CIES wins three ARC grants for 2025
In exciting news for 2025, CIES has won two ARC Discovery Projects and one Linkage Project to the value of $1.63M.
Congratulations to CIES staff Dr Da Chen; Professor Nasser Khalili; Dr Babak Shahbodagh; Professor Chongmin Song (involved in two grants) and Dr Mohsen Mousavi – and congrats also to all involved, including Linkage industry partners ARUP AUSTRALIA and Contegrity Building Solutions!
CIES ARC Discovery Project
DP250104939: Wave Propagation and Attenuation in Unsaturated Soils.
Investigators: Professor Nasser Khalili; Dr Babak Shahbodagh; Dr Mohsen Mousavi
Understanding shear and dilatational waves in unsaturated soils is critical for diverse engineering disciplines. While past research has focused on wave propagation in saturated or dry soils, studies on unsaturated soils are scarce, despite their common occurrence in real-world scenarios.
This research aims to bridge this gap by investigating the fundamentals of wave propagation in unsaturated soils through a multidisciplinary approach encompassing soil dynamics, constitutive modeling, and experimental investigation.
The expected outcome includes development of accurate correlations for characterisation of soil properties for a range of in situ conditions, offering immediate practical applications in engineering design and practice.
Amount Awarded: $567,803.00
CIES ARC Discovery Project
DP250100955: A scaled boundary framework for nonlinear dynamic analysis of structures.
Investigators: Professor Chongmin Song; Associate Professor Ean Tat Ooi
This project aims to address the integrity assessment of engineering structures subjected to dynamic actions, which are often the most critical loading cases. An innovative scaled boundary framework will be established leveraging the power of modern computer facilities needed for dynamic nonlinear analysis of large-scale structures. Modern digital technologies for geometric modelling will be seamlessly integrated with computational mechanics.
The outcome of this project is an innovative technology and a computer simulation tool that will be robust, fully-automated and highly efficient. This research will benefit Australian economy and society by enabling timely, cost-effective design, planning and management of civil engineering structures.
Amount Awarded: $677,700.00
CIES ARC Linkage Project
LP240100123: Developing sustainable graded porous cementitious structures.
Investigators: Dr Da Chen; Professor Chongmin Song; Dr Johnny Ho; Dr Shu Jian Chen; Professor Sritawat Kitipornchai; Mr Laian Luan; Dr Fangjie Chen
This project aims to pioneer innovations in green civil engineering by developing first-of-its-kind porous structures for Australian sustainable environment. It establishes novel graded porous geometries in cementitious structures for superior stiffness and thermal insulation. These lightweight yet robust structures with minimal cement usage are crucial to mitigating carbon footprints in civil construction and building operation with huge emissions.
The project expects to develop new knowledge and advanced simulations in porous composites. This will help Australia growing its green civil industries with significant economic benefits and to achieve the Net Zero Plan via saving building operation energy and reducing construction emissions and waste.
Industry Partners: Contegrity Building Solutions Pty Ltd;and ARUP AUSTRALIA PTY LTD
Amount Awarded: $387,261
