Predict Collapse

About

Overview There are many cases around the world where catastrophic failure and collapse at underground mine sites has resulted in huge loss of life and property. Inventor Dr Giang Nguyen, from the School of Civil, Environmental and Mining Engineering, is seeking to better predict this type of collapse by understanding the way materials behave under various environmental and load conditions. Background Funded by an Australian Research Council (ARC) Future Fellowship, Giang is developing a modelling framework to better scale material properties from laboratory samples to field structures. It’s very hard to predict the effect of a natural disaster or failure in infrastructure. All we can do as engineers to ensure optimal stability is to do laboratory tests on small specimens taken from the site and use this analysis to project what might happen on a larger scale. Mechanism Giang’s new methodology aims to properly link failures at the micro-scale, specimen scale and large (field) scale in order to develop inexpensive numerical tools. Engineers could then use these practical formulas when building large structures, such as dams, rock slopes, embankments and mines, to ensure cost-effective designs and greater confidence in safety. Giang has been conducting research in this area for over 14 years, since he completed his PhD in Oxford. He joined the University of Adelaide in July 2013, after spending six years at the University of Sydney.