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Research
 

Research Strengths

Research at Monash University is at the leading edge of knowledge and of discovery.


Asset performance improvement and maintenance

  • Performance and management of productive assets, particularly in the heavy engineering industries (minerals, steel, petroleum, transport, process and power)
  • Instrumentation and measurement
  • Materials failure analysis and fatigue assessment
  • Low and high temperature corrosion
  • Risk management
  • Process control and automation
  • Operations modelling
  • Life cycle modelling

Biomedical engineering

  • Neuromuscular systems control and rehabilitation technology development
  • Muscle mechanics, mechanisms of contraction, whole body vibration, proprioception, instrumentation
  • Cochlear implant signal processing, neurophysiology of the auditory midbrain, acoustic noise cancellation
  • Theory and numerical simulation work in light propagation in biological tissue
  • Artificial tactile sensors and pressure sensors in relation to prosthetics and orthotics
  • Medical imaging

Bio-Process and bio-materials engineering

  • Nanofibrous scaffolds manufactured using electrospinning for neural tissue engineering
  • Interaction of stem cells on biopolymer substrates
  • Surface modification of Ti implants
  • Fermentation science
  • Downstream bio-processing
  • Solid phase adsorbent and ligand design and chromatography
  • Vaccine production, encapsulation and delivery: DNA and plant made vaccines
  • Affinity tagged recombinant protein purification and refolding
  • Renal circulation, cardiovascular regulation, bioreactors, artificial biological pumps, and tissue engineering
  • Formulation of powders for the pharmaceutical engineering industry
  • Pharmaceutical manufacturing processes for solid dosage forms

Chemical engineering science and design

  • Fluid-particle engineering, fluidization engineering, particle transport
  • Adsorption process technology
  • Separation science: gases, liquids and solids
  • Catalysis and reaction engineering
  • Process integration, optimization and design
  • Food engineering and technology
  • Pulp and paper technology including fibre engineering, pulping, bleaching, recycling, papermaking, cellulose-water interactions, inking, printing, surface and interface modification

Civil structural engineering

  • Advanced thin-walled structures and crashworthiness
  • Very high strength steel and carbon fibre-reinforced plastic
  • Behaviour of CFRP concrete structures
  • Fatigue behaviour of dragline structures
  • Structural behaviour of structural components and structures under fire conditions

Clean energy technologies

  • Brown coal drying, combustion and gasification
  • Formation and destruction of NOx/SOx and their precursors during the gasification and combustion of coals
  • Biomass gasification engineering
  • Biofuels production from algae
  • Biodiesel production from plastics
  • Effect of biofuels on IC combustion chemistry and dynamics
  • Process efficiency improvement through integration and simulation
  • CO2 capture technology: pre- and post- combustion CO2 capture
  • Research into geosequestration of carbon dioxide (CO2),including geomechanical behaviour due to the stored supercritical CO2
  • Systems approach to use of renewable energy in overall power systems
  • Refrigeration systems, air conditioning, solar systems integration
  • Nano-TiO2 based dye sensitised solar cells
  • Solid electrolytes: polymer electrolytes, composite electrolytes (ceramic filled polymer electrolytes), gel electrolytes and ionic liquid electrolytes
  • Hydrogen storage technology – metal hydrides, nanoporous carbons

Electronic, magnetic and ionic materials and properties

  • Novel electrolytes based on ionic liquids, plastic crystals, nanocomposites and polymer gels
  • Intrinsically conducting polymers such as poly(pyrrole) and poly(thiophenes)
  • Magnetism and magnetic materials with an emphasis on magnetic nanostructures
  • Control of electrochemical processes at electrode/electrolyte interfaces:
  • NMR characterization of materials (particularly transport in polymers and electrolytes)

Electronics and communications

  • IPv6 based next-generation telecommunication networks
  • Simulation of networks - both IPv6 (and variations on Mobile IPv6, wireless and ad-hoc/mesh networks) specific and large networks in general
  • Optical amplification and detection techniques
  • Optical transport network modelling for DWDM optically amplified transport networks
  • Quantum communications over optical fibre transmission systems and networks
  • Photonic signal processing for all-optical communications systems and networks
  • Advanced antenna design and the next generation of RFID type of devices
  • Indoor radio propagation, electromagnetic compatibility (EMC) and avionics as well as advanced antenna design and measurement
  • Algorithms and their efficient implementation for Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiplexed (OFDM) radio and photonic systems
  • Internet protocols for mobile wireless systems
  • Simulation software to aid the design of photonic links
  • Radio-Frequency Identification (RFID) technology

