Engineering

Faculty of Engineering, Computer & Mathematical Sciences website

Executive Dean: Professor Peter Dowd

Manager: Ms Clara Barbieri
Phone: 61 8 8303 6476
Fax: 61 8 8303 6492

Program enquiries:
Students should consult the postgraduate coordinator in the relevant School, as listed under School entries.
Email: ecms_office@adelaide.edu.au

Enrolment enquiries: Adelaide Graduate Centre
Phone: 61 8 8303 5882
Email: graduate.centre@adelaide.edu.au

# May be undertaken as a combination of research and some coursework.

* Research Training Scheme (RTS) - Currently all commencing "local" higher degree by research students at the University of Adelaide are awarded a Research Training Scheme (RTS) place. The RTS place entitles the student to a maximum period of four years of tuition fee exempt candidature to undertake a PhD program or two years of tuition fee exempt candidature to undertake a Masters program. This means there is no HECS debt at the end of the program.
"local" includes Australian citizens or permanent residents and New Zealand citizens.

International
¹ The quoted fee is a base fee that will be subject to an annual increase of up to 3% (5% from 2009 and later) for each of the subsequent years in the program for the duration published on this site. Students completing the program beyond the maximum published period will be subject to a new base fee.

School of Chemical Engineering

Phone: 61 8 8303 5446
Fax: 61 8 8303 4373
Email: pg@chemeng.adelaide.edu.au
Website: http://www.chemeng.adelaide.edu.au/

The School of Chemical Engineering has a strong research team that is focused on solving problems and providing answers for industry and the wider community. All groups have a strong connection to related industries, which provide much of the necessary funding. The Schools's research groups study a wide spectrum of problems.

Engineering comprises the Schools of: Chemical Engineering; Civil, Environmental and Mining Engineering; Electrical and Electronic Engineering; Mechanical Engineering and the Australian School of Petroleum. In addition, the School of Computer Science and School of Mathematical Sciences contribute to academic programs offered by Engineering.

Engineering has a fine reputation for innovative research across a wide range of fields. Individual staff members (a significant number of whom are world leaders in their disciplines) have close links with industry and their research is well supported. Many of their technological breakthroughs form the basis of independent companies.

The Faculty has an extensive research infrastructure. Specialist facilities include reverberation chambers, anechoic chambers (at both acoustic and microwave frequencies), microcircuit design suites, bioprocessing, combustion and water laboratories, earthquake simulators, strongfloors, dynamic testing machines and a visualisation laboratory. All Schools have access to state-of-the-art software for design and analysis purposes.

Research Strengths & Activities

Chemical Engineering conducts research in the following areas:

• Biochemical Engineering (CRC for Tissue Growth & Repair) and Food Research Group
• Chemical Kinetics & Reaction Engineering
• Fluid & Particle Mechanics
• Materials & Biomedical Engineering
• Process Systems Engineering
• Laser Diagnostics & Combustion Engineering

Biochemical Engineering

Activities in this area fall into two major areas: Design of processing system disinfection for the elimination of contaminating microorganisms, e.g. sterilisation and chilling and freezing operations with emphasis on the kinetic modelling of microorganism behaviour. Design, modelling and simulation of processing systems for the production of recombinant proteins from genetically engineered microorganisms and for the production of non-specific growth factors from by-product cheese whey.

Chemical Kinetics & Reaction Engineering

Investigations in this area ranged from laser studies of the reactions of silicon and germanium associated with microelectronic component manufacture to studies in catalysis and the thermal pyrolysis, combustion and gasification of coal. Reaction Engineering studies of coal processing have important ramifications in the study of 'greenhouse' gas production in association with combined cycle power generation systems, catalytic decomposition of nitric oxide and engine exhaust clean-up.

Research Project: The aim of the project is to determine the validity of Power Law Model in expressing the rate of the hydrogenation of acetylene on a Pd/Al 2O3 (Type: ICI 38-6) catalyst.

Fluid & Particle Mechanics

Research projects undertaken in this area included numerical modelling and flow visualisation of time-dependent viscoplastic fluids in Couette and coating flows; development of a continuous flow rheometer for industrial slurries; dynamic settling of particles in a sheared fluid; effect of mechanical vibrations on settling behaviour of flocculated suspensions; and mechanics of phase inversion in liquid emulsions.

Process Systems Engineering

Process Systems Engineering is concerned with the development of mathematical models (usually for representation in a computer) of the behaviour of chemical processes and their associated equipment. The principal objectives are usually concerned with technical and economic optimisation of such plant in the context of a standard industrial environment. A current major project is involved with the optimisation and retrofitting of process energy systems. Other projects in progress include the study of automated process operating command systems and the dynamic simulation of water treatment and biochemical engineering processes.

