Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons^™

Numerical Investigation Into The Effect Of Natural Fracture Density On Hydraulic Fracture Network Propagation, Zhaohui Chong, Xuehua Li, Xiangyu Chen, Ji Zhang, Jingzheng Lu

Faculty of Engineering and Information Sciences - Papers: Part B

Hydraulic fracturing is an important method to enhance permeability in oil and gas exploitation projects and weaken hard roofs of coal seams to reduce dynamic disasters, for example, rock burst. It is necessary to fully understand the mechanism of the initiation, propagation, and coalescence of hydraulic fracture network (HFN) caused by fluid flow in rock formations. In this study, a coupled hydro-mechanical model was built based on synthetic rock mass (SRM) method to investigate the effects of natural fracture (NF) density on HFN propagation. Firstly, the geometrical structures of NF obtained from borehole images at the field scale were applied …

Bond-Slip Behaviour Between Gfrp I-Section And Concrete, Jiansong Yuan, Muhammad N. S Hadi

Faculty of Engineering and Information Sciences - Papers: Part B

This paper presents the results of an experimental study on the bond behaviour of glass fibre reinforced polymer (GFRP) I-section embedded in concrete. A total of five specimens with the same cross-section dimension were cast and tested using push-out test. The main parameters investigated in this study were bond length (300 mm and 450 mm), transverse stirrups and sand coating. The experimental results show that the ultimate bond stress can be improved by a longer bond length and sand coating. However, the ultimate bond stress was reduced when stirrups were used, and the reason may be because the application of …

Mechanical Properties Of Reactive Powder Concrete Containing Industrial And Waste Steel Fibres At Different Ratios Under Compression, Ahmed Al-Tikrite, Muhammad N. S Hadi

Faculty of Engineering and Information Sciences - Papers: Part B

This paper investigates experimentally the influence of type, content and geometry of steel fibre (industrial/waste) on the mechanical properties of reactive powder concrete (RPC) in terms of compressive strength, tensile strength, modulus of elasticity and stress-strain behaviour under compression. Three types of steel fibres were used: industrial micro steel fibre (MF), industrial deformed steel fibre (DF) and waste steel fibre recovered from discarded tyres (WF). Steel fibres were added to RPC at 1%, 2%, 3% and 4% of the total volume. Two forms of steel fibres' hybridizations were explored: industrial hybridization (HF) and waste-industrial hybridization (WHF). Results of testing demonstrate …

Higher-Order Modulation Theory For Resonant Flow Over Topography, Mohammed Albalwi, Timothy R. Marchant, Noel F. Smyth

Faculty of Engineering and Information Sciences - Papers: Part B

2017 Author(s). The flow of a fluid over isolated topography in the long wavelength, weakly nonlinear limit is considered. The upstream flow velocity is assumed to be close to a linear long wave velocity of the unforced flow so that the flow is near resonant. Higher order nonlinear, dispersive and nonlinear-dispersive terms beyond the Korteweg-de Vries approximation are included so that the flow is governed by a forced extended Korteweg-de Vries equation. Modulation theory solutions for the undular bores generated upstream and downstream of the forcing are found and used to study the influence of the higher-order terms on the …

Impact Of Structural Design Solutions On The Energy And Thermal Performance Of An Australian Office Building, Mehdi Robati, Georgios Kokogiannakis, Timothy J. Mccarthy

Faculty of Engineering and Information Sciences - Papers: Part B

Concrete is a heavyweight construction material whose high thermal mass could increase the thermal storage capacity of a building envelope and in turn affect indoor thermal comfort. Selecting an appropriate method for concrete construction and form could also affect the total energy performance and thermal comfort of a building, a fact that is often overlooked by structural engineers. This study presents the results of energy simulations of the potential impact that concrete construction forms, in particular two slab types, and structural materials have on the energy consumption of archetypal commercial office buildings in five major Australia cities (Sydney, Melbourne, Canberra, …

Ventilative Cooling Through Automated Window Opening Control Systems To Address Thermal Discomfort Risk During The Summer Period: Framework, Simulation And Parametric Analysis, Theofanis Psomas, Massimo Fiorentini, Georgios Kokogiannakis, Per K. Heiselberg

Faculty of Engineering and Information Sciences - Papers: Part B

Automated window opening control systems with integrated ventilative cooling strategies may significantly diminish the thermal discomfort and overheating risk of dwellings during cooling periods in temperate climates. One of the challenges with demonstrating the benefits of the systems is the lack of building performance simulation (BPS) tools which may represent precisely how actual algorithms are applied.

