Our Built and Natural Environments (Past Projects)

Surface waves in open channel flows carry destructive energy which can damage infrastructure, erode and degrade banks and disturb waterside fauna and flora. Studying the effect of the channel bottom on the surface can provide insight into how engineers can design and place obstacles on the bottom of the channel to reduce or minimise the amplitude of these undesirable waves. This project models the effects of a rectangular bump or dip in the channel bottom on the surface of the water in a 2d slice through the middle of the channel. Using a technique called phase plane analysis, we are able to find values of the height and length of the rectangular bump which produce waveless flow downstream as well as other interesting surface profiles.

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Group member

• Hugh Michalski

In engineering construction, the shear strength of soil is an important factor to ensure that the building strength meets the requirements. Shear strength refers to the force required to cause damage and deformation of an object, and is the basic mechanical property of an object. It is an important reference data in the engineering field. This study aims to investigate whether adding PU leather to soil can improve its shear strength. PU leather is a man-made material with good elasticity and toughness. Through direct shear tests, the differences in shear strength between reinforced and unreinforced soils under different moisture contents were compared. The research team expects that this material will improve the practicality of PU leather in the field of geotechnical engineering and be of great significance to the estimation of foundation bearing capacity and design of retaining walls.

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Group members

•  Junzhe Lu
• Shaojin Zhang
• Jingting Wen

Snakes look very different to most animals we see every day. They don't have legs or arms, nor do they have hair or fur. Instead, they are long, scaly and often thought to be scary. Despite our differences, we share many similarities! One of these is the long backbone we have that supports our body. Our backbone includes our neck, upper, middle, and lower back, and our tailbone. But how do we tell where these are on a snake, when they don't have any limbs? My research proposes the use of the heart to define these sections so that we can understand the evolution into the unique snake body form! But possibly even more importantly, we can finally understand where a snake would wear it’s bow tie.

Group members

• Tamika Nash-Hahn 

Rainfall has groundbreaking effects on earth slopes and is widely recognised as the leading cause of landslides. Infiltration caused by rainfall reduces the strength of underlying soil often to the point of slope failure with the potential to cause large scale human and economic losses. The goal was to build a program to analyse the stability of a slope consisting of varying geometry and soils that are subjected to rainfall. A slope stability model was used which can allow for geotechnical analysis of rotational failures accounting for slope geometry, soil properties and ground water height. In including consideration for the infiltration due to rainfall and changes in water height, the stability of the slope over time was determined. Using this program, the dynamic stability of a slope subjected to rainfall can be analysed. The user can alter inputs and consider the result in the design of safer slopes.

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Group members

• Aistis Bakutis
• Lewis Walker 

Concrete is the most widely used man-made substance on the planet, accounting for around 8% of total global greenhouse gas emissions. 3D concrete printing is widely regarded to be more environmentally friendly than conventional concrete casting since it produces less waste during construction, requires less transportation, and most importantly needs no formwork during manufacturing. Unfortunately, the present 3DCP techniques are lacking in improving the connection strength between layers of concrete, which is also a critical limitation that obstructs the wide application of 3DCP in the construction industry. The objective of this project is to strengthen the bond strength vertically and horizontally between layers by developing interlocking patterns. To accomplish these aims, new nozzle designs and printing techniques will be adopted. With this improvement, 3DCP will be widely used in the construction industry and contribute to achieving the global Net Zero vision in 2050.

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Group members

• Kien Duc Ha
• Longsheng Wang 

Bushfires are one of Australia's most recurrent and dangerous natural hazards, and pose a significant risk to life, assets, and the environment. Of the driving factors in bushfire spread (vegetation, ignition location, topography, weather), vegetation is the only one that we can reliably control. Vegetation management includes trimming and removing plants, and controlled burning of vegetation ('prescribed burning'). Land managers make complex decisions when managing bushfire risk, including assessing vulnerability of ecosystems, determining the most effective bushfire risk reduction strategies, and balancing ecological health with community safety. Local councils are working to innovate their vegetation management practices and best protect their communities and ecosystems.

