the SPL brain atlas and made publically available to the research community.

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Wittek, Adam, ProfCo-supervisor: Singh, Surya, Dr (University of Queensland)

Towards Computer Integrated Surgery Systems: Methods, Algorithms and Software Platforms for Needle Detection in Medical Images

Disciplines: Electrical & Electronic, Mechatronic, and SoftwarePrerequisite skills: Image processing. Some experience in computer programming

Topic brief description:Needle insertion is one of the most common surgical procedures. Examples include percutaneous (through the skin) surgery, biopsy, placing electrodes within the brain for planning surgery in epilepsy treatment and for deep brain stimulation, and implanting radioactive seeds for prostate cancer treatmentNeedle insertion is seemingly simple: the needle is aimed at an anatomical target whose location can be determined from pre-operative (acquired before the surgery) medical images (e.g. ultrasound, magnetic resonance images MRI, X-ray, Computed Tomography CT). In reality, however, reaching the target requires advanced surgical skills. This is because the target moves due to organ/tissue deformation under loads imposed by the needle and by respiration.Image guidance and monitoring has been successfully used in surgical needle insertion.Ability to robustly and rapidly detect a needle (or needle tip) in medical images of different modality is crucial to this process. Despite rapid progress achieved in recent years, such detection still remains a challenge.This project is aimed at evaluation and improving algorithms/methods (and creating new algorithms if needed) for needle detection in 3D Slicer open source software platform for medical image informatics, image processing, and three-dimensional visualisationhttps://www.slicer.org/. It is likely to involve development and implementation of new open-source algorithms for 3D Slicer, which may include algorithms relying on machine learning.The project will be conducted in cooperation with Surgical Planning Laboratory at Brigham and Women Hospital, Harvard Medical School (Boston, MA, USA) and Dr Surya Singh of theRobotics Design Laboratory at the University of Queensland (Brisbane). Dr. Singh will co-supervise this project.The students conducting this project should have some programming experience and expertise, and be willing to engage in self-learning to improve their programming skills andadvance their knowledge of image processing and computing.

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Xiao, Gongkui, DrCo-supervisors: Arami Niya, Arach, Dr

Graham, Brendan, Dr May, Eric, Prof

Advanced Gas Separations

Disciplines: Chemical, Mechanical, and Oil & Gas Topic brief description:Application of adsorption based gas separation processes in natural gas purification and carbon capture can be a good alternative for the current conventional energy intensive thermal separation processes. By the development of new adsorbents and optimization of the process, non-thermal separations such as the adsorptive gas separation can offer enormous energy savings and environmental benefits. The capture of carbon dioxide and nitrogen from natural gases are two areas that could potentially present such savings and benefits. Carbon dioxide capture, whether from natural gas streams or from flue gases, is an important and growing area of research with significant implications for our economy and environment. N2 capture from natural gas is increasingly important in the development of LNG projects where this component is energetically parasitic. These projects will look at the use of novel materials and processes for improved carbon dioxide and nitrogen separation efficiency that use solid adsorbents, including carbons, zeolites and metal organic frameworks (MOFs). Students working on these projects will help in synthesis, development and testing of the separation performance of new adsorbents, and/or use the results of such experiments to develop advanced separation process models. Projects will also be available in which various adsorbents reported in the literature for carbon dioxide and nitrogen capture are critically analysed and screened by our numerical models, such that promising materials and processes could be advanced to industrial scale applications.

Zhang, Dongke, ProfCo-supervisors: Zhang, Zhezi(Zeno), Mr

Hernandez, Jorge E. Preciado, Mr

Preparation of activated carbon from solid residue of spent tyre pyrolysisDisciplines: Chemical, Mechanical, Environmental, Oil & Gas, Petroleum, and Materials


