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This modelling tool can enhance the durability of concrete structures

Civil engineer Dr Ali Nezhad breaks down an innovative approach to improving concrete durability.

Concrete cracking is aesthetically unpleasing and can lead to structural defects. A new modelling tool is designed to address this.

Concrete durability issues such as delayed ettringite formation make things difficult for engineers working in construction.

Dr Ali Nezhad, Head of Head of Sustainability and Innovation at Boral, illustrated to create the importance of minimising cracking to maximise long-term performance.  He also shared the rationale for EVOLVE, a modelling tool developed by Boral to predict the temperature differential of concrete more effectively.  Watch the video and share your thoughts on the topic in the comments.

Two countries doing Indigenous engineering right

How Canada and New Zealand are making moves toward engineering success.

Australia can learn from how other countries are integrating First Nations engineering perspectives.

Engineering is not a modern concept. For centuries, infrastructure has been designed and developed, and communities improved, in the name of problem-solving for the good of local communities.

In Canada, this engineering was conducted by the region’s indigenous people in line with strong values around sustainability and environmental stewardship.

So it makes little sense today that, as reported in the paper Indigineering: Engineering Through Indigenous Knowledge and Mino Pimachisowin, in certain regions such as Saskatchewan Indigenous people make up 16.3 per cent of the population but just 1.2 per cent of engineers.

The author of that paper is Cree Metis man John Desjarlais, a mechanical engineer. As well as being Chief Impact Officer for KIHEW Consulting and Research, and Executive Director of the Indigenous Resource Network, Desjarlais is a past President of the Association of Professional Engineers and Geo Scientists of Saskatchewan.

Confronting extremes in a changing climate

The world is facing more extreme and more frequent natural disasters, and engineers are among those on the front lines.

The world is facing more extreme and more frequent natural disasters —  and engineers are among those on the front lines. 

As climate change sets in, instigating more frequent — and often, more extreme — natural disasters, engineers are increasingly at the vanguard of efforts to blunt the onslaught and prepare communities to cope.

From flood predictions to fire behaviour research, it’s their technical expertise that can make the difference between life and death for those caught up in nature’s fury.

Disasters take lives and livelihoods, and a growing economic toll — $38 billion a year on average, a figure estimated to reach at least $73 billion per year by 2060, even with lower emissions, according to the National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA).

In the face of devastating fires and floods, the federal government set up the agency in September 2022 to better respond in times of disaster and plan for long-term preparedness and faster recovery.

While NEMA funds programs and initiatives, and provides round-the-clock all-hazards monitoring and operational coordination, it is engineers — as creative problem-solvers and systems thinkers — who are among those at the forefront of the fight against climate change.

Since the devastating “once-in-1000 year” floods in the Northern Rivers region of New South Wales in March 2022, Engineers Without Borders Australia (EWB) has engaged engineers, including individual professionals and employees of engineering firms Arup and Douglas Partners under pro bono programs, to assist residents with geotechnical assessments, advice on waterway crossings and the structural assessment of buildings.

The risk of landslides is increasing

Last week’s landslide on the Mornington Peninsula has sparked a conversation about the difficulties of retrospective mitigation.

The sight of a house sliding down a hillside on the Mornington Peninsula had many calling for action. But what can engineers do?

A weatherboard house lies splintered at the base of a steep hillside, looking more like a failed children’s art project than a $2 million trophy home.

Last week’s landslide at McCrae on the Mornington Peninsula destroyed one house, injured a council worker and saw around 20 neighbouring properties evacuated pending urgent assessment.

The dramatic escalation to a series of landslides on the peninsula – there have been at least another two recent events in the area – has put homeowners on edge.

The cause of this landslide is currently unknown: geotechnical and groundwater assessments are ongoing, the Mornington Peninsula Shire said.

But the event raises broader questions about the safety of buildings that often predate planning controls for landslides, the effect climate change might play in increasing the occurrence of such events, and the role of engineers in mitigating the risk of further landslides.

Giving a second life to organic waste

Food and garden organics are being saved from methane generation at landfills and transformed into high-grade compost.

At Veolia’s Bulla Organics Facility in Melbourne’s north-west, food and garden organics are saved from methane generation at landfills and transformed into high-grade compost.

There is a common belief that organic waste is fine to send to landfill. After all, it would simply break down over time. However, sending nutrients back into the soil and resulting in a healthier natural environment is the
preferred option.

Not only does placing organic waste in landfill miss a powerful opportunity for resource recovery and circularity in waste management; it also poses serious environmental risk.

When organic waste decomposes anaerobically, or in an environment of low oxygen – as is the case when the waste is buried – methane is released as a result of the breakdown process. Methane, compared to carbon dioxide, can be 26 times more potent in terms of greenhouse gas emission.

In an engineered composting facility such as Veolia’s Bulla Organics Facility in Melbourne, the composting occurs in an aerobic environment.