|
Hobart
PhysElec Solutions Pty Ltd is a small Tasmanian company that provides independent
consultancy services and carries out contract work on a global basis within
the fields of electrical engineering and applied physics. The company’s
services cover six main categories of consulting and contract work, namely research,
product-related, project management, risk management, seminars & presentations
/ education & training, and site evaluations / surveys. The company’s
major field of specialisation across all of these service areas is in lightning
protection, earthing / grounding and surge / transient protection for buildings,
facilities, sites and their occupants across the complete range of industries.
The proposed project provides students with a unique blend of experience in
project management, GUI programming, 3D graphics, scientific algorithm development
and software implementation of electrical engineering principles (strong guidance
will be provided on all scientific and electrical engineering aspects, so specific
or specialised technical knowledge is not a prerequisite).
The project involves the development of a software package to draw the layout
of any building, facility or site, to design (install) a lightning protection
system and then to perform lightning shielding or protection calculations based
on the layout and design. A limited prototype package will be made available
as a reference point for guidance, however, this project involves a new development
with major additions and enhancements as the key components of a highly-functional
and user-friendly software package.
The major modules comprising the software development project include:
• A front-end / GUI with drawing capabilities that are user-friendly,
along with contemporary pull-down menus and button functionality;
• Implementation of major, cutting-edge enhancements to published scientific
algorithms for calculating protection zones (strong guidance provided on all
scientific aspects);
• Implementation of current risk management principles;
• Development and implementation of a novel shielding algorithm for lightning
protection calculations;
• Real-time 3D graphics simulations of the “rolling sphere”
protection method and 3D display of all protection method results;
• Manual and automatic placement of air terminals (lightning rods) according
to the chosen method and protection level;
• Manual and automatic placement of downconductors according to international
standards;
• Capability to apply basic earthing system configurations in the drawing
/ layout phase and implementation of code to calculate the resistance of any
simple earthing system configuration.
Students will be expertly supervised by a leading researcher in this field with
extensive experience in both a university and commercial / company environment.
The project suits a group of students with a variety of skills and interests,
e.g., design, technical, management, etc., but who are especially motivated
by technical software development and a desire to take part in an endeavour
with global impact involving the application of existing and new knowledge.
Both an IP and Confidentiality agreement required.
Client Name: Dr Franco D’Alessandro
Phone Number (BH): (03) 6228 7865
Mobile Number: 0437 853 339
Email Address: info@physelec.com
Website: www.physelec.com (active from March 2008)
Address: 37 Ogilvie Street, Mt Stuart, Tasmania. 7000
The estimated software difficulty rating is 4-4.5