Engineering alloys

  • Design and development of high strength and creep-resistant magnesium alloy
  • Nanostructural characterisation using TEM and 3DAP
  • Strengthening and creep mechanisms
  • Formability and thermomechanical processing
  • Severe plastic deformation and micro-forming of light alloys
  • Clustering and aggregation in light alloys
  • Modelling and simulation of microstructures
  • Deformation behaviour of light alloys, including magnesium and titanium, supported by physical and computer simulation
  • Microforming – where geometric length-scales approach microstructural length scales – is investigated as a means to produce components on the sub-millimetre scale
  • Monitoring and mitigation of corrosion
  • Development of novel inhibitors based on rare earthorganic compounds
  • Corrosion inhibitors and cathodic protection for steel reinforced concrete (both marine and urban environments) and in particular developing better corrosion monitoring methodologies
  • Corrosion monitoring in concrete structures

Fluid dynamics research

  • Fundamental research targeted at:
    • wakes and flow-induced vibration
    • blood flow and vascular disease
    • vortex interactions and flow stability
    • free-surface flows
    • bluff-body aerodynamics, and
    • swirling flows
  • Applied research and development to improve fluid dynamic processes for industry
  • Conducting research into turbulence, aerodynamics and flow control, propulsion and combustion
  • Experimental techniques in fluid mechanics, turbulent flow topology, separated boundary layers, flow stability, high Reynolds number swirling flows

Geotechnical engineering

  • Gas advective and diffusive flow in saturated and unsaturated porous media (soils and geosynthetic clay liners)
  • Alternative cover systems and liner systems for waste containment facilities
  • Unsaturated behaviour of geomaterials• Contaminant transport
  • Geosynthetics (containment, drainage, filtration, reinforcement, erosion control) Laboratory and in-situ geotechnical properties of municipal solid waste
  • Ground improvement (shallow and deep soil mixing, dynamic compaction, stone columns)
  • Biological applications to geotechnical & geoenvironmental engineering
  • Landfill cover and liner design
  • Leaching and fixation of contaminants in porous materials
  • Prediction of pavement deterioration due to traffic and environmental loadings
  • Active lateral loading of piles in soft soils and jointed rocks

Intelligent robotics

  • Computer animated robot simulation
  • Navigational algorithms and instrumentation
  • Multiple camera colour vision
  • Eye-in-hand vision
  • Robotic touch sensing
  • Navigational markers for mobile robots
  • Dextrous robot manipulators
  • Virtual reality in an intelligent robotic context
  • Indoor and outdoor autonomous mobile robot navigation
  • Regularisation algorithms for computer vision
  • Object recognition systems
  • Swarm robotics
  • Computer vision including models of human perception and industrial machine vision systems
  • Medical robots for surgery and rehabilitation, mobile robots with advanced mobility, and reconfigurable mechatronic systems for complex tasks

Materials characterisation

  • Characterization of materials down to the atomic level
  • The advanced techniques available for materials characterization include scanning probe microscopy (STM, AFM and MFM), electron microscopy and atom probe field ion microscopy, x-ray diffraction, nuclear magnetic resonance, positron annihilation lifetime spectroscopy, thermal analysis, rheological characterization and electrical property measurements
  • The development of diffraction and imaging techniques which provide structural information with ultrahigh spatial resolution
  • The development of methods for the determination of the atomic structures of crystals that overcome the “phase problem” in crystallography