Our project focuses on the development of a decision-making framework for mitigating bushfire risk through vegetation management. We are using computer modelling to simulate bushfire spread with given management strategies to evaluate the most effective strategies under different goals of protection (e.g., people, assets, ecology).

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Group members

• Ivan Yancic Jurado
• Sabrina Harper
• Alice Miller
• Fraser Beveridge

Unsafe drinking water is a leading cause of death during natural disasters. The impact of natural disasters on water safety was particularly evident in the 2021/22 volcano eruption and subsequent tsunami in Tonga. Infrastructure was destroyed by the tsunami and water sources were contaminated with volcanic ash. International assistance delivered 86,000 plastic water bottles to the island to provide safe drinking water, however, without recycling facilities and with limited landfill, Tonga was left with a huge plastic waste problem due to the bottles. This project developed a prototype for a small-scale water desalination system that harnesses waste heat from a generator, with the goal of potentially being scaled up for use in future disaster response situations.

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Group members

• Riley Bowles
• Isabel Farmer
• Vidurshi Fonseka
• Peter Gibbs
• Jack Preece

Climate change and rapid urbanisation are two emerging risks towards the effective operation of critical stormwater infrastructure, as the frequency and intensity of flooding increases. Current stormwater infrastructure design uses static and passive technology, with limited ability to reduce peak flows and overflow failure resulting once capacity is exceeded. Real-time 'smart' control, by contrast, adjusts valve orifice openings dependent on inflows and tank volumes to reach a target outflow. Smart stormwater control can potentially remove the need for costly downstream upgrades to infrastructure, while managing peak outflows in urban catchments. 

This project aims to validate the effectiveness of smart stormwater control in future climates and on a physical model, expanding the current literature which has been mostly focused on virtual models using current climate conditions. Results indicate the technique remains far superior to passive techniques in these contexts, outlining the potential for massive cost savings in infrastructure upgrades.

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Group members

• Patrick Dilena
• Toby Evans
• Gracie Rawson
• Fraser Goodwin
• Tyler Gordon

Rising temperatures and rapid urbanisation are teaming up to turn our cities into aquatic playgrounds. With 1 in 10 Australian homes at risk of flooding, it is becoming increasingly important to address the declining effectiveness of current stormwater infrastructure. To combat this, our challenge was to develop an outreach program presenting alternative stormwater management strategies. This program presents the benefits of strategies such as real-time control, smart systems and passive strategies related to urban greening. Our focus on awareness will assist in fast-tracking the integration of real-time control and active stormwater management into our council areas. A second focus related to more simple solutions using passive control. Using an iterative approach in testing, we created a modular program targeting several audiences varying in age and technical background. The developed program can be continuously tailored for diverse audiences, including school groups, tertiary education and the wider community.

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Group members

• Bethany Harms
• Charlie Dangerfield
• Felicity Gallasch
• Yashila Balakrishnan

The popularity of smart water networks (SWN) has grown increasingly around the world to enhance the understanding, management, and control of water distribution systems (WDS). SWNs include various compositions of sensors, meters, and other devices which collects and stores data. SWNs aim to improve the efficiency, stability, and sustainability of water supply and management. They also considerably reduce the costs and environmental impacts of a network. The focus of this project is the analysis of real-time data collected via sensors in a SWN. This project uses data from the Adelaide CBD's network and software developed to analyse data at selected intervals. Various statistics have been investigated to allow for the classification of 'normal' behaviour characteristics. These characteristics will enable abnormalities in the network to be identified. The early detection of abnormalities will benefit the Adelaide CBD SWN by improving efficiency for controls and the identifying pressure losses.

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Group members

• Jacinta Mitchell
• Sibo Wang
• Chi Zhang
• Chengxiang Xu
• Zhizhou Liu

Although Australia is not on the boundary of tectonic plate where earthquake usually occurs, we do experience earthquakes occasionally hence designing tall buildings to resist earthquake is important. In order to design, structural properties need to be understood to create design standards. Accelerometers could be used to detect building vibration from earthquake or ambient in our case. The data could be derived to understand structural properties such as how the building vibrates and at what frequency. These properties define how the building response under dynamic loads such as wind and earthquake. In our project, we used accelerometers obtain structural properties and simulating a 3D model in structural software to find correlations between practical experiment and theoretical model, where focusing under ambient condition. The findings could improve confidence in structural dynamic knowledge structural design for wind and earthquake.

