Towards sustainable environmental goals, the utilization of agricultural waste as concrete material in the low-cost construction industry has received special interest from many researchers. It is the best approach in converting waste into valuable sustainable products which consequently reduces abundant of the waste and avoid environmental pollution. Literature proved that bamboo has high tensile strength and the mechanical properties of bamboo are almost similar to steel reinforcement, besides the advantage of its lightweight and cost-effective. In this study, a Systematic Literature Review (SLR) is conducted to review the behaviour of the bonding strength of bamboo reinforcement in concrete. The SLR is proposed based on the widely adopted review protocol named ‘Reporting standards for Systematic Evidence Syntheses’ (ROSES). The proposed SLR procedure is critically discussed, starting from the formulation of the research question until the process of data abstraction and analysis. Particular emphasis is given on the different types of behaviour of bonding strength developed in bamboo reinforced concrete based on results of the pull-out test. Different types and behaviour of bamboo bonding reinforcement are studied and discussed. The study highlights the mechanical properties of bamboo as an alternative reinforcement in concrete and types of bamboo reinforced structural components. This reviews also compared the methodology adopted for surface treatment and preparation of bamboo reinforcement.

Keywords : Agriculture waste; bonding; bamboo reinforcement; concrete; pull-out test

A study has been conducted to determine the amount of recycle waste and the effective method of recycling management at Faculty of Engineering, Universiti Pertahanan Nasional Malaysia (UPNM) using the recycling bins system to reduce waste disposal at landfills. The primary data were collected through daily waste collection in Faculty of Engineering, UPNM. Several recycle waste bins have been located at specific areas to ease student and staff the throw the recycle waste. The result showed that the recycling bin system successfully recovered recycle waste item by 3 000 to 5 000 gram. Thus, it is believing that the implementation of waste separation at source can improve the current waste management system in UPNM and helps to support the sustainability and green campus environment campaign.

Keywords: Recycle; sustainability; Green Earth Campaign

Electrodes removal phenomena of WEDM is importantto understand the efficiency and the process accuracy. To clarify and understand the phenomenon, the plasma channel diameter and distribution of energy into electrodes are required. However, reports on the distribution of energy and plasma channel diameter are scarce. In this work, the energy distribution and plasma diameter of WEDM process were obtained. By comparing the melted material boundary in the crater obtained by the metallographic approach with the curve isothermal of the thermo-physical model obtained by finite element modelling (FEM), the distribution of energy besides that diameter of the plasma channel of the WEDM process were estimated. From this study, results indicate that the expansion of the diameter of the plasma channel must be taken into consideration in order to be more consistent with the real WEDM process. By applying the proposed method in this study, the distribution of energy and diameter of plasma channel, in various dielectrics with different polarities were investigated. However, by comparing the findings of the current study with the previous works, it turns out that the distribution of energy into the workpiece and the diameter of the plasma channel may be calculated by this approach.

Keywords: Energy distribution; Wire electrical discharge machining (WEDM); diameter of plasma channel; crater; Finite element modelling (FEM)

Demand of softwood fiber has rapidly increased as a result from the variety of new softwood products. Therefore, nonwood fibers have been introduced as alternatives in pulp for presspaper making to supplement the limited wood fiber resources. Malaysia is the second largest producer of oil palm where the empty fruit bunch (EFB) has a potential to be developed as an insulating paper. This paper aims to determine the performance of EFB as non-wood fiber to evaluate its use as potential presspaper insulation in power transformer. The sample of EFB paper was produced through kraft pulping and laboratory handsheet process. The performance of EFB and kraft paper was evaluated by impulse breakdown test. The study is focused on the performance of insulating paper that were aged with the transformer oil at 90 °C for 30 days. In order to investigate the impulse breakdown voltage of the insulating paper, multistage impulse generator was used. As the aging temperature increases,the breakdown voltage will decrease.The thickness of insulating paper also has an effect to the breakdown strength as the thicker the insulating paper, the higher the breakdown voltage will be. For no aging sample, kraft fibres dominate the breakdown strength at 28.11 kV/mm, while for sample aged at 90 °C, EFB fibres dominate the breakdown strength at 3.62 kV/mm higher than the average of kraft fibres due to an effect of fibres arrangement between fibre-to-fibre bonding after the aging.

