Suhaila Sahat

PET concrete as paver block

This research is carried out to investigate the performance of concrete containing Polyethylene Terephthalate (PET) bottle waste as fine aggregate. PET bottle waste was chosen because it is being thrown after single use and cause environmental problem. This PET concrete then will be applied as a paver block for pedestrian walk. To reduce waste PET, the PET bottles was recycled and used in concrete mixture as a fine aggregate. PET bottles was cleaned and grinded into small irregular shape. Then, it was incorporate with the concrete and the test was conducted to find out the suitable strength for PET concrete that will be applied as paver block. The study was conducted by using cube mould to investigate the strength of the concrete. A total of four batches of concrete were produced namely, standard concrete and concrete containing PET of 5%, 10% and 15%. In this research, the compressive strength of the concrete were measured following British Standard method. The results revealed that the presence of PET in concrete will decrease the concrete performance. Nevertheless, the content of PET was specified in a specific limit to avoid the effect of concrete strength.This research is carried out to investigate the performance of concrete containing Polyethylene Terephthalate (PET) bottle waste as fine aggregate. PET bottle waste was chosen because it is being thrown after single use and cause environmental problem. This PET concrete then will be applied as a paver block for pedestrian walk. To reduce waste PET, the PET bottles was recycled and used in concrete mixture as a fine aggregate. PET bottles was cleaned and grinded into small irregular shape. Then, it was incorporate with the concrete and the test was conducted to find out the suitable strength for PET concrete that will be applied as paver block. The study was conducted by using cube mould to investigate the strength of the concrete. A total of four batches of concrete were produced namely, standard concrete and concrete containing PET of 5%, 10% and 15%. In this research, the compressive strength of the concrete were measured following British Standard method. The results revealed that the presence of PET i...

Effectiveness of corn cob as a thermal isolation material

Each year global warming creates a phenomenon of increased heat in building structures, especially indoor. At present, building constructions apply various new materials which focus only on load-bearing material strength in order to be stronger and more durable. However, in order to achieve these criteria, the materials have to be good thermal conductors. Therefore, in this study, in order to overcome this, an alternative material, namely corncob was studied to determine its effectiveness as a thermal isolation material. Dried corncob was ground, glued and compacted in a mold with dimensions of 0.3m x 0.3m x 0.02m to produce a corncob plate. After being dried at 130°C and at room temperature for a day, it was installed on the mini house ceiling. The findings showed that on the third day of experiment, the indoor temperature of the mini house demonstrated a significant difference, where the temperature reading outside and inside the model house showed p-value (of the T-test) of more than 0.05. This proves that the corncob is effective in reducing indoor temperature and it can be an alternative material for thermal isolation.Each year global warming creates a phenomenon of increased heat in building structures, especially indoor. At present, building constructions apply various new materials which focus only on load-bearing material strength in order to be stronger and more durable. However, in order to achieve these criteria, the materials have to be good thermal conductors. Therefore, in this study, in order to overcome this, an alternative material, namely corncob was studied to determine its effectiveness as a thermal isolation material. Dried corncob was ground, glued and compacted in a mold with dimensions of 0.3m x 0.3m x 0.02m to produce a corncob plate. After being dried at 130°C and at room temperature for a day, it was installed on the mini house ceiling. The findings showed that on the third day of experiment, the indoor temperature of the mini house demonstrated a significant difference, where the temperature reading outside and inside the model house showed p-value (of the T-test) of more than 0.05. This proves ...

Geographical information system (GIS) application for flood prediction at Sungai Sembrong

The occurrence of flood is one of natural disaster that often beset Malaysia. The latest incident that happened in 2007 was the worst occurrence of floods ever be set in Johor. Reporting floods mainly focused on rising water rising levels, so about once a focus on the area of flood delineation. A study focused on the effectiveness of using Geographic Information System (GIS) to predict the flood by taking Sg. Sembrong, Batu Pahat, Johor as study area. This study combined hydrological model and water balance model in the display to show the expected flood area for future reference. The minimum, maximum and average rainfall data for January 2007 at Sg Sembrong were used in this study. The data shows that flood does not occurs at the minimum and average rainfall of 17.2mm and 2mm respectively. At maximum rainfall, 203mm, shows the flood area was 9983 hectares with the highest level of the water depth was 2m. The result showed that the combination of hydrological models and water balance model in GIS is very suitable to be used as a tool to obtain preliminary information on flood immediately. Besides that, GIS system is a very powerful tool used in hydrology engineering to help the engineer and planner to imagine the real situation of flood events, doing flood analysis, problem solving and provide a rational, accurate and efficient decision making.The occurrence of flood is one of natural disaster that often beset Malaysia. The latest incident that happened in 2007 was the worst occurrence of floods ever be set in Johor. Reporting floods mainly focused on rising water rising levels, so about once a focus on the area of flood delineation. A study focused on the effectiveness of using Geographic Information System (GIS) to predict the flood by taking Sg. Sembrong, Batu Pahat, Johor as study area. This study combined hydrological model and water balance model in the display to show the expected flood area for future reference. The minimum, maximum and average rainfall data for January 2007 at Sg Sembrong were used in this study. The data shows that flood does not occurs at the minimum and average rainfall of 17.2mm and 2mm respectively. At maximum rainfall, 203mm, shows the flood area was 9983 hectares with the highest level of the water depth was 2m. The result showed that the combination of hydrological models and water balance model in GIS is very ...

