PhD student named Young Railway Engineer of the Year

May 15, 2007

Behzad Fatahi, a PhD student in the University of Wollongong's Faculty of Engineering, has been named the Young Railway Engineer of the Year 2007.

The award, granted by the Railway Technical Society of Australasia (RTSA), rewards young professional engineers, technologists or associates who are under 30 and have reached a demonstrated level of achievement and involvement in the field of railway engineering.

Behzad won the award for his research (under the supervision of Professor Buddhima Indraratna and Dr Hadi Khabbaz) into how railway infrastructure can be improved by identifying and managing surrounding vegetation, refuting the age-old belief that vegetation is detrimental to railway tracks.

He has developed a new model integrating geotechnical engineering and botanical science. The model creates a new procedure for designing railway lines in the vicinity of native vegetation resulting in significant environmental benefits and cost-saving for rail companies.

The research is part of a larger project under the CRC for Railway Engineering.

"The outcomes of my research indicate that the influence zone of a single tree is several times greater than its canopy size," said Behzad.

"For instance, the new geotechnical investigation in Miram, western Victoria, show that the influence of a Eucalyptus largiflorens tree can extend 30 metres from the tree trunk. Results from the computer simulation also show that the influence zone of a gum tree extends more than 20 metres.

"This means that planting trees in a 15-20 metre radius from rail tracks can actually sufficiently stabilise the soft formation and save a significant portion of the billions of dollars spent on maintenance. A marriage between botanical science and geotechnical engineering is rare, but it would form a union from which rail industries might profit handsomely."

Behzad was awarded first prize at the Young Geotechnical Professional's Night in 2006, which is a prestigious geomechanics award from the Australian Geomechanics Society and Engineers Australia.

He was also a first prize-winner at UOW's Higher Degree Research Student Conference in 2005 in the category "Frontier Technologies for Building and Transforming Australian Industries."