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The disposal of biomass and industrial wastes, such as forestry by-products, agriculture residue, municipal wastes, spent tyre, represents a major environmental issue throughout the world. Pyrolysis is a simple, robust, and scalable approach for simultaneous production of gas, liquid and solid residue. Pyrolysis solid residue has a high potential to be upgraded into various high value carbon materials (activated carbon, carbon black, metallurgical reductant, soil conditioner etc.), this project will focus on the upgrading of the spent tyre pyrolytic solid residue for activated carbon production.Sub-project 1: activation using CO2/N2 mixture as the activation agentThe objective of this sub-project is to produce activated carbon form the solid residue of spent tyre pyrolysis using CO2/N2 mixture. Activation experiments will be conducted in a fixed-bed reactor. The effect of activation temperature, particle size, activation time and molar ratio of CO2 to N2 on the product yield, physical and chemical properties of the activated carbon products will be investigated. The physical and chemical properties will include: BET surface area, pore volume and pore size distribution, particle size distribution, reactivity, mineral form and content, surface functional groups, etc.Sub-project 2: activation using steam/N2 mixture as the activation agentThe objective of this sub-project is to produce activated carbon form the solid residue of spent tyre pyrolysis using steam/N2 mixture. Activation experiments will be conducted in a fixed-bed reactor. The effect of activation temperature, particle size, activation time and molar ratio of steam to N2 on the product yield, physical and chemical properties of the activated carbon products will be investigated. The physical and chemical properties will include: BET surface area, pore volume and pore size distribution, particle size distribution, reactivity, mineral form and content, surface functional groups, etc.Sub-project 3: activation using CO2/steam/N2 mixture as the activation agentThe objective of this sub-project is to produce activated carbon form the solid residue of spent tyre pyrolysis using CO2/steam/N2 mixture. Activation experiments will be conducted in a fixed-bed reactor. The effect of activation temperature, particle size, activation time and molar ratio of CO2 to steam on the product yield, physical and chemical properties of the activated carbon products will be investigated. The physical and chemical properties will include: BET surface area, pore volume and pore size distribution, particle size distribution, reactivity, mineral form and content, surface functional groups, etc.Sub-project 4: activation using alternating CO2/steam/N2 mixture as the activation agentThe objective of this sub-project is to produce activated carbon form the solid residue of spent tyre pyrolysis using alternating CO2/steam/N2 mixture. Activation experiments will be conducted in a fixed-bed reactor. The alternating CO2/steam/N2 mixture activation experiments will start with

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CO2/N2 activation for a period of time, followed by steam/N2 activation for a period time and the combinations of the two activation agents thereafter. The effect of activation temperature, particle size, and activation time on the product yield, physical and chemical properties of the activated carbon products will be investigated. The physical and chemical properties will include: BET surface area, pore volume and pore size distribution, particle size distribution, reactivity, mineral form and content, surface functional groups, etc.

Zhang, Dongke, ProfCo-supervisors: Zhu, Mingming, Dr

Zhang, Zhezi(Zeno), Mr

NH3 as a clean transport fuel

Disciplines: Chemical, Mechanical, Environmental, Oil & Gas, Petroleum, and Materials

Topic brief description:In a carbon-constrained world, there are two strategies for de-carbonisation of transport: (1) electrification and (2) carbon-free alternative fuels. In the concept of “hydrogen economy”, hydrogen is considered as the ultimate carbon-free fuel and energy carrier for both transport and electric power applications. However, the fact that pure hydrogen does not exist naturally and has a low volumetric energy density, even in the liquid form under cryogenic conditions, means that hydrogen is faced with immense technical, economical and infrastructure challenges before it can play a major role in powering transportation. It appears that hydrogen would require a suitable carrier. With its high content of hydrogen per unit of mass or volume, ammonia (NH3) is an excellent H2 carrier for easy storage, transport and distribution of hydrogen for fuel cell vehicle (FCVs) applications. In one conceivable scenario, NH3 is either stored in a central facility or refuelling stations where it is converted to hydrogen to recharge the FCVs or used on-board for H2 production. In addition, NH3 itself is a carbon-free liquid fuel that can be used in internal combustion (IC) engines This project is designed to evaluate the use of NH3 as a clean transport fuel, either as a H2 carrier and a fuel in IC engines in terms of technological feasibility and economic viability.

