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SWINBURNE UNIVERSITY RESEARCHERS HAVE REPURPOSED A WELL-KNOWN MANUFACTURING TECHNOLOGY TO CREATE NEW MATERIALS WITH SPECIAL PROPERTIES CAPABLE OF ABSORBING SOUND AND SEISMIC WAVES. ROADS AND INFRASTRUCTURE MAGAZINE SPEAKS TO PROFESSOR XIAODONG HUANG ABOUT THE RESEARCH.
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hen looking to create metamaterials capable of traffic sound absorption and earthquake proofing, the Swinburne University engineering research team started with a design method called Bi-directional Evolutionary Structural Optimisation (BESO) and advanced manufacturing techniques. The BESO method, an intelligent design approach to create building structures, is a computer software that enables engineers to input conditions, such as loading or 44
ROADS JULY 2019
boundary restrictions. Professor Xiaodong Huang, Leader of the Swinburne research project says the software presents the best structural option for infrastructure projects. The method was created 10 years ago and has gradually been developed, starting with designs for mechanical or civil infrastructure, which aids projects to hold more volume efficiently. In recent years, the research team extended the BESO method to include the design of material used for infrastructure projects.
By integrating physics with the BESO method, researchers have found they can create materials with scientific properties, which help with other design problems, such as noise attenuation or stabilisation. Professor Huang is a Professor of Mechanical Engineering, who joined Swinburne in 2017 after nearly 13 years at the Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology. He created the gradient BESO method and is an expert in topology optimisation. “The generalised BESO method, called