Keywords: Non-wood fibers, impulse breakdown, thermal aging, insulating paper, empty fruit bunch.

This study investigated the economic comparison between bamboo reinforced concrete called Bamboocrete with the conventional reinforced concrete panel. Materials contribute significantly to the construction cost. Bamboo can be an alternative to replace steel bars in typical reinforced concrete as it is low in cost and sustainable material. To optimize the benefit, this study used whole solid bamboo as the reinforcement as well as to reduce amount of concrete in the panel, thus reducing the panel weight. Furthermore, the concrete used is lightweight concrete by partially replaced coarse aggregate with Palm Kernel Shell (PKS). The Bamboocrete panel at 1 500 mm height, 300 mm width, and 125 mm thick can sustain axial load of more than 100 KN (10 ton), and flexural bending load between 32.51 to 35.20 kN. Bamboocrete panel contribute towards economical building structures when it is 14% cheaper than steel reinforced concrete. Furthermore, bamboocrete panel is 23% lighter.

Keywords: Affordable panel; bamboo structure; concrete panel; bamboocrete

Medium alloy steel is widely used as a material for guns and rocket launchers due to its high strength and excellent machinability characteristics. The purpose of this study is to determine the material properties of the follower assembly used in a breech block gun launcher which is significantly important f or t he future product improvement. The microstructure and the effect of alloying elements in the follower assembly is evaluated in this study. The SPECTRO Optical Emission Spectroscopy (ES) method is used to analyse the chemical composition of the material and the Field Emission Scanning Electron Microscope coupled with Energy Dispersive X-Ray (FESEM-EDX) were used to analyse the inclusions of the sample. Results of the ES chemical composition analysis found that Nickel (Ni) is the major alloying elements beside Molybdenum (Mo), Chromium (Cr), Manganese (Mn), Silicon (Si), Sulphur (S), and Carbon (C) while chemical mapping and line scanning analysis of FESEM-EDX on inclusions distributed in the material microstructure identified as a compound of Manganese Sulphur(MnS). Fine dendritic microstructure arrangement and distribution in the microstructure analysis showed that the sample had been quenching in the heat treatment process, which also played a significant role in the material characterization. From the analysis, it is found that the material can be defined as medium alloy steel that is also typical for high strength material for ballistic application.

Keywords: Medium alloy steel; alloying effect; microstructure; mechanical strength

Currently portable power supply unit either powered by diesel generator or solar powered are only able to supply for alternating current (AC) or single direct current (DC) loads. In this work, multiple renewable input and output emergency portable power supply (E-PPS) prototype were developed and the functionality were explored. The developed prototype usage duration was determined by varying electrical loads. Verifications were carried out to demonstrate E-PPS functionality and usage during emergency with Malaysian Health-care Department, Malaysian Civil Defence Agency, and Malaysian Royal Signals Regiment. It was found that E-PPS managed to successfully supply simultaneous power for both alternating current (AC) and various direct current (DC) loads at an average of 88% efficiency.

Keywords: Portable; multiple renewable; emergency power supply

Population growth and industrial demand are related in construction of buildings and houses which contribute to increment of energy consumption. The invention of phase change materials (PCMs) with high latent heat capacity were explored to be integrated into building materials. PCMs are substances that are capable of storing large amounts of thermal energy as latent heat during their phase transition. Development of this product can ensure a comfortable indoor temperature in buildings without depending on air conditioning system which consumes more energy and damage the environment not to mention contributing towards global climate change. This research concentrated on proposing the method of PCM incorporation and its heat resistance performance. Calcium Chloride Hexahydrate (CaCl₂.6H₂O) was used in this research while the incorporation method is direct mixing into gloss paint and added into zip-lock plastic then covered by conventional cement plaster. From the data obtained, we can see the PCM incorporated wall is better in heat resistance than wall without PCM resulting difference in temperature between internal and external wall 3 ˚C rather than 1 ˚C. For the conclusion , PCM incorporated wall can decrease the internal temperature of building slightly contributing to conserving nature by reducing air conditioner system consumption.

