UNSW Centrifuge Facility

Posted 23 April 2015

This million dollar facility nicknamed the Environmental Time Machine, is a joint effort between the School of Civil & Environmental Engineering and the School of Mining Engineering. The centrifuge is helping researchers from CWI and across UNSW change the way engineers understand how earth’s resources can be managed more sustainably.

Research in the facility includes measuring long term recharge rates for groundwater, testing caprock integrity for gas developments and looking at geochemical reactions during slow underground flow. Centrifuge technology could also be useful for testing durability of tight membranes and materials, and for experiments to design safer open cut and underground mining that reduces environmental impacts.

Further information on research for tight porous media using centrifuge technology is available at: