http://hdl.handle.net/10453/19979 UTS PhD and Masters by Research theses 2013-05-19T22:26:32Z http://hdl.handle.net/10453/21898 Evaluation of Bioretention Systems for Stormwater Quality Improvement and Reuse: A Case Study of Size-Constrained Systems Stuart, Patrick James Stormwater runoff in urban areas is known to carry high concentrations of sediment, organic matter, nutrients, metals and pathogens, which can cause environmental issues in natural water bodies. Bioretention systems (also known as bio-filtration basins and rain-gardens) are a type of stormwater treatment device that attempt to remove pollutants from stormwater by harnessing natural processes. There has been limited use of bioretention systems due to the lack of sufficient space in urban areas for stormwater treatment. Size-constrained bioretention systems have a low bioretention area to catchment size ratio giving them a higher potential for more extensive use in urban areas. The aim of this study was to evaluate the effectiveness of sized-constrained bioretention systems in removing pollutants from stormwater runoff. The studied size-constrained bioretention systems promote the horizontal sub-surface flow of stormwater through the bioretention media. This is different to the vertical flow of water seen in conventional bioretention systems. However, once established, both types of bioretention systems rely on the same pollutant removal processes, including filtration and adsorption. The three size-constrained bioretention systems that were studied are located in the Northern Beaches area of Sydney, Australia. These were closely monitored between August 2009 and December 2010, which involved collecting water samples every 10-15 minutes at the inflow and outflow of the bioretention systems during rainfall events. The bioretention systems reduced total suspended solids concentrations by an average of 78%, while total copper, zinc and lead concentrations were reduced by an average of 66%, 58% and 61%, respectively. Nutrient and faecal indicator bacteria removal rates were more varied, with the oldest system, located at Jellicoe St. performing the worst of the three systems, leaching all forms of nitrogen and faecal indicator bacteria. The newest system located at Tutus St. performed the best of the three systems, reducing total nitrogen by 44%, total phosphorus by 63%, faecal coliforms by 72% and Enterococci by 35%. Considering the small area occupied by the sized-constrained bioretention systems, they were generally found to be effective in removing pollutants from stormwater. However, size constrained bioretention systems may require greater maintenance compared to conventionally sized bioretention systems. University of Technology, Sydney. Faculty of Science. 2011-01-01T00:00:00Z http://hdl.handle.net/10453/21897 Writing the Ordinary: Auto-Ethnographic Tales of an Occupational Therapist Denshire, Sally This thesis is an auto-ethnographic study of my life as an occupational therapist. Autoethnographic writing animates the culture of occupational therapy by fictionalising moments of practice in one woman's life that can contribute to the collective biography of the profession in Australia. The purpose of this auto-ethnography is to re-inscribe the everyday world of practice into public accounts, at a time when occupational therapy as a profession is becoming a scholarly discipline. Every profession has rich oral and practice traditions that are located in the everyday. Occupational therapists have a 'double dose' because the work we do explicitly concerns the everyday activities of others. Participation in all the ordinary things that people need and want to do every day is part of the 'immense remainder' (de Certeau, 1984, p. 61) of human experience that 'does not speak' (Hasselkus, 2006). This autoethnographic inquiry into my professional life restores something of the intimacy, viscerality and particularity of practice, which, I argue, has been left behind in the search for scholarly and professional legitimacy for occupational therapy. The thesis consists of a portfolio of fictive tales together with layers of historical and theoretical framing. The tales are in direct dialogue with a selection of articles from my own published work concerned with the practices of a youth-specific occupational therapy project undertaken in the 1980s. A critical commentary connects the new writing with the old, related to the problematic of everyday life and to constructions of professionalism in the bigger picture of occupational therapy. This portfolio of tales of sexuality, food and death dramatises 'paradigmatic scenes' from a remembered world of occupational therapy, recalling moments of practice with young people living and dying at Camperdown Children's Hospital. These fictional tales are twice-told, first, by an Anglo-Australian occupational therapist in her 30s and then by girls of Pacific Islands, Aboriginal and Turkish heritage. The particular approach of crafting twice-told tales in dialogue with selected publications is what makes this auto-ethnographic project distinctive. These fictive engagements with practice may 'recover' subjugated knowledges from lost and repressed places. Such 'writing the ordinary' may have ethical implications for (re)presenting interactions between all the actors involved in moments of practice. University of Technology, Sydney. Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences. 