Keywords : Phase change materials; CaCl₂.6H₂O; salt hydrate; heat mitigation

This paper aims to conduct a Computational fluid dynamics (CFD) analysis of seven selected hydrofoils at different angles of attack (AOA) for application in ocean current energy converter blades. The hydrofoil models are NACA0012, NACA0015, NACA2412, NACA2414, NACA2415, NACA 4412, and E387. The geometry was managed using the Design Modeler tool. The fluid flow simulation was carried out using ANSYS Fluent. The result showed the performance of E387 is betterthan other hydrofoils asit gives betterlift force with the least drag force,resulting in better hydrodynamics of turbine blade. Overall, the value of lift and drag coefficients at 10o was more consistent than 0o and 20o AOA.

Keywords: CFD; hydrofoil; angle of attack; fluid dynamics; lift and drag coefficient

Skid resistance or friction on airport pavement plays an essential role in runway safety to ensure safe stopping distance. It also provides safety margins during take off and landing of aircraft especially in directional control by reducing the occurrence of overrun and veer-off incidents. The friction between pavement and tire is related to multiple factors such as pavement surface characteristics (microtexture and macrotexture), material intruded between tire and pavement surface (water, snow, and contaminants), tire conditions (types, wear, and inflation pressure), and vehicle operating conditions (vehicle speed and whether the wheel is rolling or locked). Skid incidents due to wet pavement surface at airport runway is a major concern especially in regions of wet-tropical climate countries such as Malaysia. Thus, this study was undertaken to measure the potential of skid incident at airport runway by collecting data on pavement surface characteristics. Field data collection on pavement surface microtexture was conducted using the British Pendulum Tester at a local airport runway to obtain data for the estimation of the skid number (SN). Due to constraints, pavement surface macrotexture test was unable to be conducted at site. However, the pavement surface macrotexture was able to be estimated based on previous research. The potential of the skid incident was estimated by calculating the SN using the aircraft’s touch down speed at the airport runway, varies from 50 to 70 knots (57.5 – 80.6 mph or 92.6 – 129.6 km/h). The results of the estimation indicated that the possibility of the skid incident occurrence was high. This study provides useful insights for airport authority to investigate the potential of overrun and veer-off incidents of aircraft at the airport runway.

Keywords: Skid resistance; microtexture, macrotexture; skid number; runway

This study explores the potential of tamarind shells as a filler in epoxy composites. The tamarind shells were collected from local supply and processed by washing it repeatedly using distilled water. The tamarind shells were dried and crushed to form fine particles. Epoxy composites were produced by mixing epoxy and hardenerwith varying (25,40,50,60) wt % of tamarind shells powder to achieve the desired properties. The samples underwent density test, flexural test, hardness test, thermal stability test, and morphology in order to analyse the mechanical and thermal properties of the samples. With the addition of tamarind shell particle, hardness and flexural strength show improvement about ~ 80% and 147%, respectively. However, density and thermal stability show decrement in value.

Keywords: Tamarind shell; mechanical; thermal stability; morphology; epoxy composite

