Maisarah Ali

Audit assessment of the facilities maintenance management in a public hospital in Malaysia

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to assess the existing facilities maintenance management practices and processes in public hospitals, in accordance with the concession agreement (CA), in order to identify the current performance status.Design/methodology/approach – A case study is conducted in one district hospital in Malaysia to assess five key elements: leadership; policies, plans and procedures; training and orientation; monitoring and supervision; and service performance. Data are collected through questionnaires, guided interviews, documentation review and retrieval, archival records review, and direct observations.Findings – The status of facilities maintenance management in the hospital is categorised as “maturing”, which implies that there has been a good planning and management with all essential requirements and compliance with regulations. Nevertheless, analyses of findings indicate that the maintenance organisations in the hospital still do not realise the importance and benefits of eff...

Optimization of cooling systems in data centre by Computational Fluid Dynamics model and simulation

Development of information technology drives the increase demand of data centre and the invention of high performance of computer facilities which will impact to the increasing of heat dissipation from equipment. The environmental condition in data centre must be designed and maintained strictly to avoid disruption and thermally shut down that caused by overheat and loss of cooling. This paper primarily focuses on the optimization cooling system in data centre by arrangement of racks position and airflow management. Models and simulation of Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) are developed for the room and equipment of data centre where the effect to temperature and airflow profiles will be observed. A case study of data centre design in Kuala Lumpur with 30 racks of equipment and combination of raised floor cooling and spot cooling was carried out. Results of CFD simulation show the issues of data centre cooling and improvement was suggested to improve the distribution of cooling and reduction of hot spots.

Ventilation Performance Assessment of an Educational Building in a Hot and Humid Climate

Air Handling Units in mechanical ventilation system possess a high degree of potential to circulate contaminants within occupied spaces of a building which often results in sick building syndrome (SBS), building related illness (BRI) and other indoor air quality (IAQ) related issues. This happens despite the expected role of ventilation systems to create a balance of thermal comfort and indoor air quality to the building occupants as well as the stored components. In the hot and humid climate mechanical ventilation systems play an important role of controlling the indoor hygrothermal conditions. Inadequate performance of the mechanical ventilation systems result in several issues ranging from human occupants discomfort, mechanical damages to archival materials and mould problem amongst others. This study presents the measurement and analysis of the mechanical ventilation systems’ performance and its effect on various indoor spaces in an academic building in Malaysia. Measurement of airflow, thermal and hygric conditions of the facility together with the aero-biological sampling were executed. The ventilation performance assessment revealed that the AHU fails in its cooling and dehumidification capacities as most of the occupied zones witnessed elevated humidity and low temperature and hence poor hygrothermal performance. On the other hand, results of bio-aerosol assessment indicates that the AHU performs well in its decontamination capacities by reducing the microbial level between the AHU and the occupied zones. The dominant species of mould in the assessed spaces are Penicillium sp., Yeast, Cladosporium sp., and Chaetomium sp. with 100 % occurrence in all the assessed space. On the other hand, Black Mold, Syntalidium sp., and zygomycetes are the least species in spaces with 25 % occurrence. The presence of black mould portends a great danger to the occupants’ health and therefore requires urgent attention.

Pozzolanic Reaction Mechanism of Rice Husk Ash in Concrete – A Review

Recently, incorporation of cement replacement material (CRM) in concrete has gained considerable attention throughout the world. It is known that the commonly used CRM in current concrete industry is silica fume (SF), pulverized fuel ash (PFA) and rice husk ash (RHA). RHA is an agricultural waste from rice milling process. Rice farming activities is one of the main crops planted in Malaysia and therefore, the rice husk abundantly generated every year. RHA exhibits positive pozzolanic reaction during concrete strength development. The material contains amorphous silica and hence it contributed towards enhancement of various concrete properties. This paper presents a short review of RHA properties as CRM and pozzolanic reaction determination.

Influence of Indoor Microclimate Distribution on Mould Infestation in a University Library

Indoor mould contamination portends grave consequence to the stored components as well as inhabitants of infested dwellings. Such defilement, which is due to favourable growth environment for micro-organisms, is often associated with Sick Building Syndrome (SBS) and other Building Related Illness (BRI). As the economic development of Malaysia continues, increase numbers of air-tight, fully air conditioned buildings are evolving. Currently limited guidelines exists on Indoor Air Quality (IAQ) in Malaysia and its knowledge amongst the public is lacking. Hence, diagnosing the aggravating factors favouring indoor mould becomes beneficial as earlier detection is often difficult until growth has advanced. The study aimed at investigating mould infestation in a mechanically ventilated library building in Malaysia. Microclimate parameter and mould sampling were carried out. The microbial investigation results in 72 isolates whose distribution were 86 % mould, 13 % yeast and 1 % bacterial. It is found that Aspegillus sp. and Onychocola sp. were most common. The library internal microclimate distribution is characterised by uneven hygrothermal profile which results in high level of cellulolytic mould species that are highly detrimental to books and other archival materials. It is recommended that the HVAC system operations and set-points be critiqued to bring the ambient to the preservation requirements. In addition, load balancing for thermal and hygric distribution analysis should be executed to eliminate dead-spots in temperature and moisture distributions.

Integrating a Computational Fluid Dynamics Simulation and Visualization with a 3D Virtual Walkthrough — A Case Study of Putrajaya

This paper discusses the possibilities of applying Virtual Reality techniques within an analysis and presentations of the results and visualisation output of a computational fluid dynamics simulation study of an urban master plan proposal with a focus on semi-outdoor spaces in selected areas. The environmental performance analysis was conducted to make an assessment in terms of air flow with the aim to enhance thermal comfort and predict the outcome of extreme wind events in the locality. This includes the investigation of the occurrence of wind-tunneling phenomena linked to pedestrian discomfort. The numerical and visual output of the simulation was used as a framework to integrate environmental performance data with a walkthrough of pedestrian walkways in selected areas in Precinct 4 of the Putrajaya Master plan. Hence the paper is divided into two aspects i.e. the results of the Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) analysis and an example of how the data or graphical output is integrated with a virtual walkthrough of the selected ‘parcel’ or area.