The study supported herein aims to present a framework of how to simulate an advanced ventilative cooling algorithm of a window system on coupled BPS environments (ESP-r and BCVTB tools). Parametric analysis has been conducted to verify specific operational functions of the system. The …

Membrane Fouling, Chemical Cleaning And Separation Performance Assessment Of A Chlorine-Resistant Nanofiltration Membrane For Water Recycling Applications, Moe Tin, George Anioke, Osamu Nakagoe, Shuji Tanabe, Hitoshi Kodamatani, Long D. Nghiem, Takahiro Fujioka

Faculty of Engineering and Information Sciences - Papers: Part B

The effectiveness of hypochlorite cleaning for fouling mitigation of a prototype chlorine-resistant nanofiltration (NF) membrane was assessed for direct filtration of a secondary treated effluent. The chlorine resistance and separation performance of the prototype NF membrane were also compared to commercial NF and reverse osmosis membranes. The prototype chlorine resistant NF membrane did not show any changes in permeability and conductivity rejection after exposing a NaOCl solution for up to 5 x 10 4 ppm-h. By contrast, a considerable deterioration in rejection was observed for the other two commercial membranes. Direct filtration of a secondary treated effluent by the prototype …

Assessing The Performance Of Solar Thermal Driven Membrane Distillation For Seawater Desalination By Computer Simulation, Hung Duong, Lei Xia, Zhenjun Ma, Paul Cooper, Wendell Ela, Long D. Nghiem

Faculty of Engineering and Information Sciences - Papers: Part B

A computer model was developed to simulate the performance of an integrated solar thermal driven direct contact membrane distillation (DCMD) system for seawater desalination using recorded weather data. The results highlight the importance of simulating the DCMD process together with the energy source. Indeed, when considered in isolation from the thermal energy source, increasing water cross flow velocities in the feed and distillate channels results in an increase in water flux and thermal efficiency of the DCMD module. By contrast, when coupling the DCMD module with the solar thermal collector, increasing water cross flow velocities reduces both the process water …

In-Situ Simultaneous Measurement Of Strain And Temperature In Automated Fiber Placement (Afp) Using Optical Fiber Bragg Grating (Fbg) Sensors, Ebrahim Oromiehie, B Prusty, Paul P. Compston, Ginu Rajan

Faculty of Engineering and Information Sciences - Papers: Part B

There has been a tremendous growth of utilizing automated fiber placement (AFP) to manufacture highly precise components and large structures like fuselage panels and wing skins for high-end applications in aircrafts and next generation of spacecrafts. Consequently, in-situ identification of potential defects and strain level within the laminates is critical to ensure the quality and integrity of the final product. In this study, optical fiber Bragg grating sensors (FBGs) have been implemented as an on-line monitoring technique for simultaneous measurement of strain and temperature in AFP. In addition, it is also shown that, the embedded FBG sensors can remain within …

Undesorbable Residual Gas In Coal Seams And Its Influence On Gas Drainage, Gongda Wang, Ting X. Ren, Lang Zhang, Longyong Shu

Faculty of Engineering and Information Sciences - Papers: Part B

The definition of "residual gas" can be found in different scenarios, such as the "fast" and "slow" desorption methods of measuring gas content and the sorption hysteresis test and gas management of coal mines, however, its meaning varies a lot in different contexts. The main aim of this paper is to discuss the existence of truly undesorbable residual gas in coal seam conditions and its impacts on sorption model and gas drainage efficiency. We believe the undesorbable residual gas does exist due to the observation of the extended slow desorption test and the sorption hysteresis test. The origin of undesorbable …

A Novel Cooperation-Based Network Coding Scheme For Walking Scenarios In Wbans, Hongyun Zhang, Farzad Safaei, Le Chung Tran

