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(2006)ThesisThe Democratic Republic of Timor-Leste (East Timor) attained independence on 20 May 2002, marking its separation from Indonesia. As a newly independent country, East Timor is faced with a number of significant international opportunities, together with some obligations that it must fulfil, including the delimitation of its international boundaries. Equally, for Indonesia, with 10 maritime neighbours, the delimitation of maritime boundaries is a significant challenge. This research aims to provide a preliminary study on the delimitation of the Indonesia - East Timor maritime boundary, with a focus on technical aspects. Geospatial data has been obtained from the Indonesian government and processed with the assistance of a specialised Geographic Information Systems (GIS) application: CARIS LOTS™. The main tasks of this research are to simulate the maritime claims of Indonesia and East Timor, to identify overlapping claims and to delimit the maritime boundaries between the two states. Technically, potential delimitation lines were calculated in a geodetically robust manner. A literature review has been conducted with regard to the principles of maritime boundary delimitation, research on similar cases of maritime boundaries and papers discussing the decision/judgement in some other proceedings regarding maritime boundary delimitation. Existing research and literature are used to support the arguments provided in this current research. The United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea 1982, LOSC, provides the main legal reference point, along with relevant state practices and jurisprudence. As to the results of this research, it has been identified that three major locations for maritime boundaries are to be delimited. These are in the Ombai Strait, the Wetar Strait and in the Timor Sea. A number of alternative potential boundary alignments have also been examined and analysed for the three locations, in the context of future maritime boundary negotiations between the two States. However, the results are not the final boundaries that Indonesia and East Timor have to accept. Ultimately it is for the governments of Indonesia and East Timor to decide on and negotiate towards an equitable solution that will satisfy both parties. However, it is hoped that this study will contribute to achieving that goal.
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(2008)ThesisAn experimental investigation was conducted on the static liquefaction behaviour of very loose lightly cemented sands. Undrained and drained triaxial compression tests, one dimensional consolidation, high stress compression, and unconfined compression tests were performed on artificially prepared lightly cemented loose samples with cement-sand ratios of 2, 4 and 6%. Additional tests were also conducted on uncemented samples prepared at the same initial void ratio as the cemented samples. Besides the influence of degree of cementation, the effects of void ratio and confining pressure on the liquefaction potential of cemented sands were examined. The aim of this study is to make significant contribution to the understanding of static liquefaction failures in lightly cemented sands. It is shown that cementation could increase the initial stiffness and yield strength of cemented sands but its effect might decrease considerably after the peak strength because of destruction of the cementation bond. The response of cemented sands at lower cement contents was very similar to the response of loose sands and behaviour approached the response of medium to dense sands with increase in the degree of cementation. It is also shown that degree of cementation has a significant influence on liquefaction resistance. Even though the presence of small amounts of cementation did not prevent liquefaction failure, the liquefaction resistance of cemented sands generally increased for higher degrees of cementation. The consolidation, high stress compression and unconfined compression tests demonstrated the effect of cementation in increasing both the stiffness and strength of cemented sands. The unconfined compression strength increased approximately linearly with the increase in cement content. The rate of strength gain increased with an increase in the dry density of the compacted sample, indicating that the cementation was more for denser samples.
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(2006)ThesisKnowledge of the stress-strain relationship of the compacted soils in tension is of importance for understanding of cracking that occurs in earth structures, in particular embankment dams and landfill barriers. Understanding the correlation between tensile properties and traditional soil parameters and soil suction is essential in identifying problems associated with desiccation induced cracking. A series of extensive laboratory experiments were performed on three different soils from existing embankment dams. This thesis concentrated on the investigation of tensile strength in relation to the type of soil, compaction water content, compaction density ratio, rate of loading, soil suction, moisture retention characteristics and the effect of drying and wetting. Stress-strain behaviour and tensile properties indicated a dependence on soil type and compaction criteria. The plasticity index, clay content and type of mineral has shown a significant influence on tensile strength. Compaction dry of optimum resulted in an increase in strength. Compaction wet of optimum showed a decrease in strength and small increase in strain at failure. Higher compaction effort resulted in higher tensile strength, tensile stiffness and brittle stress-strain behaviour. Difference in loading rate revealed response time for initial tensile deformation as well as sustainable duration up to failure point. The effect of soil suction plays an important role in drying during which specimens exhibited a considerable strength increase. The magnitude of strength increase may have been contributed by a combination of suction, air entry value and compaction density. The effect of wetting could cause decreasing in suction and thus a reduction in strength. Based on the findings, it was concluded that the desiccation-induced may not necessarily occur due to an associated increase in tensile strength. However, an increase in tensile strength is likely to be accompanied by an increase in shrinkage. Therefore, desiccation-induced cracking is related to the interaction between moisture loss, change in soil suction, tensile stress and shrinkage.
