Final year projects / Internships

The PELM centre has final year project opportunities in several exciting research areas. Projects are updated regularly so please check this page often. At the moment we have the following projects available:

• Effect of stress relieving conditions on residual stresses in constructional steels used in alumina refineries
  
  Supervised by Prof Richard Clegg
  
  Residual stresses can result from the welding during the construction of plant and equipment. If left untreated, residual stresses can lead to major problems in process plant equipment such as alumina refineries, due to the propensity of steels to suffer from caustic cracking, a stress corrosion cracking mechanism. In this project, the student will measure residual stresses in a series of weld coupons that have been post-weld heat treated in a number of ways.

• Rail Grinding: developement of best practice model for optimal grinding decisions (no longer available)
  
  Supervised by A/Prof Gopi Chattopadhyay
  
  The specific objective of this research is to develop best practice model for optimal grinding decisions based on effect of various factors on rail wheel wear and fatigue of right and left rails. The student will be required to develop guidelines, develop combined below rail and above rail decision model for enhancing rail-wheel life and compile data from industry partners and available data from overseas.

• Rail Lubrication: data analysis and modelling for improvement of industry practices of wheel - rail friction modification (no longer available)
  
  Supervised by A/Prof Gopi Chattopadhyay
  
  The aim of the project is to collect data for analysing and modelling to improve industry practices of wheel - rail friction modification. The project will also seek to contribute to performance based standards considering cost and risks for lubrication decisions and the placement of lubricators on curves.

• Experimental Study of Scaling Factors in Material Fatigue
  
  Supervised by Dr Kai Duan
  
  The studies over the past one and a half centuries or so have led to the establishment of various fatigue mechanisms and a number of models for predicting fatigue failures. Because of, however, the extreme complexity of fatigue problems, many of these fatigue models are empirical in nature, and their applications are rather limited. Recently, Taylor and his colleagues have revitalised the use of a scaling factor in continuum-mechanics, and coined a term, the theory of critical distance (TCD) to cover its applications to the failures of structure under both monotonic and cyclic loads.In PELM, CQ-University, we have recently been planning research projects to investigate further the relationships between the scaling factors and the material microstructures, specimen geometry and size, loading configurations as well as environment. Aims are to identify the applicability of TCD and Asymptotic Boundary Effect Model, and to develop a unified fracture mechanics model for fatigue failure. As a very first step for this study, two small experimental projects have been proposed for 2 final year and/or internship students. Both experiments will be carried out using the same aluminium alloy:
  
  
• • Experimental Study on Ligament Dependence of Fatigue Behaviour (1 student project)
  • Experimental Study on Size Dependence of Fatigue Behaviour of Geometrically Similar Specimens (1 student project)
    
    
• Effect of temperature on oxide film morphology for mild steel exposed to Bayer liquor
  
  Supervised by A/Prof David Druskovich
  
  The Corrosion Testing laboratory at PELM has recently commissioned a corrosion flow loop that simulates the process in the heater trains in the digestor plant of an alumina refinery. The loop has been designed to operate at temperatures up to 200^oC at a range of fluid velocities. The corrosion rate of metal coupons can be measured in situ utilising electrochemical equipment. This project will investigate the corrosion rate and the morphology of the oxide coatings on mild steel as a function of the loop temperature under controlled turbulent flow conditions. The corrosion rates will be measured electrochemically and the oxide morphology will be characterised with scanning electron microscopy and EDS analysis. The results of this study will be useful to the alumina industry and will also contribute to corrosion research knowledge in this field. The project is experimental in nature and will appeal to chemistry or engineering students that wish to work with laboratory scale process equipment.