Curtin University

About: Curtin University is a education organization based out in Perth, Western Australia, Australia. It is known for research contribution in the topics: Population & Zircon. The organization has 14257 authors who have published 48997 publications receiving 1336531 citations. The organization is also known as: WAIT & Western Australian Institute of Technology.

Smart load management of plug-in electric vehicles in distribution and residential networks with charging stations for peak shaving and loss minimisation considering voltage regulation

Abstract: New smart load management (SLM) approach for the coordination of multiple plug-in electric vehicle (PEV) chargers in distribution feeders is proposed. PEVs are growing in popularity as a low emission and efficient mode of transport against petroleum-based vehicles. PEV chargers represent sizeable and unpredictable loads, which can detrimentally impact the performance of distribution grids. Utilities are concerned about the potential overloads, stresses, voltage deviations and power losses that may occur in distribution systems from domestic PEV charging activity as well as from newly emerging charging stations. Therefore this study proposes a new SLM control strategy for coordinating PEV charging based on peak demand shaving, improving voltage profile and minimising power losses. Furthermore, the developed SLM approach takes into consideration the PEV owner preferred charging time zones based on a priority selection scheme. The impact of PEV charging stations and typical daily residential loading patterns are also considered. Simulation results are presented to demonstrate the significant performance improvement offered by SLM for a 1200 node test system topology consisting of several low-voltage residential networks populated with PEVs.

Thermobarometric modelling of zircon and monazite growth in melt-bearing systems: examples using model metapelitic and metapsammitic granulites

Abstract: U–Pb age data collected from zircon and monazite are used to draw fundamental inferences about tectonic processes in the Earth. Despite the emphasis placed on zircon and monazite ages, the understanding of how to relate the timing of growth of zircon and monazite to an evolving rock system remains in its infancy. In addition, few studies have presented large datasets of geochronological data from zircon and monazite occurring in the same metamorphic rock sample. Such information is crucial for understanding the growth of zircon relative to monazite in a systematic and predictive manner, as per this study. The data that exist support the generally held conception that zircon ages tend to be older than monazite ages within the same rock. Here experimental data for zircon and monazite saturation in melt-bearing rocks are integrated with phase diagram calculations. The calculations constrain the dissolution and growth behaviour of zircon and monazite with respect to evolving pressure, temperature and silicate mineral assemblages in high-grade, melt-bearing, metasedimentary rocks. Several key results emerge from this modelling: first, that in aluminous metapelitic rocks (i.e. garnet + cordierite + sillimanite assemblages), zircon ages are older than monazite ages in the same rock; second, that the growth rate of accessory minerals is nonlinear and much higher at and near saturation than at lower temperatures; and third, that the difference in zircon and monazite ages from the same rock may be ascribed to differences in the temperature(s) at which zircon and monazite grow rather than differences in closure temperature systematics. Using our methodology the cooling rate of granulites from the Reynolds Range, central Australia, have been constrained at ∼4 °C Myr−1. This study serves as a first-pass template on which further research in applying the technique to a field study can be based.

Proterozoic basement provinces of southern and southwestern Australia, and their correlation with Antarctica

Abstract: Abstract Three Precambrian basement provinces extend from the southern coast of Australia into East Antarctica when reconstructed in a Gondwana configuration. These are, from east to west, the Mawson Craton, and the Albany-Fraser and Pinjarra Orogens. The Mawson Craton preserves evidence for tectonic activity from the late Archaean until the earliest Mesoproterozoic. It is exposed in the Gawler Craton of South Australia, the Terre Adélie and King George V Land coastline of East Antarctica, and the Miller Range of the central Transantarctic Mountains. It may form a significant part of the ice-covered East Antarctic Shield, although insufficient data are available to constrain its lateral extent. The Mawson Craton underwent late Palaeoproterozoic tectonism along its eastern margin (the Kimban Orogeny) and the occurrence of c. 1700Ma eclogites in the Transantarctic Mountains implies that this was, in part, a collisional event, although elsewhere it was characterized by low P/T metamorphism. The western margin of the Mawson Craton collided with a continental fragment comprising the Nawa Domain of the Gawler Craton, the Coompana Block and the Nornalup Complex of Western Australia at c. 1560Ma during the Kararan Orogeny. The western edge of the Nornalup Complex later collided with the Biranup and Fraser Complexes and Yilgarn Craton to form the Albany-Fraser Orogen during two stages of tectonism at c. 1350–1260 and 1210–1140Ma. The Pinjarra Orogen truncates the western margin of the Yilgarn Craton and Albany-Fraser Orogen, and contains allochthonous 1100–1000Ma gneissic blocks transported along the craton margin during at least two stages of Neoproterozoic transcurrent movement. It divides East Gondwana into Australo-Antarctic and Indo-Antarctic domains, which are distinct continental fragments with different Proterozoic histories that were juxtaposed by oblique collision at 550–500Ma during the assembly of Gondwana. The path taken by the Pinjarra Orogen beneath the Antarctic ice sheet is unknown, but it is of similar width and length to the East African Orogen, and must have been a fundamental Neoproterozoic boundary of critical importance to supercontinent assembly and breakup.

High-Pressure Granulites (Retrograded Eclogites) from the Hengshan Complex, North China Craton: Petrology and Tectonic Implications

Abstract: Both highand medium-pressure granulites have been found as because of the absence of modal minerals. The combination of petrographic textures, mineral compositions, metamorphic reaction enclaves and boudins in tonalitic–trondhjemitic–granodioritic gneisses in the Hengshan Complex. Petrological evidence from these history, petrogenetic grids and thermobarometric data defines a nearrocks indicates four distinct metamorphic assemblages. The early isothermal decompressional clockwise P–T path for the Hengshan prograde assemblage (M1) is preserved only in the high-pressure granulites, suggesting that the Hengshan Complex underwent initial granulites and represented by quartz and rutile inclusions within crustal thickening, subsequent exhumation, and cooling and retrothe cores of garnet porphyroblasts, and omphacite pseudomorphs gression. This tectonothermal path is considered to record a major that are indicated by clinopyroxene + sodic plagioclase symplectic phase of collision between two continental blocks, which resulted in intergrowths. The peak assemblage (M2) consists of clinopyroxene the final assembly of the North China Craton at >1·8 Ga. + garnet + sodic plagioclase + quartz ± hornblende in the high-pressure granulites and orthopyroxene + clinopyroxene + garnet + plagioclase + quartz in the medium-pressure granulites.