School of Mechanical and Manufacturing Engineering

The UNSW Mavstar team is at the forefront of an international race to develop a micro-aerial vehicle, or MAV, which can autonomously perform search, tracking and reconnaissance operations. Click here to watch the UNSWTV video (339 MB, 3:52 mins).

August — Election of CIRP Fellow

Associate Professor Sami Kara has been elected as a Fellow of The International Academy for Production Engineering (CIRP).

The Academy is the world's leading organisation in production engineering research and A/Prof Kara, who is founder and Director of Research of the Life Cycle Engineering & Management Research Group, is the sole Australian representative among the 142 fellows drawn from 41 member nations.

The Academy advises industry and governments on the implementation of environmentally, economically and socially sustainable manufacturing practices and technologies. Fellowships in the Academy are strictly limited and awarded only after rigorous assessment and demonstration of excellence in research.

June — Micro-chopper mission accomplished

UNSW's MAVSTAR micro-aerial vehicle team has conducted a successful campaign in its latest competition against university teams from around the world.

The MAVSTAR crew flew to Pensacola, Florida, this month to contest iMAV09, the 4th US-European Workshop and Flight Competition for Micro Air Vehicles. Team leader Mark Whitty said MAVSTAR chalked up two wins — a result which was particularly pleasing after a demanding preparation period. "The team attained first place for the quality of the journal paper and first place for their presentation of the MAV at the workshop," he said.

MAVSTAR team members performing pre-flight checks during the competition

Following an impressive performance in the indoor competition, which tested the control and navigation abilities of the UNSW MAV, MAVSTAR was also awarded third place in that category.

Wrapping up an eventful period, MAVSTAR also recently appeared on ABC TV's New Inventors program's Dealing With Disaster special. The segment, filmed in the MAVSTAR workshop in the School of Mechanical and Manufacturing Engineering, gave a national audience an insight into the capabilities and potential of the micro-chopper.

With the MAV currently operated by remote control, the MAVSTAR team are working steadily towards their goal of an autonomous aerial vehicle which will have applications in search, tracking and rescue situations.

June — The Green Weeder

A unique system to eradicate weeds has been developed by a team led by A/Prof Jayantha Katupitiya. Watch the YouTube video to find out more.

May 2009 — Mixed-Modes I/II/III Fracture Grip Interface Innovative Patent 2008101040

A/Prof Khosrow Zarrabi and one of his PhD students, Mr Arash Karpour, have recently been granted an "Innovative Patent" for the design and manufacture of a novel grip interface for testing fracture specimens under multiaxial loading in a universal testing machine; see Figures 1 and 2.

Normally industrial structures contain crack-like defects. The cracks may be generated during manufacture, assembly, and/or in service. Cracks may also be inherent in the material. It is uneconomic to detect and repair all of the cracks existing in an industrial component. Thus there exists a need to assess the integrity of defected components and identify and take remedial actions about those cracks that, if left unrepaired, would eventually cause failure of the component.

Referring to Figure 3, it is well established that fracture of structures containing crack-like defects can occur under mode I (tensile) loading alone, mode II (in-plane shear) loading alone, mode III (out-of-plane shear) loading alone or a combination of all three modes. For cracks in complex industrial components, the loads may not be applied in one of these modes alone, i.e., in a single direction. Instead, the material near the crack-tip that constitutes the critical zone may be subjected to a combination of tension, in-plane shear and out-of plane shear loading.

Currently, there are no generally accepted criteria for integrity assessment of the defected structures subjected to mixed modes I/II/III loading. To this end, A/Prof Zarrabi and one of his research team that includes Mr Karpour are currently developing novel mixed mode fracture paradigms. To validate these models, pertinent experimental data are required. These data are scarce due to the complexity of the required testing arrangement. It is desirable to use a universal testing machine for this task for its accuracy, control of loading rate and loading capacity but such a machine is capable of applying loading to a specimen in a single direction only. The above-mentioned grip interface simplifies the required testing and allows the crack-tip zone simultaneously to be loaded in multiaxial directions when the testing is carried out in a universal testing machine such as an INSTRON Digital 8504 machine.

The grip is designed to interface between the specimen and a universal testing machine. Figure 1 depicts the novel design of the new grip interface schematically. Referring to Figures 1 and 2, two grips are used, the upper grip connects the specimen to the load cell-upper clamp assembly and the lower grip connects the specimen to the lower clamp. Depending on the orientation of the crack and the two holes through which the grips are connected to the clamps, in and out-of-plane forces in various directions can simultaneously be applied to the specimen generating the desired mixed-modes I, II and III, loading.

April 2009 — Industry-based projects for 4th Year Manufacturing students

The School's Fourth Year Manufacturing Engineering students are involved in industry-based projects as part of their MANF4020 Analysis of Manufacturing Systems course. The course is structured as an industry-based team project for all students. Students work in teams in selected companies on specific projects. The course aims at exposing students to real life industry problems so that they can apply their academic skill and knowledge to a real-life situation. This year students are working at Baxter International, who develop, manufacture and market products by applying a unique combination of expertise in medical devices, pharmaceutical and biotechnology. The course is convened by A/Prof Sami Kara and the industry supervisor Bernard Kornfeld.

Fourth Year Manufacturing Engineering students with staff members at Baxter International

April 2009 — Annual Prize Giving Ceremony

Prize winners, sponsors and presenters at the School's Annual Prize Giving ceremony, held on 21 April 2009. Congratulations to the 2008 prize winners and our thanks to the sponsors and presenters of the prizes for their continued support of this event.

March 2009 — Designing Engineering Curricula Forum

The University of New South Wales, in partnership with The University of Melbourne, The University of Sydney and Queensland University of Technology, has received a major federal government grant from the Australian Learning & Teaching Council to look at our current engineering education programs and propose strategies for change.

As part of the project, Dr Carl Reidsema and his researcher Ms Rosalie Goldsmith have organised a "Designing Engineering Curricula" Forum to be held at UNSW on the 16th and 17th of April, 2009. Delegates are being targeted from around Australia and will consist of 40 key industry delegates, 40 influential and innovative academics including Deans, Heads of Schools and Professors of Engineering Education, and 20 of our best undergraduate students.

The main outcome of the Forum will be the drafting of a set of recommendations for implementing best practice engineering education that will meet the needs of industry into the future. These recommendations will form a joint submission to the Australian Council of Engineering Deans and the Engineers Australia Accreditation Panel, both of whom are key stakeholders in this project.