Mohd Afzanizam Mohd Rosli

Development of model system for cost-effective pico-hydro turbine

One of the main obstacles of rural electrification programme is to find an alternative energy to replace power generated by generator. The ever increasing fuel price and its cost of transportation to the remote location limited the availability of electricity to certain time of the day. Since the rural settlement usually located near water source, renewable energy based on hydro is suggested. This paper will discuss about the development of model system for cost-effective pico-hydro turbine. The size of the turbine will be based on low flow and low head application. Two types of turbine, propeller or also known as axial-flow and cross-flow, are evaluated under these conditions. Both of the turbines were installed in one model system equipped with storage tanks and piping system. Centrifugal pump is used to ensure the circulation of the water between main storage tank into the flowing tank simulating the run-of river application for pico hydro system. The head of the model system is fixed with variable parameter of water flow rate is controlled by using controller valve and flow meter for power data collection for each turbine. The performance of both turbines were also simulated and evaluated by using CFDs software. Techno-economics evaluations are done so that the model of the system will be able to select the optimum size of the turbine based on the flow rate for a cheap efficient and cost-effective hydro turbine.

Soft skills development of Engineering undergraduate students through Formula Varsity

This paper examines the seven elements of soft skills promoted by Institute of Higher Learning (IHL). These soft skills are demonstrated in one of the event organized by Faculty of mechanical Engineering, Universiti Teknikal Malaysia Melaka (UTeM) which is kwon as Formula Varsity. The event had been participated by a number of IHL in Malaysia and received good feedback from participating institution, staff and students. In order to study the effectiveness of the event and relate it to the soft skills elements, soft skills matrices for each team has been developed and discussed. The result show good relation and fulfil all the element of the soft skills.

Thermal Performance on Unglazed Photovoltaic Thermal Polymer Collector

In this study, the thermal efficiency of a polymer collector with unglazed photovoltaic thermal (PVT) system was determined. Overall heat loss was estimated using the heat energy balance method. Based on the analysis, the heat removal factor of the PVT system was found to be 0.55. The thermal performance of the system was 47% during the zero reduce temperature. The unglazed PVT polymer collector could replace the conventional PVT collector, which encountered problems such as high cost, weighting issues, and corrosion.

Thermal Modeling of Photovoltaic Thermal System with Polymer Sheet in Tube Absorber Collector

This study developed a thermal model of a photovoltaic thermal collector (PVT) to predict the performance and outlet temperature of the system. The PVT consisted of a polycrystalline photovoltaic module, a polymer collector–type sheet in a tube, and an insulator. The motivation of the present work is that the polymer materials are flexible, low cost and lightweight which are for the PVT applications. The outlet temperature of the PVT increased with the decreasing rate of mass flow into the riser because the water had sufficient time for thermal heating. One unit of polymer collector can achieve an outlet temperature of 69 °C at 500 W/m2 at a mass flow rate of 0.0063 kg/s.