Faculty of Engineering and Information Sciences - Papers: Part B

In Wireless Body Area Networks (WBANs), the tradeoff between network throughput and energy efficiency remains a key challenge. Most current transmission schemes try to cope with the challenge from the perspective of general Wireless Sensor Networks (WSNs), which may not take the peculiarities of WBAN channels into account. In this paper, we take advantage of the correlation of on-body channels in walking scenarios to achieve a better trade-off between throughput and energy consumption. We first analyze the characteristics of on-body channels based on realistic channel gain datasets, which are collected by our customized wireless transceivers in walking scenarios. The analytical …

Evaluation Of Mechanical Properties Of Σ5(210)/[001] Tilt Grain Boundary With Self-Interstitial Atoms By Molecular Dynamics Simulation, Liang Zhang, Cheng Lu, Linqing Pei, Xing Zhao, Jie Zhang, Anh Kiet Tieu

Faculty of Engineering and Information Sciences - Papers: Part B

Grain boundary (GB) can serve as an efficient sink for radiation-induced defects, and therefore nanocrystalline materials containing a large fraction of grain boundaries have been shown to have improved radiation resistance compared with their polycrystalline counterparts. However, the mechanical properties of grain boundaries containing radiation-induced defects such as interstitials and vacancies are not well understood. In this study, we carried out molecular dynamics simulations with embedded-atom method (EAM) potential to investigate the interaction of Σ5(210)/[001] symmetric tilt GB in Cu with various amounts of self-interstitial atoms. The mechanical properties of the grain boundary were evaluated using a bicrystal model by …

Tailoring The Wettability And Mechanical Properties Of Electrospun Poly(L-Lactic Acid)-Poly(Glycerol Sebacate) Core-Shell Membranes For Biomedical Applications, Yi Yan, Vitor Sencadas, Tiantian Jin, Xu-Feng Huang, Jun Chen, Dongbin Wei, Zhengyi Jiang

Faculty of Engineering and Information Sciences - Papers: Part B

Tissue and biomedical engineering fields are in constant mutation and in searching for innovative processing techniques capable to tailor the material properties. In this work, poly(l-lactic acid) (PLLA) and elastomeric poly(glycerol sebacate) (PGS) were dissolved in the same solvents and electrospun together, in a single needle system. A core-shell structure where the hydrophilic PGS was placed onto the surface of the hydrophobic PLLA fibre was obtained for elastomeric concentrations up to 25 wt%. It was found that the PLLA:PGS blends are immiscible and the blends present the melting temperatures of the individual polymers. Moreover, their surface properties were deeply influenced …

Theoretical And Experimental Investigation Of Thermal And Oxidation Behaviours Of A High Speed Steel Work Roll During Hot Rolling, Guanyu Deng, Hongtao Zhu, Anh Kiet Tieu, Lihong Su, Mark H. Reid, L C. Zhang, Peitang Wei, Xing Zhao, Hui Wang, Jiangshan Zhang, Jintao Li, Thi D. Ta, Qiang Zhu, Charlie Kong, Q Wu

Faculty of Engineering and Information Sciences - Papers: Part B

In the present study, thermal behaviours of a HSS work roll in actual service condition during hot rolling have been systematically investigated by an experimentally validated model. Influencing factors including finishing stand number, heat transfer coefficients in different circumferential thermal boundaries and initial work roll body temperature have also been carefully examined on the temperature and thermal stress distributions within the work roll. Based on working temperature range at roll surface from the theoretical analysis, oxidation tests of a HSS work roll material have been conducted. It has been observed that the practical HSS oxide scale is obviously different compared …

Functional Mri For Quantitative Treatment Response Prediction In Locally Advanced Rectal Cancer, Trang Pham, Gary P. Liney, Karen Ms Karen Wong, Michael Barton

Faculty of Engineering and Information Sciences - Papers: Part B

Despite advances in multimodality treatment strategies for locally advanced rectal cancer and improvements in locoregional control, there is still a considerable variation in response to neoadjuvant chemoradiotherapy (CRT). Accurate prediction of response to neoadjuvant CRT would enable early stratification of management according to good responders and poor responders, in order to adapt treatment to improve therapeutic outcomes in rectal cancer. Clinical studies in diffusion-weighted imaging (DWI) and dynamic contrast-enhanced (DCE) MRI have shown promising results for the prediction of therapeutic response in rectal cancer. DWI allows for assessment of tumour cellularity. DCE-MRI enables evaluation of factors of the tumour microvascular …