Sub-project 1: Dissociation of NH3 in a centralised plant for H2 productionThe first scenario of using NH3 as a H2 carrier for FCVs is to dissociate NH3 in a centralised plant for H2 product and H2 can be distributed to FCVs. In this sub-project, the student is expected to do a detailed literature review in ammonia dissociation and H2 separation in a large scale centralised plant and then perform a techno-economic analysis of the process using Aspen HYSYS simulation. The tasks will include, 1) detailed process

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flowsheeting, 2) process simulation in Aspen HYSYS, 3) process integration and optimisation (efficiency), 4) process economics analysis (Capex and Opex) and 5) process safety consideration. Sub-project 2: Dissociation of NH3 at hydrogen fuel station for H2 productionThe second scenario of using NH3 as a H2 carrier for FCVs is to distribute NH3 to refuelling station and then NH3 is converted to hydrogen to recharge the FCVs. In this sub-project, the student is expected to do a detailed literature review in ammonia distribution, dissociation and H2 separation in a small scale distributed H2 fuelling station and then perform a techno-economic analysis using Aspen HYSYS simulation. The tasks will include 1) detailed process flowsheeting, 2) process simulation in Aspen HYSYS, 3) process integration and optimisation (efficiency), 4) process economics analysis (Capex and Opex) and 5) process safety consideration.

Sub-project 3: On-board dissociation of NH3 for H2 productionThe third scenario of using NH3 as a H2 carrier for FCVs is to generate H2 on board from NH3. In this sub-project, the student is expected to do a detailed literature review in on-board ammonia dissociation and then perform a techno-economic analysis using Aspen HYSYS simulation. The tasks include1) detailed process flowsheeting, 2) process simulation in Aspen HYSYS, 3) process integration and optimisation (efficiency), 4) process economics analysis (Capex and Opex) and 5) process safety consideration.

Sub-project 4: Combustion characteristics of NH3 fuelNh3 can be used as a liquid fuel for combustion in internal combustion engines. This sub-project is designed to investigate the fundamental combustion characteristics of NH3 and effect of H2 and NOx as combustion promoters. The student is expected to (1) conduct a detailed literature review on the combustion characteristics of NH3, NOx formation and reaction mechanisms of NH3/H2/N2/NOx; (2) study the effect of H2 and NOx on the laminar flame speed, ignition delay times, flame temperature and NOx emission as a function of initial temperature, equivalence ratio, H2 or NOx ratio in the fuel mixtures through kinetic modelling using commercial software Chemkin Pro.

Zhao, Chunnong, ProfCo-supervisor: Ju, Li, Prof

Winterflood, John, Dr

CDS Control and Data System for 80 suspended optical cavityDisciplines: Electrical & Electronic, and Software

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Topic brief description:Suitable for: Software Engineer, Control Systems Engineer, Electrical Engineer (Signal Processing experience a plus)The ARC centre of Excellence for Gravitational Wave Discovery High Optical Power Facility at Gingin is in the process of upgrading its control and data acquisition system. The project involves the setup and integration of software and hardware necessary to measure isolation system positions and ground motion.

Zhao, Chunnong, ProfCo-supervisor: Saygin, Erdinc, Dr

Ju, Li, Prof

Seismic analysis for improved seismic isolation and future 3G GW detectorDisciplines: Civil, Electrical & Electronic, Mechanical, and SoftwarePrerequisite skills: Coding and Data analysis

Topic brief description:Suitable for: Software Engineer, Any discipline with data analysis skillsThe project involves the deployment of an array of seismometers around the Australian International Gravitational Observatory, followed by the analysis of the seismic data. The project will be used to identify major low frequency ground noise (tilt) from sources such as ocean waves, anthropogenic and wind, along with the direction for possible early warning to assist in feedforward compensation.

Zhao, Liang, Dr

Numerical study on the pipeline initial embedmentDisciplines: CivilPrerequisite skills: Good to have some background of numerical simulation and programming skills

Topic brief description:The estimate of pipeline initial embedment after installation (lay-down) is an important design parameter, influencing the hydrodynamic response, stability, lateral buckling, axial friction, thermal insulation and exposure to submarine slides.But this initial pipeline embedment is much complicated by the laying process, and two factors need to be considered carefully, one is the stress

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concentration near the touchdown zone, the other one is the soil strength variation caused by cyclic loadings.The numerical simulation of the pipeline laying down process with proper soil reaction definitions is an efficient way to touch this question and provide reasonable predictions of the pipeline initial embedment.