Perovskite solar cells based on lead halide has demonstrated the fast increase in efficiency and advanced in photovoltaic technology in the last decade. However, perovskite solar cells that contain lead (Pb) has high efficiency but tangible risk to humans, animals, and the environment. Bismuth oxyiodide (BiOI) has been recognized as a suitable candidate of non-toxic material to replace lead without adversely impacting performance in perovskite solar cells. The interest in application of BiOI thin films is because BiOI has narrow band gap, high efficiency light absorption and high photo catalytic activity makes it the perfect contender to replace Pb as new non-toxic material perovskite solar cell. Thin films of BiOI were synthesized and deposited using Successive Ionic Layer Adsorption and Reaction (SILAR) on glass substrates. The same mole ratios of bismuth(III) nitrate pentahydrate (Bi(NO3).5H2O) and potassium iodide (KI) were diluted in deionized water to achieve clear solution. The microscope glass was dipped consecutively in 0.01M of (BiNO3)2.5H2O diluted in deionized water, 0.01M of (KI) diluted deionized water and in 50 ml deionized water. This process has been repeated for 30 times and finally the sample was dripped and dried in air. The sample was annealed at various annealing temperature from 250 °C, 350 °C, 450 °C, and 550 °C for 20 minutes. The optical properties and structural properties of BiOI thin films were characterized using X-ray powder diffraction (XRD), Ultraviolet-visible (UV-Vis) measurement and Field Emission Scanning Electron Microscope (FESEM). The Surface Profilometer (SP) was used to measure the thin films thickness. The structure of the films changed with the annealling temperature. The color of the film changes to the orange-yellow and become more yellowish with increasing annealing temperature. The morphology of FESEM images demonstrated that the BiOI thin films have flakes morphology structure with the size around 1μm. The deposited film thickness ranged between 3.479 µm and 8.082 µm. This study provided significant output and a pathway for non-toxic BiOI thin film for perovskite solar cells.

Keywords: Bismuth oxyiodie; dip coating; SILAR; thin film; perovskite solar cell

Slope failure is a natural disaster that involves the movement of ground and rock under the influence of gravity. There are several factors influencing slope stability, including the excessive surcharge load imposed on the top of the slope. This study performs slope stability analysis to evaluate the performance of a non-homogenous man-made slope constructed on the UPNM campus. The methodology of this research comprises two parts. The first part is laboratory test, and the second part is simulation work. The laboratory tests conducted to determine the soil properties are sieve analysis, permeability test, and direct shear test. The limit equilibrium method using the SlopeW software is employed to determine the effect of imposing a gradually increasing surcharge load on the man-made slope from a varying distance. The value of Factor of Safety (FOS) and critical slip surface formation obtained using SlopeW were used to determine the maximum load carrying-capacity before failure. The results showed that the FOS decreased with an increasing surcharge load. However, the FOS increased as the distance of the load increase. Further analysis was carried out to enhance the stability of the slope. By reducing 40% of slope height, the stability of slope is increased to 44%. It is also suggested that no activity or development should be carried out on the slope crest to prevent slope failure occurrence in the future.

Keywords: Slope stability; factor of safety; critical slip surface; SlopeW

Small-scale electronic devices require long hours’ operation and fast charging time. Potential technology to support requirement of small-scale electronic device is micro scale combustor. Unfortunately, micro scale combustion is prone to combustion instability. Therefore, objective of this study is to investigate the combustion characteristics, mechanism that stabilize the flame and combustor performance of the 2-D microchannel combustor with bluff body having various slit percentages gap. Two-dimensional computational domain with the height and length of the channel H = 1 mm and L = 16 mm is used respectively. The height of the bluff body is 0.5 mm and located at 2 mm from the inlet. The slit gap percentage varied in this study is 0% to 70%. The results show that the combustion characteristic such as stable flame, wavy flame, blow-off, and flame split into two parts is significantly influenced by the slit gap percentage. Flame is moving downstream and blow-off at the slit percentage of 10% to 25%. At the slit percentage of 30%, the flame zone moves towards the upstream due to the secondary vortex that exists behind the bluff body as slit gap increases and pushes the flame upstream. The reaction zone is split into two parts at 60% and 70% slit gap percentage. It is due to the incoming fresh mixture of CH4/air mixture flows through the slit and cuts the flame zone. It is also found that by increasing inlet velocity beyond 2.0 m/s, the flame becomes unstable and leads to blow-off as increase in equivalence ratio up to 1.0.

Keywords: Micro combustor; bluff body; slit gap; combustion instability; micro channel

This paper studies the design of a simulator to simulate the general behaviour of an aircraft in its lateral motion. The study will be in two parts: the aircraft lateral natural system and the design of the control laws. In the aircraft lateral natural system, all modes will be discussed including the Pure Roll mode, the Dutch Roll mode, and the Spiral mode. In the design of the control laws, two types of control laws were discussed which are the yaw damper and the poles placement method. The result is a complete simulator for aircraft lateral motion which allows the user to simulate and study the lateral characteristic of an aircraft given the desired input. The simulator resulted from this study is suitable to be used for teaching and learning as the changes in parameters yield instantaneous results that can be displayed.

