Posted 15 July 2010
Mark Whelan and Wendy Timms at ICPMG2010.
The National Centre for Groundwater Research and Training was represented at the recent International Conference on Physical Modelling in Geotechnics (ICPMG2010) in Zurich, Switzerland.
Dr Wendy Timms and Mark Whelan from the UNSW Water Research Laboratory participated in the conference from 28th June to 1st July as part of their work for the NCGRT.
A poster presentation of their work entitled "Introducing the NCGRT centrifuge permeameter facility, Sydney, Australia" was displayed at the conference (Download PDF 981KB).
Studying groundwater flow through clay aquitards is an innovative application of a geotechnical centrifuge with many benefits for measuring permeability, recharge and migration of contaminants (Click here to find out more). The centrifuge permeameter uses accelerated gravity to drive fluid flow through samples of porous media such as drill core.
Held once every 4 years, the ICPMG conference is an important gathering of experts from several centrifuge modelling facilities around the world.
There was also very useful exchange as part of the technicians' program and design meetings with the centrifuge supplier. Dinner and drinks were a time for discussions with research collaborators and potential recruits to the NCGRT-UNSW team.
Wendy and Mark reported that the ICPMG conference was a very well run event, with the added benefits of experiencing the beautiful city of Zurich, along with alpine summits.
Links:
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The Grand Challenge on Rapid Urbanisation will establish Think Deep Australia, led by Dr Marilu Melo Zurita, to explore how we can use our urban underground spaces for community benefit.
On the 21 August 2020, CWI researchers made a submission to the National Water Reform Inquiry, identifying priority areas and making a number of recommendations as to how to achieve a sustainable groundwater future for Australia.
Results published from a research project between the Land Development Department (LDD) Thailand and UNSW has demonstrated how 2-dimensional mapping can be used to understand soil salinity adjacent to a earthen canal in north east Thailand (Khongnawang et al. 2020).