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(2006)ThesisIn Australia, the measurement of safety performance in the construction industry has mostly been in response to statutory requirements. Consequently, the measures and Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) used by the industry have invariably focused on outcomes rather than processes. Most of the outcome indicators have tended to give their feedback well after the event therefore failing to identify any weaknesses within the safety management processes. In order to overcome these limitations, two hospital construction projects in New South Wales were selected for an in-depth study and research analysis. The aim of the research was to understand the relationship between management process intervention and management process outcomes for safety in the construction industry. Initially a literature review identifying international practices in performance measurement for safety in construction was conducted so as to review existing safety management processes in partnership with the construction industry representatives. A framework for measuring the performance of safety management processes and related outcomes was developed to stimulate improvement on both projects through the comparison of the performance of the safety management systems and outcomes. This framework was then implemented and established to monitor the performance of the key safety management processes. The successful implementation of the performance measurement framework and the feedback to both stakeholders and subcontractors acted as a good communication tool in creating awareness among subcontractors. It also helped to reduce repetitive hazards, resulting in improved safety outcomes. A statistical analysis found that relatively few injuries were explained by the identified safety hazards. This highlighted the need to look for hazards that were specifically relate to injury occurrence. The research findings identified a method for improving the existing hazard identification process. It is anticipated that such improvements can help to better correlate hazard management processes with the project outcomes for safety in future projects.
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(2003)ThesisCheck-in area is an important component of airports. All passengers, except transit passengers and remote check-in passengers, have to enter this area prior to their departure. The convenience for passengers at this area is essential in order to gain more customers using the airports. In estimating the check-in counter arrangements, this thesis introduces a method that is based on spreadsheet software packages. Two programs are developed to assist the optimization computations. The programs provide the optimum number of servers required at the airport. This will help airport management to select the number of counters at a given time. The results of the execution process of these two programs indicate the variables, such as earliness distribution, service time, queue system, and the check in counter sizes and configurations have strong influence to overall cost. A number of applications have been attempted and distribution has been explored. The results also demonstrated that under the condition imposed the multiple queue system provides less maximum queue length but longer waiting time compared to single queue system.
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(2008)ThesisSince its introduction in the early 1980 s, the Global Positioning System (GPS) has become an important worldwide resource. Although the primary use of GPS is for position location, the inherent timing accuracy built into the system has allowed it become an important synchronisation resource for other systems. In most cases the GPS end user only requires a position estimate without awareness of the timing and synchronisation aspects of the system. A low accuracy position (at the several-metre level) with a low update rate of about 1Hz is often acceptable. However, obtaining more accurate position estimates (at the sub-metre level) at higher update rates requires the use of differential correction signals (DGPS) and greater processing power in the receiver. Furthermore, some extra challenges arise when simultaneously gathering information from a group of independently moving remote GPS receivers (rovers) at increased sampling rates (10Hz). This creates the need for a high bandwidth telemetry system and techniques to synchronise the position measurements for tracking each rover. This thesis investigates and develops an overall solution to these problems using GPS for both position location and synchronisation. A system is designed to generate relative position information from 30 or more rovers in real-time. The important contributions of this research are as follows: a) A GPS synchronised telemetry system is developed to transport GPS data from each rover. Proof of concept experiments show why a conventional RF Local Area Network (LAN) is not suitable for this application. The new telemetry system is developed using Field Programmable Gate Array (FPGA) devices to embed both the synchronising logic and the central processor. b) A new system architecture is developed to reduce the processing load of the GPS receiver. Furthermore, the need to transfer the DGPS correction data to the rover is eliminated. Instead, the receiver raw data is processed in a centralised Kalman filter to produce multiple position estimates in real-time. c) Steps are taken to optimise the telemetry data stream by using only the bare essential data from each rover. A custom protocol is developed to deliver the GPS receiver raw data to the central point with minimal latency. The central software is designed to extract and manage common elements such as satellite ephemeris data from the central reference receiver only. d) Methods are developed to make the overall system more robust by identifying and understanding the points of failure, providing fallback options to allow recovery with minimal impact. Based on the above a system is designed and integrated using a mixture of custom hardware, custom software and off-the-shelf hardware. Overall tests show that efforts to minimise latency, minimise power requirements and improve reliability have delivered good results.