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This thesis examines the effect on height determination of the antenna phase centre variation of GPS user segment antennae. A discussion of the various antenna types in common use is followed by an explanation of the problem at hand. In particular the effect of the antenna's environment on the phase centre variation is covered more fully, since the phase variation phenomenon itself is largely unexplained in the engineering community to date. A number of examples of the heighting errors caused by this phenomenon are presented, followed by specifically designed experiments, which quantify the effect. Finally the phase centre variation itself is modelled for a particular GPS antenna in common use by surveyors in Australia. The overall conclusion, arrived at by demonstration, is that the antenna phase centre offsets and the variation model are very important for high accuracy determinations of height.

A new, high resolution, high precision and accuracy gravimetric geoid of Australia has been produced using updated data, theory and computational methodologies. The fast Fourier transform technique is applied to the computation of the geoid and terrain effects. The long, medium and short wavelength components of the geoid are determined from the OSU91A global geopotential model, 2'x2' (residual gravity anomalies in a 3 degrees cap and 1'x1' digital terrain model (DTM), respectively.Satellite altimeter gravity data have been combined with marine gravity data to improve the coverage of the gravity data, and thus the quality of the geoid. The best gridding procedure for gravity data has been studied and applied to the gravity data gridding. It is found that the gravity field of Australia behaves quite differently. None of the free-air, Bouguer or topographic-isostatic gravity anomalies are consistently the smoothest. The Bouguer anomaly is often rougher than the free-air anomaly and thus should be not used for gravity field gridding. It is also revealed that in some regions the topography often contains longer wavelength features than the gravity anomalies.It is demonstrated that the inclusion of terrain effects is crucial for the determination of an accurate gravimetric geoid. Both the direct and indirect terrain effects need to be taken into account in the precise geoid determination of Australia. The existing AUSGEOID93 could be in error up to 0.7m in terms of the terrain effect only. In addition, a series of formulas have been developed to evaluate the precision of the terrain effects. These formulas allow the effectiveness of the terrain correction and precision requirement for a given DTM to be studied. It is recommended that the newly released 9"x9" DTM could be more effectively used if it is based on 15"x15" grid.It is estimated from comparisons with Global ++ / Positioning System (GPS) and Australian Height Datum Data that the absolute accuracy of the new geoid is better than 33cm and the relative precision of the new geoid is better than 10~20cm. This new geoid can support Australian GPS heighting to third-order specifications.

Hydraulic fracturing plays an important role in increasing production rate in tight reservoirs. The performance of the reservoir after fracturing can be observed from the productivity index. This parameter is dependent on the fracture geometry; height, length and width. Unified fracture design (UFD) offers a method to determine the fracture dimensions providing the maximum productivity index for a specific proppant amount. Then, in order to achieve the maximum productivity index, the treatment schedules including the amount of liquid and proppant used for each stage must be determined according to the fracture dimensions obtained from the UFD. The proppant number is necessary for determining the fracture geometry using the UFD. This number is used to find the maximum productivity index for a given proppant amount. Then, the dimensionless fracture conductivity index corresponding to the maximum productivity index can be computed. The penetration ration, the fracture length, and the propped fracture width can be computed from the dimensionless fracture conductivity. However, calculating the proppant number used in UFD requires the fracture height as an input. The most convenient way to estimate fracture height to input to the UFD is to assume that the fracture height is restricted by stress contrast between the pay zone and over and under-lying layers. In other words, the fracture height is assumed to be constant, independent of net pressure and equal to the thickness of the layer which has the least minimum principal stress. However, in reality, the fracture may grow out from the target formation and the height of fracture is dependent on the net pressure during the treatment. Therefore, it is necessary to couple determination of the fracture height with determination of the other fracture parameters. In this research, equilibrium height theory is applied to rigorously determine the height of fracture. Solving the problem iteratively, it is possible to incorporate the rigorous fracture height determination into the unified fracture design.

The goal of my work is to verify the effectiveness of various methods of collecting geodetic data in order to locate the decline of soil horizont in the dewatered areas.