The Behaviour of Palm Oil Fibre Block Masonry Prism under Eccentric Compressive Loading

Dry-stacked masonry offers great benefits in constructing masonry buildings. Several examples from previous research show that dry masonry is reasonable alternative to the traditional building system. By addition of fibre, the ductility and the propagation of cracking will be improved. This study investigates the dry stack oil palm fibre block prisms which were subjected to eccentricity compression loads. These concrete blocks were cast using a single mould with suitable fibre-cement composition namely 1:4 (cement: sand) and 0.40 water to the cement ratio based on cement weight. Prisms test using 400 (length) x 150 (width) x 510 (height) mm specimen was carried under eccentric load. There were forty eight (48) prisms built with different configurations based on their volume of fibre. In this study, one types of grout were used namely the fine grout of mix 1:3:2 (cement: sand: aggregate (5mm maximum). Based on the test performed, the failure mechanism and influencing parameters were discussed. From compressive strength test result, it shows that the strength of concrete block decreased with the increase of fibre used. Although the control sample has the higher strength compared to concrete with EFB, it can be seen from mode failure of masonry prism that fibre could extend the cracking time. These results show that the oil palm fibre blocks can improve the failure behaviour and suitable to be used as load bearing wall construction in Malaysia.

Water Quality of Hills Water, Supply Water and RO Water Machine at Ulu Yam Selangor

The rapid development resulted in the deterioration of the quality of drinking water in Malaysia. Recognizing the importance of water quality, new alternatives for drinking water such as mineral water processing from reverse osmosis (RO) machine become more popular. Hence, the demand for mineral water, natural spring water or water from the hills or mountains rose lately. More consumers believed the quality of these spring water better than other source of drinking water. However, the quality of all the drinking water sources is to meet the required quality standard. Therefore, this paper aims to measure the quality of the waters from hills, from RO machine and the water supply in Ulu Yam, Selangor Batang Kali, Malaysia. The water quality was determined based on following parameters: ammoniacal nitrogen (NH3), iron (Fe), turbidity (NTU) and pH. The results show that the water from hills has better quality compared to water supply and water from RO machine. The value of NH3 ranged from 0.03 mg/L- 0.67 mg/L; Fe was from 0.03mg/L - 0.12 mg/L, turbidity at 0.42 NTU - 0.88 NTU and pH is at 6.60 - 0.71. Based on the studied parameters, all three types of water are fit for drinking and have met the required national drinking water quality standard.

Application of Geographic Information Systems (GIS) in Analysing Rainfall Distribution Patterns in Batu Pahat District

Rainfall forecasting reports are crucial to provide information and warnings to the population in a particular location. The Malaysian Meteorology Department (MMD) is a department that plays an important role in monitoring the situation and issued the statement of changes in weather and provides services such as weather advisories and gives warnings when the situation requires. Uncertain weather situations normally have created panic situation, especially in big cities because of flash floods due to poor drainage management. Usually, local authorities provided rainfall data in tables, and it is difficult to analyse to acquire the rainfall trend. Therefore, Geographic Information System (GIS) applications are commonly used to generate rainfall patterns in visual formation with a combination of characteristics of rainfall data and then can be used by stakeholders to facilitate the process of analysis and forecasting rainfall. The objective of this study is to determine the pattern of rainfall distribution using GIS applications in Batu Pahat district to assist interested parties to understand and easy to analyse the rainfall data in visual form or mapping form. Rainfall data for a period of 10 years (2004-2013) and monthly data (Dec 2006 - Feb 2007) are provided by the Department of Irrigation and Drainage (DID) for 12 stations in the district of Batu Pahat, and rainfall maps in each year was obtained using the interpolation Inverse Distance Weighted (IDW) method was used in this research. The rainfall map was then analyzed to identify the highest rainfall that was received during the period of study. For the conclusion, this study has proved that rainfall analysis using GIS application is efficient to be used in gaining information of rainfall patterns as the results show that the highest rainfall occurred in 2006 and 2007, and it were the years of major floods occurrence in Batu Pahat district.

Development of Mackintosh Probe Extractor

Dynamic probing is a continuous soil investigation technique, which is one of the simplest soil penetration test. It basically consist of repeatedly driving a metal tipped probe into the ground using a drop weight of fixed mass and travel. Testing was carried out continuously from ground level to the final penetration depth. Once the soil investigation work done, it is difficult to pull out the probe rod from the ground, due to strong soil structure grip against probe cone and prevent the probe rod out from the ground. Thus, in this case, a tool named Extracting Probe was created to assist in the process of retracting the probe rod from the ground. In addition, Extracting Probe also can reduce the time to extract the probe rod from the ground compare with the conventional method. At the same time, it also can reduce manpower cost because only one worker involve to handle this tool compare with conventional method used two or more workers. From experiment that have been done we found that the time difference between conventional tools and extracting probe is significant, average time difference is 155 minutes. In addition the extracting probe can reduce manpower usage, and also labour cost for operating the tool. With all these advantages makes this tool has the potential to be marketed.