June 9, 2005

Message from the Rector I am very pleased to report that Greg Milford of ITEE, Max Tani of the School of Business and James Warn, also from the School of Business have all been promoted to Senior Lecturer.  I can also report that the Council of the University of New South Wales has conferred the title of Emeritus Professor upon Stewart Campbell, effective upon his upcoming retirement.  Stewart has made an outstanding contribution to the College and I look forward to his continuing association with us. Professor John Baird Rector

Design and Build Competition What do golf balls, golf tees, rubber bands, batteries and wires, timber, aluminium and plastics have in common? You might say not much or an extremely bad day on the golf course! To the second year engineering students in the School of Aerospace , Civil and Mechanical Engineering (ACME), these items were vital components in the 2005 Weir-Warman and the Institute of Engineers Australia Design and Build Competition which was held recently in the ACME workshops. Over the course of this semester, seventeen teams of four students have been furiously designing and building their entries for this years competition, Project ‘SCAD' (Safe Collection and Delivery). The brief was to build a vehicle that would travel down a steep slope and traverse a 30cm chasm half way down the course. All well and good, but on the way down the vehicle had to also collect up to ten ‘people' represented by golf balls and held onto the board by golf tees. Once recovered, the ‘people' had to be safely delivered across the chasm to the safety of the downward slope. The designs came in all shapes and sizes but had to fit into a standard 40x40 cm frame. Designs included parts cannibalised from Tonka Trucks, skate boards, aluminium fly screens, small motors and a wide range of other materials. One design could have been mistaken for a model of a medieval war machine. How did they perform you may ask? One entry was awarded a land speed record but ‘ooops' forgot to collect any passengers from the board and collected half a dozen bystanders instead. Another design entry got into serious difficulties in the chasm while other entries managed to collect their passengers but got caught up in the tees. And yes, there was an outright winner that collected nine passengers and traversed the chasm. The ‘oohs' and ‘ahhs' and cheers of the support teams were testament to the enthusiasm and enjoyment shown by the students. The winning team from last Wednesday's exciting event will be heading off to Sydney to compete in the next stage of this trans-Tasman competition. We wish them all the best and will endeavour to bring you updates on their progress as it comes to hand. For more information on the Weir-Warman and the IEA Design and Build Competion contact: Dr. Warren Smith Head of School ACME (email: w.smith@adfa.edu.au)

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RESEARCH OFFICE REPORT

For Whom the Wind Blows (not to mention: how fast, which way, ….)

When next your friendly neighbourhood police officer nabs you with a speed gun, take some comfort in the fact that similar technology allows UNSW@ADFA researchers John Taylor and David Low to work out how the wind is blowing, in the lowest few kilometres of the atmosphere.

A different type of profiler ….(Dr John Taylor and Dr David Low from the School of Physical , Environmental and Mathematical Sciences)

An electromagnetic wind profiler is a radar system with three or more beams: one that points vertically, and two more inclined at a small angle to the vertical. The radar receiver detects the part of a transmitted signal that is backscattered from turbulent fluctuations in the atmosphere – and compared to how efficiently your car acts as a target, only a tiny fraction of the transmitted energy makes its way back to the ground station. The scatterers are moving with the wind, so the returned signal is Doppler shifted; and by measuring this Doppler shift, wind speed and direction can be determined. Looking for echoes at a range of time-delays after transmission (“range gating”) allows wind parameters at different altitudes to be determined.

With more complex signal analysis, information about turbulence in the atmosphere can be extracted. A similar technique – the Radar Acoustic Sounding System, or RASS – sends a series of sound waves into the atmosphere to create radar-reflecting irregularities, which move up through the atmosphere at the speed of sound. Since the speed of sound depends on temperature, measuring the speed of these created irregularities can be used to infer the temperature profile – with no danger of being picked up “over the limit”!

It's easy to write down, but making one of these systems work and extracting reliable performance is quite a challenge. Despite this electromagnetic wind profilers have been around for around 25 years now and, to some extent, could be considered to be a mature technology. So why are we working with these systems? For a start, commercial systems are prohibitively expensive (around $500,000); but more importantly, commercial systems are essentially “black boxes” where the user has only limited control over the instrument operation and data processing. We have built our own system because this gives us the ability to make the changes to the operation of the instrument and its software. This ability is the key to doing research on, and with, these instruments. As an example, in the past wind profilers have used dedicated signal processing hardware to acquire and perform the early stages of signal processing. Our new “low tech” version of the profiler does away with the dedicated hardware and uses a commercial computer data acquisition card to digitise the radar returns and transfer them to computer memory. All further data processing is carried out on an ordinary PC. When this is all working, investigating different signal processing techniques will just be a matter of working with a regular computer programming language, with no need to understand the intricacies of specialised hardware which is already superceded before the instrument is running.

