Civil & Natural Resources

Civil and Natural Resources Engineering

Seminar Series 2011

Seminars are on Fridays starting at 1:10pm in room E11. Any change in venue or time will be highlighted. Usually, presenations will be 35 minutes, leaving approximately 15 minutes for discussion afterwards.

All interested students, staff, practising engineers and public are invited to attend. Postgraduates are expected to attend.

If no affiliation is noted, the speaker is part of the University of Canterbury Civil and Natural Resources Engineering Department.

Date Title: Presenter Add to your Outlook Calendar

Friday 9 Sept, 1.10 pm, E16

A 100% renewable electricity system for New Zealand, Dr Ian Mason

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The New Zealand electricity generation system is dominated by hydro generation, presently at approximately 54% of installed capacity, augmented with approximately 31% fossil-fuelled generation, plus contributions from geothermal, wind, and biomass resources.  In order to explore the potential for a 100% renewable electricity generation system with substantially increased levels of wind penetration, fossil-fuelled electricity production was removed from an historic 3 year data set (2005-2007), and replaced by modelled electricity production from wind, geothermal and additional peaking options.  Generation mixes comprising 53-61% hydro, 22-25% wind, 12-14% geothermal, 1% biomass and 0-12% additional peaking generation were found to be feasible on an energy and power basis, whilst maintaining net hydro storage.  However, several important issues remained unresolved.  Maximum and minimum lake levels fluctuated more widely than those historically measured, and significant wind and hydro energy spillage occurred.  In order to meet residual power deficits, > 1100 MW peaking plant capacity with a 1.1% load factor, the equivalent in demand-side measures, or a combination of both, was indicated.   Finally, the study period did not include any particularly dry hydrological years.  This seminar will background the 2005-2007 study and demonstrate solutions to the problems of hydro and wind energy spillage, peaking, and security of supply in a particularly dry hydrological year.

 

All Welcome

Recent presentations:

 

Prof Fabio Biondini, Department of Structural Engineering, Politecnico di Milano, Milan, Italy
Time-variant Performance and Lifetime Reliability of Concrete Structures Exposed to Fire and Corrosion

Weng Yuen Kam, University of Canterbury
Selective Weakening and Post-Tensioning for the Seismic Retrofit of Non-Ductile RC Frames

Professor Roberto Leon, School of Civil and Environmental Engineering, Georgia Tech, Atlanta
Analytical and Experimental Assessment of Steel Truss Bridge Gusset Plate Connections

Professor Say Kee Ong, Iowa State University, USA
Compounds of emerging concern: Estrogenic compounds in municipal wastewater and in the environment

Associate Professor Guido Magenes, University of Pavia
Seismic design and assessment of masonry buildings in Italy:  Recent research and code development issues

Michael Sievers, Hinnerk Bormann, CUTEC-Institut GmbH, Clausthal-Zellerfeld, Germany
Improving the energy efficiency of sewage treatment plants by coupling the thermal sludge hydrolysis with P-N-recovery

2010

Professor Eckart Meiburg, University of California at Santa Barbra, USA
Gravity and Turbidity Currents Interacting with Submarine Topography

Dr Gustaaf Kikkert, Hong Kong University of Science and Technology
Hydrodynamics and Sediment Transport in the Swash-zone

Dr Mohammad Nazmul Islam, Presidency University, Bangladesh
Application of Theory of Inverse Problems to Fracture Mechanics

Professor Henri Gavin, Duke University, Durham, USA
Synthetic Spectrum-Compatible Earthquake Ground Motions

Bill Veale, (former ME student)
Hydraulic Engineering in Hostile Environments

Professor David Makai, University of Wyomin, USA
Evaluating the Durability of Bonded CFRP Repair/ Strengthening of Concrete Beams

Dr John Varvo, AFIS, and Amy Stephenson, PhD Student, University of Canterbury
Measuring Organisational Resilience

Professor Akira Wada
Recent Japanese Innovations on the Seismic Design of Buildings

Professor Michel Bruneau, University of Buffalo
Longevity and Resilience of Steel Structures

Ben-Gurion University of the Negev, Israel
Limitations and Challenges of Wastewater Reuse in Israel

Professor Daniel Yoder, University of Tennessee, USA
Playing with Water (and dirt and plants!) for Fun and Profit

David Yeoh, PhD Student, University of Canterbury
Short and Long-term Experimental Evaluations on Timber-Concrete Composite Floor Systems

Associate Professor Ken Elwood, University of British Columbia
Collapse Behaviour of Nonductile Concrete Columns and Frames

2009

Professor Douglas Baker Queensland University of Technology
The Airport Metropolis: Managing the Interfaces

Professor Jun Kanda, University of Tokyo
Risk Communication for Building Approval System

Professor Martin Snaith, University of Birmington, UK
Corruption in the roads sector, its effects and lessons to be learned beyond the obvious

Dr Brendon Bradley, former PhD student in this department
Structure-Specific Seismic Risk Assessment: An Example and its Role in Earthquake Engineering

Norman Hardie, Distinguished Fellow of the Institution of NZ Engineers and Retired Civil Engineer
Water - West to East

Dr Alex Sutherland, former Dean of Engineering, University of Canterbury and currently Environment Court Commissioner
An Engineer in the Environment Court

Dr Susan Turner, Visiting Erskine Fellow from University of Auckland
Microbial ecology and genomics of activated sludge: revealing the inner secrets of wastewater treatment

Professor Douglas Gransberg, Visiting Erskine Fellow from University of Oklahoma, USA
Cost engineering in research: Articulating the technical value of engineering in terms the non-engineers can understand

Dr Colin Smith, Visiting Erskine Fellow from University of Sheffield, UK
Computer generated structures and plastic collapse mechanisms: developments in Layout Optimization

Elizabeth Mangundu, MEngSt Student
The effects of colouring cycle spaces on motor vehicles and bicycles positioning behaviour at signalised intersections in Christchurch

Professor Peter Fajfar, University of Ljubljana, Slovenia
A practice-oriented nonlinear method for seismic analysis and evaluation of structures

Ms. Catherine Whyte: PhD Candidate, Univ of California-Berkeley, USA
Hybrid Simulation and Distributed Testing at University of California-Berkeley and University of Auckland

Dr Cedric Lambert : Queensland Centre for Advanced Technologies, Kenmore, Australia
DEM approaches to rock engineering problems

Dr Michael P Wolcott : Director for the Institute of Sustainable Design and the Louisiana-Pacific and Prof of Wood Materials and Engineering at Washington State University
Sustainable Design and Trends in Architectural Prefabrication

2008

Hossein Mostafaei: Research Associate, National Research Council Canada, Institute for Research in Construction   
Collapse Simulation of Reinforced Concrete Structures under Extreme Forces

Jenna Hutchinson, 3rd Pro student
Proceedings of the International Institute of Women in  Engineering (IIWE) Seminar, Paris 2008

Dr Mohamed Ali, School of Civil, Environmental and Mining Engineering, University of Adelaide
Developing a unified generic reinforced concrete model at the ultimate limit state

Dr. Rabin Tuladhar
Seismic behaviour of concrete pile foundation

Sudan Raj Panthi, PhD Candidate
Interaction of Arsenic on Denitrification Process

Craig McCauley, PhD Candidate
Performance of mesocosm-scale bioreactors for treating acid mine drainage in New Zealand

Dr. Mark Milke
Workshop on writing journal/conference papers (for postgrads)

Dr. Brian Caruso
US Environmental Protection Agency Denver, Colorado USA
Modelling Metals Fate and Transport for Restoration Planning in Mined Catchments