Infrastructure Engineering - Research Publications
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ItemCurrent Operational Battery Energy Storage Systems in Australia and Their Intended Project Objectives on Grid Operational Issues: A Literature Review(IEOM Society International, 2024-02-12)As energy companies look to diversify their portfolio in renewable energy, the demand for electrification will continue to increase. There will be increasing demands on the electrical grid infrastructure. Distributed energy resources (DER) such as solar photovoltaic (PV) on rooftops and electric vehicles will experience a host of operational issues such as hosting capacities, overloads, reverse flow, phase balance, frequency drift and voltage variation. Battery energy storage systems can help mitigate some of these problems. In this paper, the literature and public available information on operational battery storage systems in Australia are reviewed and discussed. It is found that both small batteries and large batteries both fundamentally address grid operational issues. As Australia moves towards high DER penetration and high renewable energy generation, there will be a need for more battery energy storage systems to offset operational issues. The lack of private funding especially for smaller batteries may possibly cause PV DER to lag the overall demand for electrification.
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ItemWhole-life baseline carbon assessment of residential building stock – A Victorian case study(Australian Life Cycle Assessment Society (ALCAS), 2023-07-19)Assessing residential building decarbonisation opportunities requires a whole-life approach, given the increasing share of embodied carbon as housing becomes more energy efficient. Since most of the projected housing stock would consist of existing buildings, emissions from renovation should also be included in determining both embodied and operational carbon in the residential building sector. A bottom-up typology framework was developed to estimate carbon emissions for existing and new housing up to 2050, scalable from local government area (LGA) to state-level jurisdiction which allows for granularity in testing scenarios for the future. Housing typologies were developed for existing, new, and renovation housing stock based on census data. Operating carbon was obtained using building energy simulation while embodied carbon data was accounted from localised life cycle construction datasets. The state of Victoria along with its corresponding LGAs was used as a case study for said framework. Heating load comprised most of the operating energy demand for most typologies while external walls and floors contributed significant embodied carbon for new residential buildings, particularly for detached houses. For Victoria, detached houses built prior to 1991 contributed most of the operational carbon, however with high construction rates set for most LGAs, new housing may contribute more GHG emissions in 2050. Brick veneer housing yielded more embodied carbon from the external wall compared to timber homes while concrete slabs used in floors also incurred a large amount of embodied carbon for the residential building stock. Renovating existing housing has the potential to reduce operating energy demand while emitting less embodied carbon, thus policies on this should be considered in developing decarbonisation pathways. Using the bottom-up typology whole-life carbon framework offers granularity in analysing individual-level carbon impact which can be expanded to LGA and state level.
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ItemNo Preview AvailableHow Can Decarbonisation Alternatives Be Prioritised to Achieve Carbon Neutrality in Building Projects?(ASCE American Society of Civil Engineers, 2023-01-01)The built environment generates approximately 40% of the annual global carbon emissions. To achieve the Paris Agreement target towards net-zero emissions, timely and sufficient plans for emissions reduction in the sector need to be made. One of the optimal strategies to realize sustainable structures is to select decarbonisation alternatives that will present a holistic view of environmental impacts. This research effort examined how decarbonisation alternatives are prioritised to achieve carbon neutrality in building projects. Based on extensive semi-structured interviews with experts, this research identified energy, emissions, economy, and exergy (4Es) as the four critical variables considered when making decarbonisation decisions. These 4Es were then assigned to different evaluation criteria, resulting in a total of 27 evaluation criteria. These findings will assist built environment professionals to prioritise decarbonisation alternatives across the entire project lifecycle. It will also provide policymakers with new insights for assessing potential impacts based on these four variables.
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ItemIntegrating sustainability into higher education curricula(Engineers Australia, 2021)Education has been widely recognised as a key instrument to achieve sustainability. Integrating sustainability knowledge, skills and values are considered paramount to enable individuals to contribute to sustainable development. The paper presents a pilot study conducted at the University of Melbourne to investigate the links between the subjects offered by the University and sustainability. The pilot study is a part of the Sustainability in the Curriculum program, which addresses the Sustainability Plan Teaching and Learning Target 1, aimed to incorporate sustainability knowledge and values in the University's curricula. The 17 Sustainability Development Goals have been used as a framework to measure how well the curricula are linked to sustainability. A study first undertaken to establish the link between subjects and the Sustainability Development Goals is presented. The study involved data collection through published literature on Sustainable Development Goals and the University's subject handbook, followed by a survey involving the subject coordinators. The findings of the study show that the strength of linkages between subjects with sustainability varies, highlighting the challenge in some technical subjects in linking their contents with sustainability. Approaches adopted in the Faculty of Engineering and Information Technology in embedding sustainability in the curriculum are presented with some examples and discussions for the next steps.
