The main bottleneck during the manufacture of complex geometry thin-walled GFRC structures is the time taken to make the timber or CNC machined moulds for each panel. Complex geometries are comprised of many unique panel forms and the extensive time and high costs of their manufacture often prevents their architectural intent from being fully realised. A novel mould-making process is proposed that uses a state-of-the-art flexible table with computer-controlled actuators to create free-formed geometry, fast-curing, dual-density, polyurethane moulds. This mould-making process was successfully tested by using sprayed GFRC to manufacture 9 different double curved intermediate moulds for a 10 m high GFRC self-supporting, thin-walled hyperbolic shell, with 12 mm thick panels at the base of the structure. The completed structure showcased the effectiveness of the novel mould-making process by reducing the production time from an estimated 100 days to 10 days. The primary outcome was the development and application of a new manufacturing method capable of casting complex geometry thin-walled GFRC panels with good surface quality that was suited to more rapid, cost-effective and automated large-scale production.

The morphological evolution of submarine channel systems can be documented using high-resolution three-dimensional seismic data sets. However, these studies provide limited information on the distribution of sedimentary facies within channel fills, channelscale stacking patterns, or the detailed stratigraphic relationship with adjacent levee-overbank deposits. Seismic-scale outcrops of unit C2 in the Permian Fort Brown Formation, Karoo Basin, South Africa, on two subparallel fold limbs comprise thin-bedded successions, interpreted as external levee deposits, which are adjacent to channel complexes, with constituent channels filled with thick-bedded structureless sandstones, thinner-bedded channel margin facies, and internal levee deposits. Research boreholes intersect all these deposits, to link sedimentary facies and channel stacking patterns identified in core and on image logs and detailed outcrop correlation panels. Key characteristics, including depth of erosion, stacking patterns, and cross-cutting relationships, have been constrained, allowing paleogeographic reconstruction of six channel complexes in a 36-km² (14-mi²) area. The system evolved from an early, deeply incised channel complex, through a series of external levee-confined and laterally stepping channel complexes culminating in an aggradational channel complex confined by both internal and external levees. Down-dip divergence of six channel complexes from the same location suggests the presence of a unique example of an exhumed deep-water avulsion node. Down-dip, external levees are supplied by flows that escaped fromchannel complexes of different ages and spatial positions and are partly confined and share affinities with internal levee successions. The absence of frontal lobes suggests that the channels remained in sand bypass mode immediately after avulsion.