Research Report 2000
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University of Cape Town RESEARCH REPORT 2000 Faculty of Engineering and the Built Environment This report can also be found on UCT’s webpage: http://www.uct.ac.za Editor: Ms M. Ward CONTENTS FACULTY OF ENGINEERING AND THE BUILT ENVIRONMENT Dean’s Introduction 1 School of Architecture and Planning 3 Department of Chemical Engineering 9 Department of Civil Engineering 18 Department of Construction Economics and Management 23 Department of Electrical Engineering 26 Department of Geomatics 33 Department of Mechanical Engineering 36 Energy and Development Research Centre 47 Centre for Research in Engineering Education 51 Urban Problems Research Unit 54 FACULTY OF ENGINEERING AND THE BUILT ENVIRONMENT The Faculty of Engineering & the Built Environment is fully committed to strengthening its research activities in all its disciplines. It is pleasing to note the significant progress which has been made this past year in all the Departments, Research Centres, Institutes, Units and Groups in the Faculty. A number of Departments, most notably those working in sectors which are involved in significant South and Southern African developments, viz. Chemical, Electrical and Mechanical, have attracted significant funding for their various research activities. At the same time mention must be made of the enormously positive impact which the THRIP funding has had on the success of many research groups. There is however a concern that in some cases where THRIP funding was not forthcoming either for lack of central funds or for some other reason, this has had a serious negative impact on the progress of some very important and excellent research activities. It is hoped that the situation will return to normal next year. Those disciplines in the Faculty which are more closely associated with the Built Environment, viz. Civil Engineering, Geomatics, Construction Economics and Management and Architecture and Planning, experienced difficulties, as has been the case for some time now, in attracting significant funding either due to the depressed nature of the sector which they serve or simply due to the difficulty in identifying non-state organisations willing to invest significant funding into their research activities. Nevertheless it is noteworthy that in all these Departments the researchers enjoy excellent national and international reputations for their high quality outputs. The Faculty continues to produce a significant percentage of the national post-graduate output in its various disciplines. The current trend to taught Master’s degrees has attracted many new post-graduates but the Faculty is anxious to ensure that it maintains a healthy balance between this cohort of post-graduates and those doing pure research degrees. The Faculty is also continuing to attempt to ensure that the time taken to complete Masters and Doctoral degrees is not unduly lengthy. The current position in this regard is quite healthy with relatively few students taking longer than the usual period for completing these degrees. Another encouraging feature of the post-graduate student body is the increasing number of students from outside South Africa registering for higher degrees. This not only creates an enriching environment for all the students but is indicative, particularly in the case of students from the SADC countries, of the important role which the Faculty can play in empowering these countries in their technical expertise. This is the second research report since the establishment of the new Faculty of Engineering & the Built Environment in 1999. The seven Departments in the Faculty in 2000 are: Architecture & Planning Chemical Engineering Civil Engineering Construction Economics & Management Electrical Engineering Geomatics Mechanical Engineering At the beginning of 2000 the former Department of Materials Engineering merged with the Department of Mechanical Engineering and at the same time the Centre for Materials Engineering was established in which is housed the very active research activity of the former Materials Engineering Department. Apart from the above- mentioned Departments other research activities enjoying a high profile in the Faculty are the Energy Development Research Centre which during 2000 began exploring the possibility of re-establishing itself as a separate entity within the University of Cape Town Virtual Science Park, the Energy Research Institute and the Centre for Research in Computational and Applied Mechanics. The School of Architecture & Planning continues to play a very active role both locally, regionally and nationally in research into housing policy, management, planning and architecture. Apart from its mainstream research activities in collaboration with a broad cross-section of the profession, recently strong new initiatives have developed in the area of environmental aspects of the discipline as well as in conservation studies and design for marginalized communities. The Department of Chemical Engineering continues to be a highly active centre of research within the Faculty. It works closely with the minerals industry ranging from the development of new processes for the beneficiation of minerals to studies aimed at looking at the environmental impact of minerals processing operations and finally looking at the control of processes within the minerals industry. In this area there exists a very close collaboration through a joint funding scheme with mining companies in Australia and North America and the Universities of Queensland in Australia and McGill in Canada. The Catalysis Research Unit has now been identified by Sasol as its Centre of Expertise for development of Fischer-Tropsch technologies and the 1 Bioprocessing Research group continues to enjoy an outstanding reputation both nationally and internationally. The Department also plays a leading role in research into engineering education. The Department of Civil Engineering is involved in research in a number of diverse fields and has strong research groups in water quality, concrete, geo-technics and urban management. It interacts closely with other research groups such as CERECAM, as well as groups at the Universities of Stellenbosch and Witwatersrand. Much of its work is applied research from practice and of direct benefit to designers, contractors and industry. The Department of Construction Economics and Management has become increasingly inter-disciplinary in its research activities. This is particularly exemplified by the development of postgraduate programmes in Property Studies. Research activities within the Department include the effectiveness of building procurement systems, housing development and management, property management, and project management. The Department continues to enjoy an excellent reputation for its work in these areas. The Department of Electrical Engineering, the largest in the Faculty, carries out a wide range of research activities of key importance to the South African industry. The main areas of research interest in the Department are image processing and vision systems, control engineering, remote sensing and radar, power engineering, digital systems (ATM networks), and telecommunications. In all of these areas the Department continues to expand its activities and has excellent interactions with a broad cross-section of the country’s electrical engineering, electronics and telecommunications industry. The Department of Geomatics although small in size continues to play an outstanding national and international role with its research in areas such as remote sensing, GPS technologies, precise engineering surveying, 3D visualisation, geographic information systems and cadastral theory. The Department of Mechanical Engineering has research groups covering the areas of internal combustion engines, fluid mechanics, solid mechanics, fracture mechanics, heat transfer and refrigeration design, vehicle dynamics and non- destructive evaluation. Recently there has been a significant increase in the research output in areas such as quality management, manufacturing systems and systems science. The last mentioned is a result of the rapidly developing activities within the Department's School of Engineering Management which enjoys excellent relationships with industry. The Centre for Research in Computational & Applied Mechanics (CERECAM), located within the Department of Mechanical Engineering, enjoys an excellent reputation for its high quality research. The Centre provides a focal point within the University for research in the general area of Computational & Applied Mechanics. Some of the areas of current interest include mathematical modelling of complex material behaviour, simulation of processes of deformation and failure of engineering components and artefacts. The Centre for Materials Engineering, a newly formed research centre, located within the Department of Mechanical Engineering, encompasses a wide range of activities in the development of new alloys, polymers, ceramics and hard materials and works closely with the materials manufacturing industry in South Africa. The Energy Development Research Centre, currently located within the School of Architecture and Planning, continues to carry out a broad spectrum of research into policy studies relating to energy and works closely with a wide range of governmental Departments and non-governmental organisations. It has active programmes in energy, poverty and development, markets and governance, and energy efficiency and the environment. The Energy Research Institute, located