Laser Diagnostics & Combustion Engineering

Laser diagnostic techniques have greatly contributed for our understanding of complex phenomena. Turbulent flow, gas combustion and Plasma are some examples of such complex systems. The non-intrusive nature of the laser radiation allows precise probing, with high temporal and special resolution, without interfering with the flow. The School of Chemical Engineering has a well-equipped laser diagnostics laboratory with several lasers and time gated cameras. Some of these lasers were custom designed to perform specific measurement. Several advanced diagnostics techniques and measurements have been tested and developed.

School of Civil, Environmental & Mining Engineering

Phone: 61 8 8303 5451
Fax: 61 8 8303 4359
Email: pg@civeng.adelaide.edu.au
Website: http://www.ecms.adelaide.edu.au/civeng/

The School of Civil, Environmental & Mining Engineering carries out a wide range of basic and applied research that is focussed on enhancing fundamental knowledge and meeting the needs of industry and the profession.

• Artificial intelligence techniques applied to water resources management
• Coastal zone processes and near shore sediment transport
• Column separation in water hammer
• Composite steel and concrete structures
• Computer numerical modelling of hydraulic systems
• Diagnosis and assessment of civil infrastructure
• Domestic waterhammer
• Earthquake engineering and structural dynamics
• Earth retaining structures
• Enhancing learning and teaching in civil engineering
• Environmental geotechnics and landfills
• Expansive soil behaviour and design
• Fatigue assessment of residual strength and endurance
• Finite element modelling in structures and hydraulics
• Geostatistics
• Hydraulic modelling of pipe networks and transients
• Hydrology, especially rainfall modelling
• Infrastructure diagnosis, assessment and rehabilitation
• In situ and laboratory testing of soil and rock
• Joint probability analysis in water engineering
• Leak detection in pipe networks
• Masonry structures
• Mining engineering
• Modelling unsteady flow in irrigation systems
• Non-linear analysis and design of concrete structures
• Optimisation of water systems using genetic algorithms
• Physical hydraulic modelling
• Probabilistic methods in geomechanics
• Response of soils to cyclic loading
• Retrofitting structures with fibre reinforced plastic
• Risk and uncertainty
• River hydraulics
• Spatial variability of soils
• Sustainability in Civil Engineering
• Water quality monitoring and analysis
• Wetland modelling and design

Water and Environmental Engineering Research Group

Website: http://www.ecms.adelaide.edu.au/civeng/research/weerg/

The Water and Environmental Engineering Research Group includes seven tenured full-time academic staff. The staffing profile reflects the strength of the group, with 1 Professor, 4 Associate Professors and 2 Senior Lecturers. The research carried out by this research group is innovative and covers areas of sustainable water resources and infrastructure modelling and management ranging from hydrology to hydraulics, open channels to pipelines, hidden Markov models to Artificial Neural Networks and the modelling and management of water supply infrastructure to that of natural water resources.

School of Electrical and Electronic Engineering

Phone: 61 8 8303 5277
Fax: 61 8 8303 4360
Email: enquiries@eleceng.adelaide.edu.au
Website: http://www.eleceng.adelaide.edu.au/students/future/

The School has a strong research focus with staff and students active in a wide variety of projects. Our vision is to increase the scale and impact of our world-class research and to provide the highest quality PhD supervision. Our research activities span fundamental theoretical advances through to commercial spin-offs.

Recent research outcomes include significant contributions to power systems, radar signal processing, terahertz imaging, biologically inspired vision and radio frequency identification (RFID).

Sensor, Signals and Information Processing

Major thrusts include signal processing and sensor systems for:

• biomedical applications
• imaging
• navigation
• surveillance

Research Centres

• Centre for Biomedical Engineering (CBME)
• Centre of Expertise in Phased Array and Microwave Radar (CEPAMiR)
• Sensor Signal Processing Program (SSP)

Power Engineering

Major thrusts include:

• alternative energy systems
• power electronics, electrical machines and drives
• power quality and condition monitoring
• power system dynamics and control

Microelectronics and Radio Frequency Engineering

Major thrusts include:

• antennas and radio wave propagation
• integrated microelectronic RF systems
• RFID technologies for supply chain management application
• VLSI for high speed high performance applications

Research Centres

• Adelaide Auto-ID Lab
• Centre for High Performance Integrated Technologies and Systems (CHiPTec)

Telecommunications

Major thrusts include:

• automated planning and concurrent systems science
• commercial, policy and regulatory issues in telecommunications, Internet and the media
• performance analysis and quality of service provisioning for wireless and wired networks
• signal processing, coding and system design for communications and radar systems

Research Centre

• Centre for Internet Research

School of Mechanical Engineering

Phone: 61 8 8303 5460
Fax: 61 8 8303 4367
Email: enquiry@mecheng.adelaide.edu.au
Website: http://www.mecheng.adelaide.edu.au/courses/postgrad/

The School of Mechanical Engineering is proud of its long-standing tradition of high quality research and postgraduate student education. Many of our higher degree graduates gain employment overseas working for hi-tech companies and consulting companies. Employment of higher degree graduates ranges from research engineer to industrial product designer and innovator to management consultant to specialist technical engineering consultant to a university professor to an astronaut.

