CIES & UNSW – Home to one of the world’s few Physical Blast Simulation facilities
Led by CIES Director Professor Brian Uy, a group of representatives from 7 Australian Universities (incl UNSW) and the Defence Science and Technology Organisation (part of Australia’s Department of Defence - as the Collaborating Organisation), were successful in a bid for funding under the ARC’s The Linkage Infrastructure, Equipment and Facilities scheme (LIEF Grant) which provides funding for research infrastructure, equipment and facilities to eligible organisations.
The scheme enables higher education researchers to participate in cooperative initiatives so that expensive infrastructure, equipment and facilities can be shared between higher education organisations and also with industry. The scheme also fosters collaboration through its support of the cooperative use of international or national research facilities.
The project is titled: “National Facility for Physical Blast Simulation (NFPBS)”.
Recent terrorist attacks employing large quantities of high explosives have prompted the international demand for experimental investigation of civil infrastructure response to shock wave loadings. The National Facility for Physical Blast Simulation (NFPBS) will be one of only a few in the world that will be suitable for conducting experimental research via a physically generated blast approach.
The objectives of the Linkage Infrastructure, Equipment and Facilities scheme are to:
- encourage institutions to develop collaborative arrangements among themselves, across the higher education sector and with organisations outside the sector, in order to develop research infrastructure;
- support large-scale cooperative initiatives involving two or more institutions, thereby allowing expensive facilities to be shared; and
- enhance support for areas of research strength.
