Interested in a PhD with us?
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We welcome top quality students to work in collaboration with us. Currently, there are opportunities to get involved as an advanced Honour Student, Master Student or Ph.D. Student in portions or in whole of our projects, some of which are listed here. For a full overview, click here.
Research areas
Energy geotechnics - Experimental:
Managing energy resources, reducing energy consumption and moving towards cleaner sources of energy are amongst the key challenges for the 21st century. Our research relates to shallow geothermal systems, which can help progress towards these goals by efficiently providing thermal energy to heat and cool buildings. We conduct numerous experimental field works to validate existing model, measure in situ ground parameter and to measure the actual performance of this systems. Our projects consist of residential houses, school buildings, cafes and a chicken farm, amongst others. |
Energy geotechnics - Numerical modelling:
Managing energy resources, reducing energy consumption and moving towards cleaner sources of energy are amongst the key challenges for the 21st century. Our research relates to shallow geothermal systems, which can help progress towards these goals, by efficiently providing thermal energy to heat and cool buildings. We utilise numerical modelling techniques, such as finite elements methods, to better understand the thermo-mechanical effects relating to the operation of these systems, and therefore how they can be most effectively and accurately designed, aiming to contribute towards their worldwide utilisation. |
Multiscale porous media modelling:
Fluid flow and heat flow are two important conduction processes for design and construction in numerous engineering applications, such as geothermal energy, agriculture, burial of electrical cables, radioactive waste disposal, geological carbon dioxide storage and hydrocarbon recovery. Ultimately, flow properties such as permeability and thermal conductivity are governed by the microstructure of the porous media through which the conduction takes place. We develop and apply a range of techniques, including computerized tomography imaging, discrete element methods, finite element simulations, complex network algorithms and machine learning methods, to study microstructure and characterise conduction parameters. Resulting predictions of transport properties help improve the performance of engineering applications at the field scale. |
Near surface geophysics:
Our laboratory advances the use of both mechanical and electromagnetic waves for the laboratory and in situ characterisation of geomaterials. We also develop new geophysical testing tools (see for example our start-up AquaTerra) and aim to enhance the interpretation of existing tools (which we have in our laboratory) including Ground Penetrating Radar, Electromagnetic Conductivity and Seismic prospections. These are important to applications in Civil Engineering, Geotechnical & Environmental Engineering, Archaeological projects, and in Forensic Engineering. |
Sponsors, funding bodies and partners
3MT2022_UNIMELB_666225_YU ZHONG from Yu Zhong on Vimeo.