Technical Note: Angular Dependence Of A 2d Monolithic Silicon Diode Array For Small Field Dosimetry, Nauljun Stansook, Kananan Utitsarn, Marco Petasecca, Matthew Newall, Mitchell Duncan, Kym N. Nitschke, Martin G. Carolan, Peter E. Metcalfe, Michael L. F Lerch, Vladimir Perevertaylo, Wolfgang Tome, Anatoly B. Rosenfeld

Faculty of Engineering and Information Sciences - Papers: Part B

Purpose

This study aims to investigate the 2D monolithic silicon diode array size of 52 × 52 mm² (MP512) angular response. An angular correction method has been developed that improves the accuracy of dose measurement in a small field.

Methods

The MP512 was placed at the center of a cylindrical phantom, irradiated using 6 MV and 10 MV photons and incrementing the incidence of the beam angle in 15° steps from 0° to 180°, and then in 1° steps between 85° and 95°. The MP512 response was characterized for square field sizes varying between 1 × 1 cm^{2 …}

Multiparametric Magnetic Resonance Imaging In Mucosal Primary Head And Neck Cancer: A Prospective Imaging Biomarker Study, Christopher Rumley, Mark T. Lee, Lois C. Holloway, Roshika Rai, Myo Min, Dion F. Forstner, Allan Fowler, Gary P. Liney

Faculty of Engineering and Information Sciences - Papers: Part B

Background: Radical radiotherapy, with or without concomitant chemotherapy forms the mainstay of organ preservation approaches in mucosal primary head and neck cancer. Despite technical advances in cancer imaging and radiotherapy administration, a significant proportion of patients fail to achieve a complete response to treatment. For those patients who do achieve a complete response, acute and late toxicities remain a cause of morbidity. A critical need therefore exists for imaging biomarkers which are capable of informing patient selection for both treatment intensification and de-escalation strategies. Methods/design: A prospective imaging study has been initiated, aiming to recruit patients undergoing radical radiotherapy (RT) …

Enhancing Energy Efficiency In Residential Buildings Through The Use Of Bim: The Case For Embedding Parameters During Design, Scott F. Beazley, Emma Elizabeth Heffernan, Timothy J. Mccarthy

Faculty of Engineering and Information Sciences - Papers: Part B

A building design is typically created by a collaboration of professionals. Whilst the advent of BIM tools makes the assessment of the performance of an iterative design possible, these tools are not commonly used, due to traditional practice prevailing, technical limitations including differing data formats, and industry resistance to innovation. Timely consistent feedback throughout the design process, as major design decisions are made, could enable the enhancement of energy efficiency. However, current design guidelines are typically not in digital rule form, preventing the automated checking and validation of developing design models. Furthermore, architectural design tools have poor connections to thermal …

A Novel Flow-Aware Fair Scheduler For Multi Transmit/Receive Wireless Networks, Luyao Wang, Kwan-Wu Chin, Sieteng Soh, Tengjiao He

Faculty of Engineering and Information Sciences - Papers: Part B

This paper considers the problem of deriving a time-division multiple-access (TDMA) schedule for multi-hop wireless networks that allow nodes to perform multiple transmissions/receptions to/from all of their neighbors simultaneously over the same frequency. To date, there are a number of link schedulers for the networks in question but they do not consider flow rate or any notion of fairness when deriving a TDMA schedule. Henceforth, we address this critical gap by proposing a link scheduler, called Algo-Fair, that, in addition to maximizing the number of links in each slot, also provides fairness among flows. In addition, it uses a novel …

Cyclostationary Analysis Of Analog Least Mean Square Loop For Self-Interference Cancellation In In-Band Full-Duplex Systems, Anh Tuyen Le, Le Chung Tran, Xiaojing Huang

Faculty of Engineering and Information Sciences - Papers: Part B

Analog least mean square (ALMS) loop is a promising mechanism to suppress self-interference (SI) in an in-band full-duplex (IBFD) system. In this letter, a general solution for the weighting error function is derived to investigate the performance of the ALMS loop employed in any IBFD system. The solution is then applied to IBFD systems with single carrier and multi-carrier signaling respectively. It is shown that due to the cyclostationary property of the transmitted signal, the weighting error function in the multi-carrier system varies more significantly than that in the single carrier one. Therefore, if the ALMS loop can perfectly mimic …

