Wei Zeng

Wei Zeng

School of Architecture and Civil Engineering

Faculty of Sciences, Engineering and Technology

Eligible to supervise Masters and PhD - email supervisor to discuss availability.


Innovative researcher with extensive experience on multidisciplinary topics with a focus on Water;
Passionate about solving pressing problems in the water Industry;
Enthusiastic lecturer in Water Engineering;

My research directions include water digitisation, sustainable water asset maintenance, urban water network management, and pumped hydro energy storage. 

Water digitisation
I have been working collaboratively with SA Water on the smart water network (SWN) project, which utilises 500+ acoustic loggers to monitor the Adelaide water network. The aim of the project is to detect emerging pipe cracks/leaks using IoT-based permanent acoustic monitoring with advanced acoustic signal processing and data analytic approaches. 

Sustainable water asset maintenance
I developed the next-generation pipe condition assessment technique during my PhD. Available technologies can either pinpoint pipe defects in a short (e.g, 10 m) pipe section or roughly screen the condition for long transmission pipes (e.g., 10 km). The new technique fills existing gaps with new algorithms and testing systems. I am working on solving industry problems using this new technique with our industry partners.

Urban water network design, control and management
The new pressure monitoring system in urban water networks shows the potential damage caused by aggressive unsteady transient events happening every day in the network. I am developing new modelling and data analysis approaches to increase network resilience, and provide operational guidelines and management strategies. 

Pumped hydropower and mini-hydro
To achieve net-zero emissions by 2050, current wind and solar renewables are being constructed. But reliability will only be achieved by constructing pumped hydro schemes and batteries. My research experience in pumped hydro energy storage includes: the operation and control of pumped hydro schemes; 1D, 3D (CFD), and 1D-3D hybrid hydraulic modelling of pumped hydro schemes.

  • Appointments

    Date Position Institution name
    2023 - ongoing Adjunct lecturer The University of Adelaide
    2023 - ongoing Technology Developer Adelitics, Ply, Ltd
    2020 - 2023 Postdoctoral Research Fellow The University of Adelaide
    2016 - 2017 Research assistant Wuhan University
  • Language Competencies

    Language Competency
    Chinese (Mandarin) Can read, write, speak, understand spoken and peer review
    English Can read, write, speak, understand spoken and peer review
  • Education

    Date Institution name Country Title
    2017 - 2020 The University of Adelaide Australia PhD
    2013 - 2016 Wuhan University China Master
    2009 - 2013 Wuhan University China Bachelor
  • Research Interests

 

Title
Source
Amount
Closing the Gap in Pipe Condition Assessment using Hydro-Acoustic Waves ARC Linkage project 2021 ARC $368k + Industry $188k
Network Calming -Using Smart Sensors to Improve Water Asset Performance ARC Discovery project 2023 ARC $391k
Hydroacoustic Diagnosis for Sustainable Water Distribution Systems UoA EMCR scheme 2021 10k +School 2k
Small Equipment Support scheme UoA $14k
High-Accuracy Hydraulic Transient Analysis of 
 Pumped Storage Hydropower Plants
Visiting scholar fellowship at Wuhan University  ~17k
     

 

 

Year Course Role
2022 Advanced Civil Engineering Hydraulics Lecturer
2021

Advanced Civil Engineering Hydraulics

Water Engineering & Design

Lecturer
2020 Water Engineering & Design Guest lecturer & Tutor
2019 Water Engineering & Design Guest lecturer & Tutor
2019 Introduction to Infrastructure Tutor
2019 Water Engineering II Tutor
2018 Water Engineering & Design Tutor
2018 Water Engineering II Tutor
  • Current Higher Degree by Research Supervision (University of Adelaide)

    Date Role Research Topic Program Degree Type Student Load Student Name
    2023 Co-Supervisor Anomaly detection of pipe networks by the inverse transient method Doctor of Philosophy Doctorate Full Time Mr Morteza Imani
    2022 Co-Supervisor Proactive Detection of Wastewater Overflows in Smart Wastewater Systems Doctor of Philosophy Doctorate Full Time Ms Thi Hai Duong Ninh
    2021 Co-Supervisor Characterisation and condition assessment of water distribution systems using hydraulic transients with data-driven algorithms Doctor of Philosophy Doctorate Full Time Mr Jiawei Ye

Connect With Me
External Profiles