Our facilities
WA School of Mines: Minerals, Energy and Chemical Engineering has a wide range of facilities available for students, staff and researchers.
Mining and Metallurgy
We have a wide range of testing facilities for coring the in-situ rock, sample preparation and high-capacity loading. The coring machine has a wide range of drill bits to make core samples at various sizes up to 1500mm in diameter according to industry requests. Following the coring, we also have high-capacity rock cutter and grinder to make flat cylindrical samples for rock testing. The UCS and triaxial testing facility with the load carrying capacity up to 1000 kN can be used for testing the axial strength of the rock, which can be further input into the slope design and underground drive design. The direct shear testing facility with a 150 kN shear loading capacity is able to measure the shear strength at the rock discontinuity. Besides rock testing, we also have high-capacity soil triaxial testing system and soil direct shear testing system, which can be used for haul road design for open pit mining.
The Geomechanics Lab has a wide range of testing facilities for coring the in-situ rock, sample preparation and high-capacity loading. The coring machine has a wide range of drill bits to make core samples at various sizes up to 1500mm in diameter according to industry requests. Following the coring, we also have high-capacity rock cutter and grinder to make flat cylindrical samples for rock testing. The UCS and triaxial testing facility with the load carrying capacity up to 1000 kN can be used for testing the axial strength of the rock, which can be further input into the slope design and underground drive design. The direct shear testing facility with a 150 kN shear loading capacity is able to measure the shear strength at the rock discontinuity. Besides rock testing, we also have high-capacity soil triaxial testing system and soil direct shear testing system, which can be used for haul road design for open pit mining.
The Kalgoorlie campus houses a range of chemical and specialist metallurgical facilities supporting teaching and research in the field. Particle size reduction from 100 mm down to ultrafine sizes can be achieved with the series of crushers and grinding mills in the comminution laboratory. Mineral separation based on surface chemistry, density, magnetism, conductivity and particle size can be conducted with the range of flotation column and cells, hydrocyclones and various separators in our mineral processing laboratory. Chemical laboratories are utilised for wet chemical processes involved in hydrometallurgy including leaching (mineral dissolution), solution purification and metal recovery. Currently a number of furnaces are available for high temperature work such as calcination and roasting, with greater capacity under planning for the near future. These laboratories are supported by analytical capacity to examine particle size, surface chemistry, chemical composition (solid and solution) and mineralogy among other characteristics to better understand feed materials, processes and products.
Energy Engineering
Multiphase Flow in Porous Media Laboratory houses a comprehensive set of state-of-the-art facilities that can be used to characterise fluid flow (single phase or multiphase) in porous materials using a combination of experimental and computational methods. Such investigations can be performed from nano/pore- to metre-scale under a wide range of physical, chemical, and mechanical dynamical conditions. The outputs of these investigations have direct/indirect applications in a wide range of processes, including carbon capture, utilisation and storage (CCUS/CCS), energy storage (e.g. hydrogen/natural gas storage), gas separation, waste-water management, etc.
Petroleum Engineering equipped its Geomechanics lab with three unique True Triaxial Stress Cell (TTSC) which is mainly used for advanced research studies in the field of Petroleum Geomechanics but could also offer commercial services to the industry.
Swing TTSC:
The TTSC, or True Triaxial Stress Cell, is an advanced rock testing equipment that can accommodate rock samples in three different sizes: 150mm, 100mm, and 50mm cubes. With a maximum force capacity of 1619 KN in each of its three independent directions, the TTSC is capable of applying stresses of 70MPa and 645 Mpa to 150mm and 50mm rock cube samples respectively. The equipment also has a temperature range of up to 100°C, while 6 sets of LVDT strain gauges continuously monitor the rock deformation during testing. In addition, a 60 acoustic transducer can detect microseismic events within the rock samples. The TTSC is suitable for conducting various types of rock experiments such as mining in-situ recovery, hydraulic fracturing, sand production, and research-related real-life rock testing for the purpose of Carbon Capture and Storage (CCS).
50mm TTSC:
The Sleeve-type True Triaxial Stress Cell (TTSC) is a unique piece of equipment that allows anisotropic stress conditions to be applied to a 50mm rock cube while simulating true earth stresses. The TTSC applies vertical and two independent horizontal uniform stresses of up to 70 Mpa in each direction on the sample. Additionally, pore pressure can be increased to 65 Mpa, while six sets of LVDT strain gauges and 24 acoustic transducers continuously monitor all deformations and microseismic events within the rock. Fluid injection and collection can be performed from each of the six sides of the cell using a pore rod system installed on each side of the sample. The TTSC is highly versatile and can simulate hydraulic fracturing, investigate fault re-activation during CO2 injection, perform sanding analysis, and monitor real-time performance of in-situ leaching, fracture propagation, and sanding initiation.