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Group members

• Pak Ki Chow
• Akashdeep Singh Grewal
• John Pulickal 

Soil suction can have a significant influence on the behaviour of soils, particularly soil strength and volume change. A key objective of this project is to investigate design suction values that may be appropriate for Adelaide. The accurate determination of soil suction values is of high importance for the Adelaide Plains region due to the presence of highly reactive soil layers and a Mediterranean climate creating an ideal environment for large suction changes. Chosen design suction values have the potential to reduce project costs but if underestimated can lead to costly structural damage. In-depth case studies were conducted on several high-profile Adelaide projects, as well as testing on soil samples taken from the Southern Adelaide Parklands. The investigation and analysis of the relevant case studies and the gathering of field data will serve as a sound basis to advise a range of satisfactory design suction values for Adelaide's reactive soils.

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Group members

• Dominic Aquilina
• Peri Christopoulos
• Thomas Kelly
• Laurence Quarisa

The rapid economic development and technological advancement of today's society, many large-scale structural projects have been built, but they will inevitably experience environmental corrosion, material aging, fatigue damage and other factors during and beyond their design life. Structural health monitoring techniques are gaining popularity in recent years for the maintenance of structural health and safety with significant efficiency and cost effectiveness over traditional approach. The guided wave is one of the most viable techniques which has been successfully used in different industrial problems such as safety inspection and condition assessment of civil, mechanical and aerospace engineering structures. The traditional method often does not provide satisfactory accuracy. This project focuses on developing a more advanced model to accurately capture small scale defects in the composite structures.

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Group members

• Hongzhu Dai
• Xiangchen He
• Yahao Fu
• Ziqiang Zhang

This project seeks to explore the structural performance and integrity of 3D-printed concrete through non-invasive assessment methods. By simulating 3D-printed concrete with manual layering, we plan to put the samples through a comprehensive set of evaluations. Our non-invasive assessments will harness the power of ultrasonic waves and vibrational techniques to pinpoint possible flaws or gaps in the concrete. These samples will also be subjected to compression analyses to gauge their strength. Through a side-by-side comparison of the outcomes from these distinct test procedures, our goal is to validate the effectiveness of non-invasive methods in spotting inconsistencies. The findings from this study will not only shed light on the dependability of 3D-printed concrete but also broaden our perspective on non-invasive assessments, offering a promising shift in how we measure the integrity and longevity of concrete structures moving forward.

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Group members

• Mohammed Afzali
• Alistair Phillips
• Lucas Milsom
• Omid Zaher

Within reinforced concrete structures, environmental conditions can cause corrosion of steel reinforcement bars. If these defected areas go unnoticed, the outcomes can be catastrophic. Yet, the current defect detection techniques are rather elementary - including using a coin! This is where infrared thermography (IRT) comes in. IRT involves using a thermal camera to detect temperature differences at defect locations. However, there remains questions as to whether IRT can be used in an industry setting. Our project aims to investigate how effective IRT is at detecting defects across a series of conditions. To achieve this aim, we utilised a laboratory and numerical model approach. We created 6 concrete specimens, some with artificial defects and others with corroded rebar. The testing process compared different heating and cooling methods. Our results highlight that IRT can observe defects in concrete, but questions whether the method is suitable for industry use.

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Group members

• Nick Borrello
• William Grow
• Shailaj Pandey
• Declan Walmsley
• David Wang

Human-related activities have disrupted natural flood regimes in the River Murray, impacting the ecological health and biodiversity of wetlands. Environmental Water Allocations (EWAs) have been introduced to help mitigate some of this impact. At Banrock Station Wetland Complex, management maintains control over these water allocations using inlet and outlet structures. Present operation strategies rely on historical knowledge and lack quantitative verification. Moreover, factors such as climate change and changes in land-use add additional uncertainty to the effectiveness of existing management approaches. Using a multi-disciplinary approach, we have been able to accurately simulate various flow regimes within the wetlands, quantifying ecological benefits. Using historical and naturalised flood data, various flood regimes have been formulated for both present and future climate scenarios. This enables us to provide data-driven recommendations to Banrock Wetland management that will enhance the ecological health of the ecosystem.