2009-01-01T00:00:00Z http://hdl.handle.net/10453/21896 Industrial Rotary Kiln Simulation Van Puyvelde, Dennis Robert A new industrial process is being developed to allow the commercial recovery of oil from oil shales. As part of this process, a rotating kiln is used to pyrolyse the organic component of the oil shales. The configuration and application of this rotating kiln is unique and hence previous rotating kiln models cannot be used to predict the solid behaviour in the current processor. It is the aim of this work to develop mathematical models which allow the prediction of mixing, segregation and heat transfer in industrial rotating kilns, especially with respect to the new rotating kiln technology trialed in the oil shale industry. Experiments were developed to observe and measure the mixing and segregation behaviour of solids in rotating drums. These experiments used image analysis and provided quantitative results. Further experiments were carried out to allow suitable scaling parameters to be developed. All the mixing experiments followed a constant mixing rate until the bed became fully mixed. The mixing rate and the final amount of mixing depended on the rotational velocity, the drum loading, the particle size and the material ratio. The segregation dynamics occurred too fast to be measured. However the final segregated state was measured and depended on the rotational velocity and the differences in particle sizes. Scaling parameters were developed that related the mixing and segregation results to the operational variables of the rotating kiln. Mathematical models were derived for the mixing and segregation of solids in a rotating kiln and these models included the developed scaling parameters so that these models would be useful for the prediction of the solid behaviour in industrial rotating kilns. The mathematical models were applied to independent experiments and it was found that they predicted the mixing and segregation to within the experimental error, even for different sized drums indicating that the developed scaling parameters were suitable. A computational simulation of the industrial rotating kiln processor was developed by combining the mathematical models of the mixing and segregation with heat transfer modelling applicable to this industrial rotating kiln. A case study was completed to study the behaviour of the industrial rotating kiln by changing operational variables, such as the rotational speed and the particle size. The developed simulation can be used to predict the dynamic behaviour of the rotating kiln used in the emerging oil from oil shale industry. This simulation can assist in further commercialisation of this new industrial process. University of Technology, Sydney. Faculty of Science. 1999-01-01T00:00:00Z http://hdl.handle.net/10453/21895 The genesis and tectonic significance of chromitite-bearing serpentinites in southern NSW Graham, Ian T. The Tumut Serpentinite Province consists of four major serpentinite belts and numerous small serpentinite bodies, that occupy a long narrow tract within the Lachlan Fold Belt of southern NSW. The tectonic setting of one belt, the Coolac Serpentinite Belt, has been contentious. Much of the uncertainty results from lack of a combined study on the major belts and inadequate age constraints. Resolving the uncertainty will benefit construction of a tectonic model for the evolution of the Lachlan Fold Belt. The belts mainly comprise massive serpentinite or harzburgite, with internal shear zones of schistose serpentinite, and intrusions of plagiogranite, gabbro, basalt, pyroxenite, dunite and chromitite. The main foliation has a consistent NNW-SSE trend and is similar in the adjacent rock units. The various rock types of the serpentinite belts are geochemically akin to similar rocks from ophiolite sequences. Podiform chromitites are geochemically, mineralogically and geometrically akin to those in the mantle sequence ofmost ophiolites. The different chromitite types are interpreted in tenns of the degree of evolution of the MORB-type magma and hence the extent of fractionation ofthe source. Serpentinisation and rodingitisation occurred during progressive cooling of the chromitites and host rocks and were accompanied by systematic fracturing and remobilisation of chemical components. Radioisotope dating gives an age of crystallisation of41Z-400 Ma for the plagiogranites and leucogabbros, whilst an inherited zircon age of 430 Ma appears to be derived from Early Silurian felsic volcanic rocks of the region. As the plagiogranites, leucogabbros and other rock types within the serpentinite belts have common deformational and metamorphic histories, their crystallisation age constrains the ages of deformation and metamorphism. The serpentinite belts are interpreted as ophiolites of the 'embryonic' type that formed within a back-arc basin setting in the Late Silurian-Early Devonian. Crystallisation of the MORB sequence and emplacement onto continental crust, together with metamorphism and deformation may have only spanned 20 Ma. In the Late Silurian to Early Devonian, the Tumut Serpentinite Province differed from basins elsewhere within the Lachlan Fold Belt in.that a volcanic arc was ruptured by mantle-derived MORB magmas which ascended to the stuface. Their extrusion was short-lived and after the Early Devonian, the development of the Tumut region differed little from that in the rest of the Lachlan Fold Belt. The development of oceanic crust within the Tumut Serpentinite Province and the generation of granitic magmas within the central and eastern parts of the Lachlan Fold Belt are symptomatic of the same Late Silurian to Early Devonian tectonothennal event. An important aspect of this is that oceanic and crustal rocks need not fonn from different events or in substantially different tectonic settings. 1998-01-01T00:00:00Z