Zhou, Tongming, Prof

Wake flow characteristics of a circular cylinder covered with hard marine growthDisciplines: Civil, and Mechanical

Topic brief description:Vortex shedding is a phenomenon which occurs when a flow passes a bluff body. The shedding process can induce vibration (which is normally termed as vortex-induced vibration, or VIV), which, at resonance, can result in excessive motion and possible structural failure. Marine growth, such as mussels, will develop on offshore pipelines and risers over some time of operation in the sea. The growth may change the hydrodynamic and VIV characteristics of the marine structures. In the present project, hard marine growth, which can be simulated using artificial materials, will be attached to the circular cylinders and tested both in the wind tunnel and water flume for VIV and force characteristics. Particle image velocimetry will be used to examine the wake features after the control is used and the results can then be compared with that of a bare pipe.


Wake flow characteristics of a circular cylinder covered with soft marine growthDisciplines: Civil, and Mechanical

Topic brief description:In this project, soft marine growth, e.g. seaweed, which can be simulated using artificial materials, will be attached to the circular cylinders and tested both in the wind tunnel and water flume for VIV and force characteristics. Particle image velocimetry will be used to examine the wake features after the control is used and the results can then be compared with that of a bare pipe.


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Enhancement of vortex-induced vibration using passive method for energy harvestingDisciplines: Civil, and Mechanical

Topic brief description:Vortex shedding is a phenomenon which occurs when a flow passes a bluff body. The shedding process can induce structural vibration, normally termed as vortex-induced vibration, or VIV. In many cases, VIV will influence the life span of a structure. However, from the point of view of energy generating and harvesting, VIV can be enhanced to promote the conversion of mechanical energy to electric energy. In this case, methods should be used to enhance VIV of a structure. In this project, students will work in a group to test a few methods for enhancing VIV and to explain the physics behind this through experiments in a wind tunnel and water flume.

Zhu, Mingming, DrCo-supervisors: Zhang, Dongke, Prof

Zhang, Juan, Ms

Manufacturing of specialty carbon black by partial combustion of heavy fraction of spent tyre pyrolysis liquidDisciplines: Chemical, Mechanical, Environmental, Oil & Gas, Petroleum, and Materials Topic brief description:The disposal of biomass and industrial wastes, such as forestry by-products, agriculture residue, municipal wastes, spent tyre, represents a major environmental issue throughout the world. Pyrolysis is a simple, robust, and scalable approach for simultaneous production of gas, liquid and char. After desulphurisation and extraction of high value chemicals, the remaining heavy residue of the pyrolysis liquid still contains a high amount of PAHs, a great source material for carbon black production. This project will focus on the manufacturing of specialty carbon black by partial oxidation of the heavy liquid residue.Sub-project 1: effect of temperature on the yield of carbon blackThe objective of this sub-project is to experimentally study the effect of temperature on the yield and properties of carbon black produced. The experiments will be conducted using the flat burner system simulating industrial channel back manufacturing process. The burner will burn pyrolysis gas with air to provide high temperature flame. The heavy pyrolysis liquid fraction will be injected into the burner and pass through the high temperature flame to make carbon black. The carbon black will be