Our graduates are in great demand and occupy many other positions in industry and government. A postgraduate degree from the School of Mechanical Engineering is your passport to an exciting, innovative, rewarding and nationally or internationally productive career.

Scholarships

• Adelaide Scholarships (International)
• Australian Postgraduate Awards
• Australian Research Council Scholarships
• Cooperative Research Centre Scholarships
• Home Government Scholarships
• Industry Scholarships
• International Postgraduate Research Scholarships

Scholarship supplements

• Assisting academic staff with consultancies or product testing
• Part time tutoring and laboratory class demonstrating

Major Research Activities

Acoustics, vibration and control

Acoustics, Aeracoustics, Active noise control, Active vibration control, Industrial noise control, Mechatronics, Micro-motion stages and systems, Non-linear dynamics, Robotics, Ultrasonics, Underwater acoustics.

Combustion, aerospace and fluid mechanics

Airconditioning, Aeronautical and space engineering, Alternative automotive fuel combustion, Biological flows, Flames and industrial burners, Flow induced instability, Flow measurement and visualisation, Gaseous explosion modelling, Jets and wakes including jets in cross flows, MILD combustion, Mixing of fuel jets, Particleladen flows, Precessing jet flows and flames, Supersonic combustion, Turbulent reacting flows, Unsteady pipe flows.

Materials, welding and fracture mechanics

Advanced composite materials, Biomechanics, Computational plasticity, Fatigue and fracture of welded structures, Fracture mechanics, Materials science, Solid mechanics, Stress analysis, Structural integrity and life extension, Welding metallurgy.

There are many exciting research projects currently being undertaken which are at the cutting edge of science and technology and the School of Mechanical Engineering enjoys an enviable international reputation for research in each of the major areas listed.

Australian School of Petroleum

Phone: 61 8 8303 8010
Fax: 61 8 8303 8030
Email: admin@asp.adelaide.edu.au
Website: http://www.asp.adelaide.edu.au/

Key research areas, focused on support for oil and gas production in the Asia Pacific region, will include:

Dynamic Modelling and Simulation

• Environmental problems: CO2 sequestration, groundwater contamination, tracers, foam remediation
• Fluid flow dynamics in porous media: oil rims, stratified reservoirs, fractures, foams (blocking, polymers)
• Geomechanics: borehole stress and stability, fracture growth, formation compaction, faults
• Modelling methods: finite element, finite difference, particle and mesh free
• Proxy models: statistical, experimental design, gradients, networks
• Theory of multiphase continua and flow: diffusion and convection; up/down scaling; different media and stiffness; mechanical-electrochemical coupling

Enhanced and Improved (Petroleum) Recovery (E/IPR)

E/IPR processes target the oil and gas reserves which remain unexploited in 'already-proven' reservoirs following the primary production phase. Even by a conservative estimate, the size of such remaining reserves could be as high as 80% of the original reserves-in-place. Therefore, without an adequate and efficient E/IPR strategy, a vast amount of these proven reserves will remain unrecovered.

Current research areas

• Enhanced oil recovery: CO2 and air injection, microbial (MEOR), chemical, coal-bed methane, in-situ gasification
• Well stimulation using foam-acid diversion processes
• Gas-blocking foam to reduce high GOR
• Fines migration during multiphase flow
• Foam-solids interaction (fracturing, drilling, cementing)
• Subsurface environmental remediation using foam
• Improved recovery: hydraulic fracturing
• Optimisation model with rigorous study of real field features while fracturing
• Physical behaviour of asphaltenes, waxes and foams

(Petroleum) Reservoir Characterisation and Geostatistics

The current major research project, Improved Definition of Relative Permeability for Better Recovery Efficiency Prediction, is supported by five industry partners - BHP Billiton, Chevron Texaco, Santos, TRUenergy and Woodside. The project involves the completion of an extensive database and the derivation of correlations for relative permeability and related rock properties. The project is open for additional companies to join.

Current research areas

• Fluid properties: classification, analytical relationships
• Low permeability gas reservoirs
• PNMR: fluid, rock and clay properties, signal processing
• Rock properties: classification, analytical relationships, residual oil determination (SWTT and IWTT)
• Stochastic modelling: upscaling, kriging (fractures, analogs)