The University of South Australia (UniSA) is set to trial a piece of equipment to resurrect the country’s impending infrastructure.

UniSA structural engineer Professor Yan Zhuge is set on enhancing the Hopkinson bar, a device used in civil engineering to determine how different building materials respond to extreme mechanical stress.

Professor Yan will deliver a $720,000 new generation biaxial Hopkinson bar consisting of electromagnetics to apply pressure in two directions, to discover how the materials perform against a high-impact force.

These forces include the likes of bombings, gas explosions, lightning strikes, typhoons, large hailstones and tornadoes.

The bar is partly funded by a $420,000 ARC Linkage Infrastructure Equipment Facilities grant and supplemented with $300,000 cash from eight Australian universities, as well as a $402,221 ARC Discovery Project grant awarded to Professor Yan but for a different project.

Professor Yan says that Australia is in dire need for a more proactive and efficient design methods to successfully ensure its ageing buildings, bridges and roads can withstand any unforeseen circumstances.

“It is essential that we create sturdy structures and systems to protect against a whole range of events, including human-made disasters,” he says.

“The existing testing methods for construction materials are not only time consuming but often inaccurate.”

Since its inception, the Hopkinson bar has been modified to allow for ductile compression and torsion testing.

Prof Yan states that the existing bar is not developed enough to test new materials that have different impact energies, enforcing the need for improvements.

The separate ARC Discovery grant awarded will explore 3D printing of reinforced concrete. Now used in digital construction, 3D printing is, however, restricted to printing concrete and not reinforced material, hindering its use in a real-world setting.

The project will also determine whether there is a sustainable and practical 3D printing alternative to Portland cement.

Professor Yan says that the findings will shape the next generation of digital construction, as robotics replace manual labour.

“This is the first research project in the world to see if it’s possible to simultaneously print fibro reinforced polymer along with concrete,” he says.