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produced at various flame temperatures and then characterised for its physical and chemical properties. In this sub-project, the yield of carbon black will be evaluated and the carbon black will be characterised for proximate and ultimate analysis and BET surface areas.Sub-project 2: effect of temperature on the properties of carbon blackThe objective of this sub-project is to experimentally study the effect of temperature on the yield and properties of carbon black produced. The experiments will be conducted using the flat burner system simulating industrial channel back manufacturing process. The burner will burn pyrolysis gas with air to provide high temperature flame. The heavy pyrolysis liquid fraction will be injected into the burner and pass through the high temperature to make carbon black. The carbon black will be produced at various flame temperatures and then characterised for its physical and chemical properties. In this sub-project, the carbon black will be characterised for its pH value, loss on heating and particle size distribution.Sub-project 3: effect of residence time on the yield of carbon blackThe objective of this sub-project is to experimentally study the effect of temperature on the yield and properties of carbon black produced. The experiments will be conducted using the flat burner system simulating industrial channel back manufacturing process. The burner will burn pyrolysis gas with air to provide high temperature flame. The heavy pyrolysis liquid fraction will be injected into the burner and pass through the burner in the high temperature to make carbon black. The carbon black will be produced with various residence times by varying the gas velocity and then characterised for its physical and chemical properties. In this sub-project, the yield of carbon black will be evaluated and the carbon black will be characterised for its proximate and ultimate analysis and BET surface areas.Sub-project 4: effect of residence time on the properties of carbon blackThe objective of this sub-project is to experimentally study the effect of temperature on the yield and properties of carbon black produced. The experiments will be conducted using the flat burner system. The flat burner will burn natural gas with air to provide high temperature flue gas. The heavy pyrolysis liquid fraction will be injected at precise locations in the high temperature to make carbon black. The carbon black will be produced with various residence times by varying the gas velocity and then characterised for its physical and chemical properties. In this sub-project, the carbon black will be characterised for its pH value, loss on heating and particle size distribution.

Zhu, Mingming, DrCo-supervisors: Zhang, Zhezi(Zeno), Mr

Zhang, Dongke, Prof

Two-phase anaerobic digestion

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Disciplines: Chemical, Mechanical, Environmental, Oil & Gas, Petroleum, and Materials

Topic brief description:Two-phase anaerobic digestion (TPAD) is expected to produce hydrogen-enriched biogas, which has higher quality and more ideal combustion properties than biogas produced from conventional single-phase anaerobic digestion. Biochar addition in single phase anaerobic digestion has been proven to enhance the methane production by 32%. However, the effect of biochar addition on TPAD has never been explored. This project will investigate the effect of biochar addition on TPAD under different operational conditions. This project will also investigate biogas cleaning using biochar.

Sub-project 1: The effect of biochar addition and operation condition on the methane production from food wasteThe aim of the sub-project is to investigate the effect of biochar addition and operation condition (initial pH and temperature) on methane production from the second phase of bench scale TPAD of food waste. The gas volume and compositions will be measured daily using water displacement methods and GC, respectively. Volatile fatty acid (VFA) and pH as a function of time will also be monitored periodically.

Sub-project 2: The effect of biochar on the hydrogen sulfide (H2S) removal from biogas using bench scale and pilot scale biogas cleaning unit The aim of the sub-project is to use biochar to remove H2S in biogas. The experiments will be conducted using both bench scale column reactor and pilot scale biogas cleaning unit. The gas composition will be measured using gas chromatography and the efficiency of H2S removal will be calculated. The effect of type of biochar, particle size and addition ratio of biochar and gas retention time on H2S removal efficiency will be determined. The profile of biochar before and after experimentation will be examined using scanning electron microscopy (SEM).

Sub-project 3: The effect of biochar on ammonia (NH3) removal from biogas using bench scale and pilot scale biogas cleaning unit The aim of the sub-project is to use biochar to remove NH3 in biogas. The experiments will be conducted using both bench scale column reactor and pilot scale biogas cleaning unit. The gas composition will be measured using gas chromatography and the efficiency of NH3 removal will be calculated. The effect of type of biochar, particle size and addition ratio of biochar and gas retention time on NH3 removal efficiency will be determined. The profile of biochar before and after experimentation will be examined using scanning electron microscopy (SEM).

Sub- project 4: The operation of TPAD process demonstration unit (PDU) to produce hydrogen and methane from food waste

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The aim of this sub-project is to commission the TPAD PDU in the Centre for Energy. The PDU consists of a hydrogen-producing reactor (volume: 150 l) and a methane-producing reactor (500 l). The TPAD PDU will be commissioned to realise continuous biogas production (H2 production in the first reactor and CH4 production in the second reactor). The gas volume and compositions will be measured daily using volumetric gas gauge and GC, respectively. Volatile fatty acid (VFA) and pH changing will also be monitored periodically.

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aslani - ecm.uwa.edu.au web viewthe soil lateral stiffness (p-y ... between dissipation test...

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