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Unit of study_
CIVL5351: Geoenvironmental Engineering
2025 unit information
Geoenvironmental Engineering is an applied science concerned with the protection of soil and aquifers from human activities. It can be divided into 2 main branches: waste containment and treatment of pollution sites. The former is usually a preventative activity, whereas the latter is corrective, i.e., it occurs after pollution has taken place. Geoenvironmental Engineering draws on fundamental science, especially fluid flow and contaminant migration in soil and the physics and chemistry of low-permeability material such as clay. The goal of CIVL5351 is to introduce you to the science behind Geoenvironmental Engineering and develop your skills at designing barrier systems for groundwater protection. Learning Outcomes: 1. Analyse flow regime in saturated and unsaturated soils using Darcys Law; 2. Analyse contaminant migration in soil using coupled flow and reactive diffusion-advection equations; 3. Describe the main processes of clay-water interactions and their influence on behaviour of barrier systems; 4. Design a contaminant barrier system satisfying groundwater quality requirements; 5. Assess the feasibility of waste-to-energy conversion; 6. Conduct research on a geoenvironmental topic; 7. Build simulation models and appraise quality of their predictions. Syllabus Summary: introduction to geoenvironmental engineering; integrated waste management and life cycle assessment; soil composition and mineralogy; types and characteristics of contaminants; theory of water seepage in saturated and unsaturated soils; theory of reactive contaminant transport in soil including molecular diffusion, mechanical dispersion and advective flow; analytical and numerical solutions of reactive diffusion advection equation; design of barrier systems; geosynthetics and geomembranes; defects and leakage rates; methane generation in landfills and waste-to-energy potential.
Unit details and rules
Managing faculty or University school:
Engineering
| Study level | Postgraduate |
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| Academic unit | Civil Engineering |
| Credit points | 6 |
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Prerequisites:
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None |
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Corequisites:
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None |
| Prohibitions:
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None |
| Assumed knowledge:
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None |
At the completion of this unit, you should be able to:
- LO1. Analyse saturated flow regime in soil using Darcy and flow equations.
- LO2. Simulate infiltration problem in unsaturated flow and analyse difference in behaviour between sand, silt and clay.
- LO3. Analyse contaminant migration in soil using coupled flow and reactive diffusion-advection equations.
- LO4. Describe the main processes of clay-water interactions and how they affect behaviour of clay in geoenvironmental engineering.
- LO5. Design a single or double composite landfill liner satisfying groundwater quality requirements.
- LO6. Conduct research on geoenvironmental topic.
- LO7. Appraise the quality of results of numerical simulations and modify numerical discretisation mesh in order to improve accuracy.
- LO8. Write professional reports describing optimal designs and the rationale behind them.
- LO9. Communicate technical knowledge in writing or verbally.
Unit availability
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There are no availabilities for this year.
| Session | MoA ? | Location | Outline ? |
|---|---|---|---|
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Semester 2 2025
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Normal day | Camperdown/Darlington, Sydney |
Outline unavailable
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