The Ph-Dependent Structural And Tribological Behaviour Of Aqueous Graphene Oxide Suspensions, Anshun He, Shuiquan Huang, Jung-Ho Yun, Zhengyi Jiang, Jason Stokes, Sihai Jiao, Lianzhou Wang, Han Huang

Faculty of Engineering and Information Sciences - Papers: Part B

In this study, the tribological characteristic of aqueous dispersions of single-layer graphene oxide (GO) sheets was assessed as a function of pH. The flexible and large GO sheets were broken down and chemically reduced upon increasing the pH from 3.10 to 9.70. By using the 0.06 wt% GO suspension, the noise and vibration in tribological tests were eliminated, at the same time, the coefficient of friction (COF) and wear mark radius were reduced by 44.4% and 17.1%, respectively, compared with baseline water. While the increase of pH of the GO suspensions increased COF and wear significantly. The difference of the …

Integration Of An Enzymatic Bioreactor With Membrane Distillation For Enhanced Biodegradation Of Trace Organic Contaminants, Muhammad Bilal Asif, Luong Nguyen, Faisal I. Hai, William E. Price, Long D. Nghiem

Faculty of Engineering and Information Sciences - Papers: Part B

A novel membrane distillation - enzymatic membrane bioreactor (MD-EMBR) system was developed for efficient degradation of trace organic contaminants (TrOCs). Degradation of five TrOCs, namely carbamazepine, oxybenzone, diclofenac, atrazine and sulfamethoxazole was examined using two commercially available laccases (from Trametes versicolor and Aspergillus oryzae). The MD system ensured complete retention (>99%) of both enzyme and TrOCs. Of particular interest was that the complete retention of the TrOCs resulted in high TrOC degradation by both laccases. Oxybenzone and diclofenac degradation in the MD-EMBR ranged between 80 and 99%. Compared to previously developed EMBRs, as much as 40% improvement in …

Effects Of Thermal Pre-Treatment And Recuperative Thickening On The Fate Of Trace Organic Contaminants During Anaerobic Digestion Of Sewage Sludge, Shufan Yang, James A. Mcdonald, Faisal I. Hai, William E. Price, Stuart J. Khan, Long D. Nghiem

Faculty of Engineering and Information Sciences - Papers: Part B

This study examined the effects of thermal pre-treatment and recuperative thickening on anaerobic digestion of sewage sludge on biogas production and removal of trace organic contaminants (TrOCs). Thermal pre-treatment and recuperative thickening resulted in approximately 15% increase in biogas production. However, the effects of thermal pretreatement and recuperative thickening on anaerobic digestion performance in respect to the removal of TrOCs were less obvious and varied widely depending on the molecular properties of each compound. Of the 40 TrOCs monitored in this study, 16 TrOCs were detected in all primary sludge samples. Removal from the aqueous phase was negligible for most …

Preparation Of Microencapsulated Phase Change Materials (Mepcm) For Thermal Energy Storage, Weiguang Su, Jo Darkwa, Georgios Kokogiannakis, Tongyu Zhou, Yilin Li

Faculty of Engineering and Information Sciences - Papers: Part B

Microencapsulated phase change materials (MEPCM) could be used for energy saving applications in buildings due to their relatively high energy storage capacities at constant temperature, which could passively reduce peak cooling loads in summer. In this study, poly(methyl methacrylate-co-methacrylic acid) (PMMA-MAA) was used as a shell material to fabricate MEPCM by crosslinking methyl methacrylate (MMA) and methacrylic acid (MAA) through in-situ suspension-like polymerization method. The effects of initiator weight percentage and the ratio of shell monomers for the preparation of MEPCM were also investigated. The experimental results showed that the best MEPCM sample was achieved with a shell monomer weight …

Relationship Between Indoor Air Temperatures And Energy Bills For Low Income Homes In Australia, Clayton Mcdowell, Georgios Kokogiannakis, Laia Ledo Gomis, Paul Cooper

