Stabilising soil foundation with biopolymer for enhanced rail transport

Funding: 2023: $125,588
2024: $144,411
2025: $146,721
2026: $26,462

Project Member(s): Nguyen, T.

Funding or Partner Organisation: Australian Research Council (ARC DECRA Scheme)
Australian Research Council (ARC DECRA Scheme)

Start year: 2023

Summary: This project will innovatively develop a novel cost-effective and eco-friendly method to stabilize soil foundation for faster and heavier rail transport. The fundamental knowledge of the cyclic behaviour of soil will be advanced significantly through an iconic in-house test associated with state-of-the-art sensors and monitoring techniques and advanced computational approaches. This will then facilitate the use of natural biopolymers to remediate mud pumping railways which have been a long-standing critical issue causing substantial annual maintenance cost and poor transport efficiency in Australia and worldwide. The project will yield immense benefits to transport infrastructure, mining, agriculture, environment and climate change remediation.

FOR Codes: Civil geotechnical engineering , Environmentally sustainable engineering , Environmentally sustainable construction activities not elsewhere classified, Environmentally sustainable transport activities, Civil construction processes, Adaptation to climate change in construction

Acknowledgement of Country

UTS acknowledges the Gadigal people of the Eora Nation, the Boorooberongal people of the Dharug Nation, the Bidiagal people and the Gamaygal people, upon whose ancestral lands our university stands. We would also like to pay respect to the Elders both past and present, acknowledging them as the traditional custodians of knowledge for these lands.