Micro-nano mechanical and optical engineering

  • Research into physical phenomena at the micro and nanometre-scale and the engineering of devices and systems to exploit them
  • Non-linear ultrasound including acoustic radiation forces and acoustic streaming, viscosity, microfluidic systems, micron scale particle and biological cell handling, air-coupled ultrasound, transducer design, non-destructive testing, and finite element analysis
  • Interfacial flows driven by Marangoni, thermocapillary and electric stresses:
  • Free surface electrokinetics (electrospraying, electrowetting and electrohydrodynamic induced surface vortices for micro-mixing & bioparticle concentration/separation) for biomicrofluidic applications, drop and bubble dynamics (break-up, coalescence and deformation), phase inversion in liquid-liquid dispersions
  • Micromechatronics active materials, including piezoelectrics and artificial muscle materials
  • Microactuators and microsensors
  • Ultrasonics, applied and device design Finite element analysis and design

Nanomaterials

  • Synthesis and structural characterization of mesostructured materials with an emphasis on the design, assembly, growth and control of the composition, morphology, property and functionality
  • Synthesis and characterization of microporous materials, zeolites and low-dimensional nanomaterials by using mesoporous materials as templates
  • Self-assembly and supramolecular templating, molecular and block unite tailoring to prepare novel catalytic, separation, electronic, and magnetic materials for a variety of applications including catalysis, separation, electro-photonic nanodevices and drug delivery
  • Synthesis of novel nanoporous carbon materials for membranes and catalysts
  • Self assembly of colloidal nanomaterials
  • Magnetic nanoparticles: photocatalytic applications to detoxify harmful organic matters; including organochloride pesticide, polyaromatic hydrocarbon, and trihalomethane. Functionalisation of nano-sized magnetite to isolate specific proteins, eg BSA, peptide; enzyme immobilisation
  • Synthesis and characterisation of zeolites for use in adsorptive separations and gas storage
  • Synthesis and development of novel carbon nanostructures for gas storage applications

Polymer engineering

  • Characterisation and manipulation of properties of polymers and their nanocomposites
  • Synthesis, testing and characterisation of thermosetting polymers, liquid crystalline polymers, electrically conducting polymers, dendritic polymers
  • Polymer structure and morphology and deformation, and polymeric nanocomposites
  • Building biodegradable polymeric scaffolds to support human stem cells growing within the body
  • Nanocomposites, novel ways of mixing polymers with other polymers (as blends) and with materials of totally different classes, such as ceramics or metals
  • Advanced statistical mechanical simulation of polymer solutions using Brownian dynamics
  • Experimental determination of extensional viscometry of polymer solutions

Power electronics

  • Power systems analysis, variable speed drives, high voltage engineering
  • Asset and demand management
  • Electric traction
  • Power electronic drives for dc and ac machines
  • Transformer monitoring
  • Harmonics in power systems and equipment
  • Industrial control and monitoring systems
  • Consumer and appliance electronic controls
  • Load demand modelling

Railway engineering

  • Track research
  • Vehicle research
  • Railway bridges
  • Noise studies
  • Material research
  • Wheel-rail interaction
  • Monitoring systems
  • Field testing and laboratory capabilities
  • Railway track geotechnology; foundation engineering; analytical and numerical modelling in geomechanics; filtration behaviour of soils; soil improvement using admixtures; shear behaviour of jointed rocks; slope stability

Structural integrity and safety

  • Finite element modelling, bio-mechanical and bio-medical engineering, thermo-mechanical analysis of forming processes, microstructure-property relationships of light alloys and composites, computational mechanics and rail materials
  • In-situ structural health monitoring, structural integrity monitoring and assessment, fracture and fatigue assessment, mechanical and materials testing (coupon, product and structural tests), advanced composite structures, vibration analysis, finite element analysis
  • Fracture mechanics, welding, welding defects, crack initiation and propagation under different creep and fatigue loading
  • Experimental and computational structural (solids) mechanics finite element analysis, aircraft structures, plasticity, fracture mechanics, composite structures, bonded structures, repair technology and aging structures

Sustainable transport

  • Travel demand
  • Transport operations
  • Transport and traffic planning and management
  • Public transport planning and management

Sustainable water engineering

  • Integrated urban water management (including technical, social & institutional issues)
  • Groundwater management
  • Monitoring technologies
  • Waterway management
  • Flood and floodplain management
  • Estuary management
  • Wastewater and industrial water management
  • Hydraulic modelling
  • Stormwater management and modelling
  • Water sensitive urban design
  • Integrated urban water cycle management
  • Ecosystem responses to urbanization
  • Lifecycle cost analysis of stormwater management

 

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