Faculty of Engineering and Information Sciences - Papers: Part B

Energy poverty is a prevalent issue in Australia and other countries across the globe especially for people with a low income. This paper seeks to investigate the relationship of energy consumption and indoor air temperatures and is separated into 3 sections; a comparison of actual electricity consumption to energy benchmarks provided by the Australian Energy Regulator, monitoring results of living room air temperature for the winter of 2015, and an analysis of living room air temperatures versus electricity consumption. The results of a comparison of electricity consumption of 119 low income elderly peoples (60+) dwellings to that of the energy …

Three-Dimensional Kinematic Modeling Of Helix-Forming Lamina-Emergent Soft Smart Actuators Based On Electroactive Polymers, Rahim Mutlu, Gursel Alici, Weihua Li

Faculty of Engineering and Information Sciences - Papers: Part B

Robotic systems consisting of rigid elements connected to each other with single degree of freedom joints have been studied extensively. Robotic systems made of soft and smart materials are expected to provide a high dexterity and adaptability to their physical environment, like their biological counterparts. Electroactive polymer (EAP) actuators, also known as artificial muscles, which can operate both in wet and in dry environments with their promising features such as a low foot-print in activation and energy consumption, suitability to miniaturization, noiseless, and fully compliant operation can be employed to articulate a soft robotic system. This paper reports on kinematic …

Large Area And Ultra-Thin Compliant Strain Sensors For Prosthetic Devices, Vitor Sencadas, Rahim Mutlu, Gursel Alici

Faculty of Engineering and Information Sciences - Papers: Part B

There is an increasing need to establish skin-like ultra-thin sensors which can directly be deposited (e.g. sprayed) on a soft active structure representing the limbs (e.g. fingers) of prosthetic devices such as a prosthetic hand. Such sensors are essential to control the actuation behaviour of the soft structure, and to obtain information about kinematics of the structure as much as temperature of an object which the finger is touching. This study employed an inexpensive and scalable technique to place elastomeric sensors directly onto a monolithic structure representing the finger of a soft robotic prosthetic hand. The chemical affinity between the …

The Permeability Of Natural Fibre Drains, Capturing Their Micro-Features, Thanh Trung Nguyen, Buddhima Indraratna

Faculty of Engineering and Information Sciences - Papers: Part B

Natural fibres such as jute and coir are emerging as distinct alternatives to synthetic geomaterials, and in recent years they have been used increasingly for drainage and filtration in field applications. However, these naturally occurring materials are extremely variable in micro-characteristics such as the size, uniformity and shape of their fibres, while there is a lack of studies addressing how these differences can affect the hydraulic behaviour of fibrous media. This paper offers a laboratory study of the influence of micro-features on the hydraulic conductivity of fibre drain. Non-twisted and twisted fibre drains made from jute and coir were subjected …

A Basis For Comparing Progressive Collapse Resistance Of Moment Frames And Connections, Ling Li, Wei Wang, Yiyi Chen, Lip H. Teh

Faculty of Engineering and Information Sciences - Papers: Part B

The progressive collapse resistance of a moment frame in the event of an inner column loss has been studied in terms of either the beam span or the beam span-to-depth ratio. This study reiterates that, strictly speaking, it is the beam span-to-depth ratio that is the underlying factor. Basically the larger the span-to-depth ratio, the better the progressive collapse resistance if the beams have been similarly optimised against plastic hinging under the design floor load. In comparing the performance of various types of steel double-span assemblies against each other, it would not always be appropriate to normalize their resistance against …

Gscheduler: Optimizing Resource Provision By Using Gpu Usage Pattern Extraction In Cloud Environment, Zhuqing Xu, Fang Dong, Jiahui Jin, Junzhou Luo, Jun Shen

Faculty of Engineering and Information Sciences - Papers: Part B

GPU-based clusters are widely chosen for accelerating a variety of scientific applications in high-end cloud environments. With their growing popularity, there is a necessity for improving the system throughput and decreasing the turnaround time for co-executing applications on the same GPU device. However, resource contention among multiple applications on a multi-tasked GPU leads to the performance degradation of applications. Previous works are not accurate enough to learn the characteristics of GPU application before execution, or cannot get such information timely, which may lead to misleading scheduling decisions. In this paper, we present GScheduler, a framework to detect and reduce interference …