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Group members

• Patrick Doddridge
• Somil Boora
• Toby Costi
• Mitchell Odegaard

The shipping industry plays a significant role in world trading and transportation; it serves as the lifeblood of the world economy. It also brings some problems; the critical one is emitting carbon dioxide emissions, which pollute the air and increase global warming. Furthermore, the reason for that is Biofouling, organisms that attach to the bottom of the ships, which increases the resistance between the ship and water. That causes more load on the engine. This project will investigate the effects of Biofouling on ships and how it can be mitigated. Multiple experiments will be conducted using coating materials that resist the adherence of Biofouling. As a result, movement efficiency will increase, and carbon dioxide emissions will be prevented.

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Group members

• Abdulla Alsalehi
• Minh Ngo
• Zihong Zeng

Our project focuses on the refinement of the Cristal Baschet, originally crafted by the Baschet brothers in France. This unique musical instrument is large, heavy, and intricate to assemble.

A team of skilled musicians and instrument makers is working to redesign the Cristal Baschet. Our goal is to make this instrument more compact, lightweight, and can easily assembled and disassembled by musicians.

Dr. Dylan Crismani created a prototype of the instrument in 2020 and we are working on further refinement of the instrument. We have identified three key challenges with the prototype: maintaining the right musical notes (pitch stability), keeping the sound consistent (timbral stability), and reducing vibrations.

If we are successful, we can become co-authors on a research paper alongside Dr. Crismani, Dr. Smart, and Dr. Collen and share our discoveries and innovations with the world.

In essence, our project aims to make it easier to travel with, play and record this beautiful instrument.

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Group members

• Rahim Ahmer
• Joaquin Laguna

Increasing volumes of plastic pollution and decreasing volumes of clean, drinkable water are both issues which will plague future generations. However, emerging technologies are allowing the solution for one problem, create a solution to the other. This project will measure the reduction in pollution when a carbon based catalyst, synthesised from plastic, is added to aid water purification. The carbon catalysts are made from plastics, which traditionally have been difficult to repurpose or recycle. This project involves synthesising polluted water by adding known quantities of pollutants. The addition of the carbon catalysts results in degradation of these pollutants which is measured. Empirical analysis shows the effectiveness of the technology and indicates the best catalyst tested. Future applications of this technology could allow for safer drinking water whilst reducing the piles of plastic in landfill.

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Group member

• Erin Kaesler

The construction of traditional concrete is time-intensive, requires skilled construction labour, and generates significant waste due to the required formwork. Three-dimensional concrete printing - the layer-by-layer construction of cement-based materials - solves these problems by allowing for concrete construction to be automated and continuous, as robotic machines are programmed to print fast-setting, self-supporting cementitious mixtures (without wasteful timber formwork).

Our project advances this technology by investigating how different internal structures ('patterns') affect the strength of the concrete, and its ability to resist cracking. To investigate this, cementitious blocks with a variety of patterns were 3D printed, with samples then being tested to analyse their strength and fracture behaviour under bending loads. Preliminary results have suggested that designs involving an 'offset' between layers were the most successful in resisting sudden crack propagation. Using this knowledge, designers will be able to produce 3D printed concrete structures with enhanced ductility characteristics.

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Group members

• Anthony Calderisi
• Samuel Johnson
• Shona Heath
• Catherine Haynes

Rising pollution rates pose as a potential threat to human health through contaminated soil, water and air. Environmental remediation aims to remove these pollutants however current methods involve a variety of limitations including cost and efficiency.  Nanoporous photonic crystal systems can be modified to harness light energy and degrade organic pollutants such as herbicides, pharmaceutical or cosmetic compounds and organic dyes. The systems are advantageous due to their variable properties, high surface area and efficient light conversion. This project aims to build nanoporous systems made from anodised alumina, and functionalised with titanium dioxide. The oxide increases the system's light-harnessing capability and the ability to break down organic pollutants under UV and/or visible light. Findings will support previous research into nanoporous photonic crystals and aim to demonstrate both the advantages and limitations of such systems when applied in environmental remediation. 