As well as having a research interest in the design and development of these systems, and in the algorithms that extract useful information from the radar echoes, we take them into the field to look at weather! Over the summer of 1999-2000 we deployed a suite of atmospheric profilers (including the electromagnetic radar, along with two acoustic radars) at Wagga Wagga, to investigate the inland propagation of surges. Long-time Canberra residents will be familiar with the summertime cool change winds that arrive from the east around 7pm; Wagga residents experience something similar around midnight. While these easterly surges have attracted interest in the past, including some “surge chasing” by car, we were able to make detailed measurements of the time-height evolution of the surge.

Our next big project is to take the systems to Weipa, on the western side of the Gulf of Carpentaria , as part of a $500,000 ARC Discovery Grant aimed at “Predicting Organised Tropical Convection”. This project will combine our profilers, autonomous instrumented aircraft (the Aerosonde), automatic weather stations on the ground, and mathematical modeling, to investigate the processes that initiate local convection and thunderstorms in the tropics in the early wet season (December). The mandatory risk assessment could be summarized by, “Wear a hat, and don't annoy the crocodiles…”.

Inaugural Faculty Seminar

The inaugural Faculty Seminar presented by Associate Professor Robin Prior was a great success and ensured that those who attended would look at military history in a different light in future. (Staff in the Research Office will remove their mo rose - coloured glasses from here-on in!! And we did investigate the meaning of ‘flanning' – it was not a typo!)

(Watch this space for an announcement of the next presentation in the Faculty Seminar Series. It promises to be a Seminar which will interest anyone interested in acoustics, history, engineering, design, music, maths…….and will showcase some of the work being undertaken by one of our Postdoctoral Fellows)

Completion and Mid-term research scholarships

The Research Office advises that the closing date for Completion Scholarships and Mid-term research

Scholarships is 30 June. Guidelines and information relating to these scholarships may be found on the Research Office website at: http://www.unsw.adfa.edu.au/units/research/index.html

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Staff Bulletins

If you have something you would like to contribute, please download and complete the submission form and email the information to newsletter@adfa.edu.au.

UNSW International Fellowships Program

Professor Joseph Lai, associate Dean (Research) would like to draw the attention of both academic and general staff to the 2005 UNSW International Fellowships Program: http://www.unsw.edu.au/international/int/intfellowprog.html

Please note that, for the first time, the Gordon J Samuels Fellowships will be offered for research projects in selected institutions in North America .

Professor Lai encourages you to alert staff, both academic and general, to the opportunities these Fellowships provide. All Fellowships have a common closing date of July 8 2005.

For further information and answers to any questions you may have concerning these Fellowships please contact Anne Robertson, International Alliances Officer, Office of the Deputy Vice-Chancellor (International and Development) on 02 9385 2784

Relocation of Mail Room

The area around the mailroom in building 32 is closed. Until further notice the mailroom will be relocated up at the Registry, Level 2 Administration Bld, Room 206.

Cathy Nicholls
Registry Supervisor

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Classifieds

If you have something you would like to contribute, please download and complete the submission form and email the information to newsletter@adfa.edu.au

FOR SALE

DVD Recorder - JVC DMR10S, Records DVD-RAM, DVD-RW, DVD-R, plays DVD-RAM, DVD-RW, DVD-R, DVD, CD, SVCD,VCD, MP3 & DIGITAL STILLS. Unwanted prize - Band New, still in box. RRP $599. SELL $350 Ph. Ty on 62551603

TOYOTA Camry 1989, 2.0L, white, auto, a/c, p/s, 239,000 km, very good cond, NSW reg 04/06, Going O/S, $2,850 ono, Ph 0411 809 182 or 62688693.

ACCOMMODATION AVAILABLE

Florey- 2 bedroom townhouse with double lockup garage $270 P.W. Contact Barry Bosanac 62543415 hm, 62688474 wk.

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Free Community Lectures

PEMS - Physics Seminar - 10 June

Friday 10 June at 11.10 am in P25, PEMS South (Building 26)

Dr Greg Lane

"Structure of neutron-rich nuclei: Difficulties, successes, nuclear forces and stellar thermometers."