Blue TTSC:
The Blue TTSC laboratory offers advanced rock testing that allows drilling and reservoir scenarios to be simulated on a large scale, with the application of anisotropic stresses. The apparatus is capable of independently applying forces of 315kN and 1000kN in the horizontal and vertical directions, respectively, on cube samples ranging from 30mm to 300mm in size. The maximum stress levels that can be applied to the smallest sample are 350Mpa and 1110Mpa in the horizontal and vertical directions, respectively. Pore pressure of up to 21Mpa can also be applied during testing. The laboratory features a central hole in the sample that can be used to inject fluid, simulating hydraulic fracturing, while sanding analysis can be carried out by increasing the pore pressure and producing fluid and sand from the hole. Fracture propagation and sanding initiation can be monitored using seismic transducers mounted around the sample on specially-made shims.
Rock wettability is one of the fundamental parameters determining dynamic and static fluid behaviour in a reservoir. Wettability therefore directly impacts on hydrocarbon production and CO2 geo-sequestration (CCS) efficiency. We study this parameter using a combination of experimental and computational methods. For the experimental arm of our investigations we commissioned the reservoir wettability laboratory, which includes following facilities:
1. Core-flood apparatus (centimetre scale)
We have commissioned a core-flood apparatus, which was specifically designed for capillary pressure measurements at reservoir conditions. Our studies currently focus on CO2 behaviour, as the static behaviour of CO2 in rock at CCS conditions is not well understood. Here we investigate core plugs with typical dimensions (38mm diameter, 50-300mm length). Check our publication lists for results.
2. Contact angle and interfacial tension measurement apparatus
We have commissioned an apparatus with which we can measure interfacial tensions between reservoir fluids and contact angles such fluids form with a rock surface. These measurements are also conducted at reservoir conditions (i.e. high pressure, elevated temperature) to mimic true engineering conditions. It is important to match real conditions as that can have a profound impact on the physico-chemical behaviour of the fluid-fluid and fluid-fluid-rock systems as we have shown theoretically using a Molecular Dynamics approach.
3. A micro-computed tomograph (nanometre to centimetre scale)
The Micro CT scanner forms part of the National Geosequestration Laboratory (NGL), a research and development facility established to develop innovative solutions to minimise risk and uncertainty associated with the geological storage of carbon dioxide. The facility is a collaboration between Curtin, CSIRO and UWA, and build on the successes of the Western Australian Energy Research Alliance (WA:ERA). The NGL is funded by the Department of Industry, Innovation, Climate Change, Science, Research and Tertiary Education, to the value of $48.4 million.
We investigate wettability characteristics of different rock-fluid-fluid systems by imaging their distribution in the pore space of the rock. The detailed configuration of the fluids is a function of the rock’s wettability and therefore a measure of wettability.
The Micro-computed tomograph forms part of the National Geosequestration Laboratory (NGL), a research and development facility established to develop innovative solutions to minimise risk and uncertainty associated with the geological storage of carbon dioxide.
The facility is a collaboration between Curtin, CSIRO and UWA, and build on the successes of the Western Australian Energy Research Alliance (WA:ERA). The NGL is funded by the Department of Industry, Innovation, Climate Change, Science, Research and Tertiary Education, to the value of $48.4 million.
With the micro-computed tomograph we can acquire 3D x-ray mass attenuation maps of core plugs and fluids contained in the rock.
These images have a high 3D resolution (up to (700nm)3). At such a high resolution the pore morphology of sandstones and carbonates can be imaged, and the distribution and behaviour of multiple fluids in the rock can be observed and quantified. Please refer to our publication lists for more details or contact us.
Chemical Engineering
The laboratory houses packed columns, fluidised beds, heat exchangers, bubble column, liquid-liquid extraction devices and fluid flow distributers. The laboratory also has a state-of-the-art sensors for measuring flow, pressure, temperature and composition. The laboratory has prototyping tools such as polymer-based 3D printers that are used for industrial and fundamental demand-driven research.
The Chemical Engineering teaching laboratory at Curtin offers a teaching experience with top of the range equipment – from bench, scale to pilot scale giving students hands-on experience.
The laboratory rooms are designed specifically to facilitate the services that are required for all of the equipment that is used in Process Instrumentation Control, Mass Transfer, and Reaction.
The Pawsey Supercomputing Research Centre, a joint venture between CSIRO and WA universities, provides services and expertise in supercomputing, data, cloud services and visualisation. Curtin researchers and students have successfully used the supercomputing facilities across different disciplines in various projects. One of the specialised areas is computational fluid dynamics (CFD) modelling, which sometimes requires hundreds to thousands of CPUs in parallel computing to handle complexities.
The HPC service is available for heavy computing duties of industrial projects, PhD studies and research projects for final-year undergraduates. Some of the projects which are carried out with the cluster are:
• Ambient air vaporiser
• LNG process safety
• 3D printed packing internals
• Vapour-liquid separator
• Multi-phase research