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Group members

• Natasha Perrott

Step into the exciting world of 3D printing with this unique project. Imagine if we could make cement not only easy to print with, but also super strong and durable. That's the goal of this project: to mix in tiny special materials called nanomaterials to create a special kind of cement for 3D printing.

First, we'll mix these nanomaterials with cement and create different mixtures. Next comes the fun part: testing. The first set of tests will be making sure that the mixture can flow well enough to be printed. The next set of tests will measure how strong these mixtures are once they've been printed. We'll do this by squishing and bending them until they break. All of this helps us figure out the best recipe for making tough and easy-to-print cement.

By using science and technology, we're working towards building things faster and better.

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Group members

• Samuel Heyworth
• Erben Inocencio
• Sen Zhang

Sea snakes are fully marine, air-breathing reptiles and are a unique part of Australia’s biodiversity. Many species are susceptible to poorly understood local extinctions, and almost all rely on coastal habitats that also support fisheries and industrial development. Although an obvious conservation priority, little is known about their ecology, habitat use and movement patterns. The impact of prawn trawling on sea snakes is also unknown.

This project focuses on assessing the conservation status of sea snakes and their future persistence in rapidly changing marine environments. We have collected high-resolution movement data for three commonly trawled species in Exmouth Gulf, WA through animal tracking (acoustic telemetry). This data will not only identify key ecological information for these species but will also provide the means to forecast and minimise the negative impacts of industry and environmental change on sea snake diversity.

Group member

• Shannon Coppersmith

Imagine you have a special plant doctor called 'CropSense.' CropSense helps the plants in the big fields stay healthy and strong. Sometimes, plants can get sick, just like how people can get sick. CropSense is like a superhero for plants because it can see when the plant's leaves are feeling unwell.

We wanted to learn how CropSense does this and how it can help the farmers. We used special tools and computers to understand what CropSense sees. It's kind of like using magic glasses to see things that are invisible. We found out that CropSense can see if a plant's leaves are sick even before the farmers can.

Now, because of CropSense, farmers can know when their plants need help, like when they have bugs or diseases. This way, the farmers can give the plants the right medicine and keep them strong. So, our project helps farmers grow more food and keep our planet healthy.

Group members

• Anupama Dilshan Withanage
• Kishaiyan Vellaichamy Thangaraj
• Mansher Singh Kang

Globally, species are becoming extinct at rates up to 100 times faster than normal. Conservation initiatives aiming to halt biodiversity loss are challenging given that large-scale in-situ experiments are rarely feasible. To address this, we present an in silico case study of bowhead whales in the Arctic. Bowheads are highly vulnerable to extinction due to effects of commercial whaling and the threat of future climate change. Using a computational framework, we harmonize data mined from a variety of sources, including: fossil record archives; historical whaling documents; economic feedbacks; and paleoclimatic reconstructions. We generate robust ecological models to understand how bowheads have responded to over 10,000 years of non-anthropogenic climate change and almost four centuries of over-harvest. By identifying the drivers of their past population declines across the entire Arctic, our quantitative approach can better inform conservation initiatives aimed at preventing bowheads from entering an irrecoverable extinction death spiral in the future.

Group member

• Nicholas Freymueller

The primary objective of our project was to address the pressing real-world challenge of water pollution and the need for effective water remediation methods. Clean and safe water is essential for all living beings, and we sought to contribute to its availability through scientific research.

Our methodology involved the application of single-atom materials, which are incredibly small particles, to remove impurities from water. These single atoms possess unique properties that make them efficient at attracting and binding with contaminants in the water. Through a series of experiments, we introduced these single atoms into polluted water samples. Over time, we observed a remarkable transformation as the water became significantly cleaner and free from harmful substances. This outcome demonstrated the potential of single-atom materials as a promising solution for water remediation and tackled the real-world challenge of water pollution by harnessing the special qualities of single-atom materials.

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Group member

• Thanh Phuong Hoai Nguyen