Centre for Bulk Solids and Particulate Technologies

The Centre for Bulk Solids and Particulate Technologies (CBSPT) is a world leader in applied and fundamental bulk materials handling research, established in 1995 with the support of the Australian Research Council (ARC). CBSPT is located at the University of Newcastle (Australia) in the Newcastle Institute for Energy and Resources (NIER) and its research programs are supported through competitive research grants. CBSPT, in conjunction with TUNRA Bulk Solids (TBS), has actively engaged with industry for over 40 years, and will continue to provide future pathways for materials handling, providing full project research capabilities for industry challenges, encompassing: • Mining: from pit to port and beyond. Smart materials handling systems – control and optimization; innovation in belt conveying design; transfers of problematic material; de-watering systems; improved material handling approaches for wet and sticky material; dust mitigation strategies; waste and tailings management. • Agriculture: innovation in silo design; precision pneumatics and feed dynamics in seeding and fertilisation; improved moisture control and dust mitigation in loading and unloading systems. • Energy: optimised and innovative solutions from feed into and waste from the energy unit; new characterisation techniques for dilative biomass and green waste feedstock; interface solutions for second generation ethanol systems; modern biomass handling systems. • Design: advanced materials handling characterisation for wet and sticky materials; ongoing development of continuum and discrete design methods; applied numerical approaches of Discrete Element Modelling (DEM), Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD), Finite Element Analysis (FEA) for bulk materials systems; enabling current research into newer numerical methods of Smooth Particle Hydro-dynamics (SPH) and Multi-Body Dynamics (MBD) for bulk material design; combined numerical approaches of DEM-CFD, DEM-MBD, DEM-SPH, DEM-FEM.