Keywords: Aircraft simulator; lateral mode; control laws

This paper presents the parametric studies to obtain the optimum V-shaped angle plate due to blast load by using numerical simulations i.e., LS-DYNA. Constant magnitudes of mass of TNT and standoff distance were used while the angle of the V-shaped plate was varied in 5 °’ interval from 60 ° down to 10 °. This study found that the optimum V-shaped angle plate that could mitigate the maximum amount of blast load while experiencing minimal deformation at the vertex of the V-shaped plate was 25 °. Detailed parametric steps were presented in this study in order to arrive at the optimum angle of V-shaped plate to mitigate the blast load.

Keywords: Electrospinning; nanofibres; polycaprolactone; hydroxyapatite; tissue engineering

Renewable energy is an important source in supplying energy to the masses as it is sustainable, environmentally friendly, and require less maintenance cost compared to the conventional fossil fuel resources. This paper describes the study of a pico hydro generation system. The power generation system uses water utilized by a building as the source to generate energy. In the study, the system prototype is designed using several combinations of piping system where different sizes, shapes, and turbine positions are used. The energy from the water flowing through the piping system will be converted into electrical energy through the turbine system that is placed in the main water tank. The best combination of pipeline system for the prototype is by using two different positions of water jet. This combination requires lower water pressure and is able to generate 198 W of energy.

Keywords: Pico hydro generation system; renewable energy

Soil erosion issue is common among construction sites. The phenomena usually takes place on sloped areas with no soil cover. The main objectives of the research are to determine the sediment concentration of rain induced on different types of covers and also to determine the hydraulic parameters. Besides that, the research also has to investigate the relation of the sediment concentration with hydraulic parameters. This research will take place in rainfall simulator using soil sample collected from sloped areas. The hydraulic parameters of this experiment consist of flow velocity, flow depth, shear stress, and unit stream power. Soil sample will be placed on four trays with different types of covers and properly arranged in the rainfall simulator with slope of 20 ᵒ. The sample will undergo rainfall event for two hours. The surface runoff collected and the sediment concentration measured using Total Suspended Solid (TSS) testing. The result shows the stream power of dry leaves is higher among those four covers with 0.0046 msˉ¹ followed by grass cover with 0.0033 msˉ¹ than gravel with 0.0023 msˉ¹, and lastly bare soil cover with 0.0008 msˉ¹. However, sediment concentration and surface runoff that were produced by bare soil is the highest followed by gravel, then leaves, and lastly grass. Generally, the sediment production in descending order started with the bare soil, gravel, dry leaves, and grass. From the research shown, rain induced on vegetation cover can be used as a low-cost initiative to control the soil erosion on construction slope area.

Keywords: Soil erosion; rainfall simulator; hydraulic parameter; sediment concentration; runoff discharge

Numerical simulation study to predict the transient (maximum) deformation of a rolled homogeneous armor plate which was loaded by the explosion of spherical trinitrotoluene bomb by using the ‘load blast enhanced’ and ‘structured arbitrary langragian eulerian’ methodologies in LS-DYNA is reported in this paper. Three numerical simulation models that utilized the ‘load blast enhanced’ and three numerical simulation models that utilized the ‘structured arbitrary langragian eulerian’ methodologies in LS-DYNA were produced and their results were used to predict and validate the deformations of three blast experimental tests of rolled homogeneous armor plates obtained from a published paper. This study showed that the numerical simulation results from the ‘load blast enhanced’ methodology gave better agreement than the ‘structured arbitrary langragian eulerian’ methodology with an average percentage differences of around 17% for all three cases.