Friday 17 June at 11.10 am in P25, PEMS South (Building 26)

Honours Students Daniel Tucker, Ilana Napier, Banchachit Saensunon will present 15 minute Mid-term Honours Seminars

For details go to http://www.unsw.adfa.edu.au/pems/news/phys_disc_sem.html

 

Royal Aeronautical Society Lecture - 14 June

The A380 - Supporting its Introduction

David Pattie

Head, Air Transport, Airworthiness Standards, CASA

6pm, Tuesday 14 th June 2005

Military Lecture Theatre, ADFA

The A380 is a major advance in the technology of passenger carrying aircraft. It introduces several new technologies and advances in existing technologies. The process of getting such an aircraft in the air is complicated and involves several different participants - the manufacturer, the operators and the regulators. Part of the process is the certification - or approval - of the design. And part of turning that design into an aircraft that can be operated efficiently is the development of the aircraft's maintenance program. The application of the Maintenance Steering Group (MSG) philosophy to the A380 has also meant the program developers have needed to adapt to some new technologies and design principles. This presentation will provide an overview of the aircraft development to date and in particular the application of MSG-3 to the maintenance program development.

David attended Canterbury University and graduated with an honours degree in Engineering before pursuing his career in the Royal New Zealand Air Force. In the twelve years he served as an engineering officer he worked on helicopters, transport aircraft and latterly the strike aircraft fleet. David left the Air Force from RNZAF Base Ohakea as Officer Commanding Maintenance Support after helping introduce the Macchi jet trainer to service. David then joined the Civil Aviation Authority of New Zealand as a technical specialist before taking the role of Manager Standards Development. In the five years at CAA David was integral in the introduction of the new aviation rules framework for New Zealand . He joined CASA in 2000 where he has since completed his Masters in Public Policy and is currently Head of the Air Transport Section of the Airworthiness Standards Branch. David is heavily involved in the regulatory review program at CASA as well as representing Australia on the International Maintenance Review Board Policy Board and participating in the A380 introduction project. As of 1st July, David takes up the role of Head of Airworthiness for the Air Transport Operation Group.

As usual refreshments will be available in the Officers Mess before the meeting and Members are reminded to get a security pass from the Duty Desk adjacent to the Military Theatre unless they wear a photo ID issued by ADFA, ADF or a Defence contractor. Those who would like to continue discussions after the presentation are most welcome to join the committee and the speaker for dinner at a venue to be decided on the night.

 

Issues in the Selection and Welding of Constructional Steels
Tuesday 21 June 2005

The speaker will examine AS1554.1 showing extracts required in the spirit and operation of this Australian Standard. Real case studies with legal issues will be presented to allow design engineers to understand the responsibilities embodied and likewise for the steelwork fabricator providing the product. An overview is given of important criteria in the selection of steels for welded fabrication – strength, toughness and weldability.
The case studies explore these difficulties encountered in steel fabrication. Specifying and fabricating correctly and thoroughly reduces potential risk as revealed in these case studies for all parties delivering the welded solution.

Speaker:
Dr Stephen Yeomans is an Associate Professor, School of Aerospace, Civil and Mechanical Engineering at the University of New South Wales campus of the Australian Defence Force
Academy in Canberra, ACT. He is Convenor, WTIA Technical and Research Panel 3 -Aluminium, Titanium and Magnesium Alloys and also Chair, Standards Australia Committee WD/3/3 responsible for the revision of AS/NZS 1665 -Welding of Aluminium.

Date: Tuesday 21 June 2005
Venue: Deakin Room
Deakin Sports and Social Club Grose Street, Deakin ACT
Time: 5:30pm refreshments and finger food
6:00 - 7:30pm presentation
Cost: Free
RSVP: Thursday 16 June 2005

Further Information:
Scott Munter, ASI National Manager – Engineering & Construction
Email: scottm@steel.org.au Tel: (02) 9929 6307
Web: www.steel.org.au
Note:Attendance may be credited towards Engineers Australia Continuing Professional Development (CPD) requirements. (Engineers Australia members are required to undertake a minimum 150 hours of equivalent CPD every three years).

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Important Dates

2005 University Lecture - Speaker Reverend Tim Costello, CEO World Vision Australia		1 September 2005
UNSW@ADFA Degree Conferral Ceremonies		7 December 2005
ADFA Graduation Parade		8 December 2005

 

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Phone: 02 6268 8701
Email: newsletter@adfa.edu.au

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