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ItemForeword(The University of Melbourne, 2022-09-27)
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ItemTransforming Maritime Logistics with The Power of Information Technology(Indonesian Strategic Management Society, 2018-10-22)
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ItemEducation & training for zero energy and lean manufacturing & construction of housing in Australia(Curtin University, 2018-09-27)For zero energy and efficient production of mass customised housing, good outcomes are possible only when it is supportedby a good education curriculum and infrastructure. This paper reports on the status of education for zero energy and lean manufacturing and construction of houses in Australia by investigating offerings of Victorian schools, vocational training and highereducation sectors in these respects. The courses currently offered within Australian Qualifications Framework (AQF) were assessed. It was found that there are still gaps in the education infrastructure that do not provide fully for opportunities to educate the workforce in these areas. Although the main knowledge areas of zero energy are sufficiently covered by courses involving sustainability, renewable energy, energy efficiency in buildings and infrastructure construction, the teaching of lean concepts are not widespread in all these education sectors in Australia.
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ItemProceedings of the Port Competitiveness and Financing Research Workshop(University of Melbourne, Department of Infrastructure Engineering, 2018-04-10)Preface As an initiative of The University of Melbourne and partner universities, The University of Gadja Mada and Universitas Indonesia, a workshop of port researchers and senior practitioners was convened in Melbourne from 4th April to 6th April 2018. The researchers and practitioners have been brought together as a part of the Infrastructure policy and finance research being undertaken under the auspice of the Infrastructure Cluster Agenda of the Australia Indonesia Centre. This set of proceedings collates the presentations on the research day of the workshop conducted on the 4th April 2018. The researchers have been considering infrastructure and finance associated in improving port efficiency in situations where the port directly interfaces with a major city. The researchers have collectively critically reviewed the international literature, conducted surveys in Indonesia and Australia, conducted focus group meetings in Indonesia and Australia, conducted in‐depth interviews, participated in field trips to major port establishments and explored a range of case study projects in both countries. This workshop created the opportunity for researchers to seek opportunity to syntheses their collective research.
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ItemA minimum viable product design of volumetric building modules(ZEMCH Network, 2018)This paper explores the adaptation of an IBM approach to product development emphasising user experience and critical requirements. The potential of this approach to be applied to offsite building manufacture is identified. Minimum Viable Product (MVP) has helped IBM validate key hypothesis about a product, thus increasing its probability of success, before completing its development. This paper attempts to answer the question of whether an MVP of manufactured building unit can aid cost awareness at early design phase of building and also facilitate a mass customisation. Since about 80% of a building’s cost is determined in the concept design phase and the frontend design of manufactured buildings is seemingly unaware of costs, time and processes associated with the methods, this can cause unnecessary cost increases. The investigation involves the design of a parametrically constrained building system of an MVP of space requirement to program. The Victorian apartment design standards, logistic constraints, and user customisation to room sizes are considered to define spatial limitations in the case study. The effectiveness of the system is examined through a case study analysis to identify the possibility for variation of volumetric unit in an apartment building scenario. It is expected to develop a new understanding of modular building constraints at early design stage yet still allow for a mass customized outcome without the expense of variation through lack of front end knowledge of the manufactured system. It is also expected to produce a better understanding of base building costs and time associated with a mass customisable manufactured building system, suggesting possible cost data inputs to the system. It is anticipated that an MVP approach to early building design can help determine design and cost viability of building projects to stakeholders in the early design phase.
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ItemMoving assembly line for low cost mass customised homes(ZEMCH Network, 2018)This paper explores the potential for a mass customised building volume applying lean based moving assembly line method. Past experience would suggest that the moving assembly line stems from a mass production, that reduces customisation through standardisation of processes. However, when combined with a seamless method of design to documentation up front, it is proposed that the moving assembly line could allow for mass customisation. In addition, lean practices suggest that refinements of processes are intrinsically linked to a repetitious assembly process used in producing a homogenous object. We seek to break these moulds and examine the potential for a lean moving assembly line to allow mass customisation and what is required to do so. Moving assembly line offsite building manufacture factories in Australia, Sweden and Japan were visited and observed. A comparative exercise of when, what happens where was undertaken to identify the approaches. It was found that the moving assembly line allows cost and time savings in off-site manufacture of multi storey buildings, and could enable for a mass customised outcome. Lean is the facilitator, or enabler of this process working efficiently.