Keywords: Load blast enhanced; structured arbitrary langrangian eulerian; blast loading; numerical simulation; TNT; LS-DYNA

This paper presentsthe performance of Radix-4 Modified Booth Algorithm. Booth algorithm is a multiplication algorithm that multiplies two signed binary numbers in two’s complement notation. Multiplier is a fundamental component in general-purpose microprocessors and in digital signal processors. With advances in technology, researchers design multipliers which offer high speed, low power, and less area implementation. Booth multiplier algorithm is designed to reduce number of partial products as compared to conventional multiplier. The proposed design is simulated by using Verilog HDL in Quartus II and implemented in Cyclone II FPGA. The result shows that the average output delay is 20.78 ns. The whole design has been verified by gate level simulation.

Keywords: Booth multiplier; Radix 4; FPGA; digital arithmetic

Different types of image acquisition devices render different measure of colour depending on the specification of devices; even a same device will give different values of colours rendered, taking at certain duration of times. Most of the researches nowadays have attempted to solve these limitations and the researches of colour correction algorithm has been evolved recently. Colour correction algorithm has been widely used in various fields such as food industry, medical imaging, forensic cyber applications, film industries etc. In medical imaging, researchers have considered colour correction as an essential part in their pre-processing step prior to diagnosis. There are various statistical methods in colour correction and colour grading algorithm being implemented nowadays and finding the best algorithm with high accuracy is non-trivial. This paper presents comparative analyses of colour correction techniques that combine colour correction and colour grading algorithm using conventional gamma correction, polynomial regression, and proposed polynomial regression with modified gamma Look-up Table (pgLUT). It has been observed that our proposed pgLUT colour correction algorithm outperformed the conventional methods by 16.5%.

Keywords: Medical image colour correction; colour grading; Gamma Correction; Polynomial Regression; look-up tables; comparative image analysis

Many researchers nowadays are looking to find another alternative to replace the use of mineral oil as an insulation fluid used in transformer due to the amount of minerals oil that are depleted. One of the alternatives is by using palm oil as an insulation fluid. However, something must be done to improve the breakdown voltage of palm oil if it wants to replace the use of mineral oil as an insulation fluid. One of approved methods to improve the dielectric strength of palm oil is by inserting another particle inside the oil. In this study, an investigation will be carried out to observe the effect of recycling organic material (black pepper) doping on Refined Bleached Deodorized Palm Oil (RBDPO) for AC breakdown voltage application will be carried out. It is concluded that, 2.5 mm gap between two electrodes produce the highest breakdown voltage compared with 1.5 mm and 2.0 mm. Other than that, the smallest size of black pepper which is 150 mm shows having the highest breakdown voltage compared to 300 mm and 600 mm. A test with different concentration of pepper seed with 0.01%, 0.05%, 0.1%, 0.15%, 0.2%, 0.4%, and 0.5% were conducted and shows that the breakdown voltage starts to increase as the concentration increases from 0.01% until 0.15% and start decreasing from 0.02% until 0.5%. Black pepper doping inside the palm oil does increase the performance of palm oil up to 13% from 49.66 kV to 57.4 kV

Keywords: Alternative resources of transformer oil; breakdown voltage; palm oil

Electricity is a vital component necessary to stimulate the growth of a country whereby Malaysia relies upon nonrenewable fossil fuel for much of its needs. Since the 70’s oil crisis, Malaysia has attempted to preserve its oil resources and increase the contribution of renewable energy which subsequently has boosted the rapid increase of renewable energy supply, particularly in hydropower but under the 5th Fuel Diversification policy, the country prioritises to diversify its fuel sources. Banana waste has been identified as one of the potential sources due to its abundance in natural resources in Malaysia for being widely planted in agricultural sector. It has been used by neighbouring country, namely Thailand and also efficiently recycled by developed nations worldwide. This paper will discuss the potential biomass feedstock, and banana plant is chosen for the nature of its abundance, fast growth rate, and disposal after harvest. Conversion from biomass into energy can be done by direct combustion, solid biomass briquette, bioethanol, and biogas. Theoretically, all the methods except direct combustion are viable for energy generation but bioethanol and biogas suffer from compatibility issues with existing infrastructure designed for fossil fuel thus making solid fuel a topic that should be researched further to improve its uses in cogeneration and boilers. Hence, banana biomass is feasible for use as a source of renewable energy in Malaysia.

Keywords: Biofuel; banana; biomass; renewable energy