Table of contents

Preface

The construction industry has accepted innovation and safeguarded great extent of sustainability by creative applications in design and construction practices. A sustainable structure or construction practice implicates that it is judiciously deployed to challenges faced by modern construction industry. As a matter of fact, the innovation in this field has kept developing or evolving to meet the expectation of ever more demanding design requirements in addition to persistent needs for change and improvement in performance. The problems faced contemporarily by the construction industry may not necessarily identical as in the future. Nevertheless, innovation and developments should not be ceased in order to offer cost effective sustainable solution that can change these challenges into opportunities.

The School of Civil Engineering, Faculty of Engineering, Universiti Teknologi Malaysia (UTM), organised this International Conference to discuss the challenges as well as innovations in regards to sustainable construction industry, which including new materials, technologies, environmental concerns and economic factors to enhance its excellence. This is done by gathering Engineers, designers, researchers, scientists and scholars from different countries all around the world to celebrate the excellence in sustainable structure and construction practices. This conference dealt with key technical under the theme of "Sustaining the world with better structures and construction practice". Over 65 papers were presented by authors during this Conference and these are compiled in a single volume conference proceeding.

The event was co-organized with Construction Research Institute of Malaysia (CREAM). The organisation is gratefully acknowledged for their indispensable support. Organising a Conference is immense and substantial. Assistances and helps from all those involved are gratefully acknowledged, particularly the members of Technical and Supporting Committee for their supports from start to finish; the Authors and the Session Chairs for their invaluable contributions.

This Proceeding has been completed via camera-ready copy printed from the digital manuscripts submitted by the authors and editing has been limited to the least, where it was considered unavoidable.

Tan Sri. Datuk. Prof. Dr. Ir. Ts. Tr. Ar. Noor Nabilah Sarbini

All papers published in this volume of IOP Conference Series: Materials Science and Engineering have been peer reviewed through processes administered by the proceedings Editors. Reviews were conducted by expert referees to the professional and scientific standards expected of a proceedings journal published by IOP Publishing.

Highway infrastructure emits large quantities of carbon dioxide over their entire life cycle including emission from production of raw materials and also emission from construction, operation, maintenance, and rehabilitation of the roads. The past emission trends of carbon dioxide from these sectors are investigated through their sources while mitigation and abatement strategies are suggested. This paper brings together, for the first time, a systematic review of the carbon footprint calculator of 21 case study highway from 8 different countries were investigated. This review focuses on method for calculate carbon footprint of highway development, through the synthesis of the overall outcomes of these studies, to identify whether using excel tool or Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) software achieve better performance and easier to calculate the emission from highway development. It is observed that using excel tool is better to calculate and analysis the carbon footprint from many sources and stage compare than calculate using LCA software. Therefore, understanding the relationships between methods for calculate carbon footprint life cycle energy consumption and GHG emissions are critically important for highway agencies to evaluate their annual greenhouse gas emission reports.

In Nigeria there is shortage of competent craftsmen due to project management skills (PMS) deficiency in their quality of training. This study investigates the effect of craftsmen supervisors PMS on construction project success in Nigeria, with a view to improving on craftsmen supervisors' productivity. Disproportionate stratified random sampling technique was used to administer 132 questionnaires to project managers (PM). Data were analysed using descriptive and inferential statistics. Result shows that craftsmen supervisors PMS requirements are relevant and positively relates to construction project success. This implied that PMS can improve craftsmen supervisors productivity, as well as bridge the gap between project management approach (PMA) and construction operations execution. The skills will as well enhanced construction supervision and operations productivity to attain project success. Hence the study recommends PMS to be integrated in craftsmen supervisors training in Nigeria.

Most building projects sited on remote sites in Nigeria fail due to less attention given to logistics. Hence, this paper identifies and assesses challenges faced by such projects, as well as strategies for curbing them. Literature review, unstructured interview, and personal observation were employed to design a structured questionnire for the study. A total of 117 questionnaires were administered to building procurement professionals through disproportionate stratified random sampling technique in northern Nigeria. Subsequently, descriptive and inferential statistics were used to analyze data obtained. Six challenges and ten strategies were identified. The challenges were assessed to be severe; with resource scarcity, predetermined designs, and poor accessibility found to be extremely severe. While maintaining retainer-ship with suppliers, outsourcing work force, integrating local community in works, stacking materials before starting works, and subletting labour were ranked highly effective strategies for curbing the challenges. The study recommends: appropriate attention on project site logistics; government provision of socio-economic infrastructures in rural areas; and the adoption of effective curbing strategies where challenges seem inevitable.

This paper is focusing on strength and water absorption properties of lightweight concrete brick containing Expanded Polystyrene (EPS) and Palm Oil Fuel Ash (POFA) as partial replacement materials of fine aggregates and cement respectively. EPS has been chosen as lightweight aggregates material due to its characteristic which is extremely light. Meanwhile, POFA has been chosen as cement replacement due to the cementitious characteristic which could act as the binder in the concrete mixture. The replacement percentage of EPS is 0%, 20%, 30%, 40% and 50% whilst the replacement percentage of POFA is 0%, 5%, 10%, 15%, 20% and 25%. The brick properties that have been investigated in this study are density, water absorption and compressive strength. Based on the experimental results, the density and compressive strength of the brick is decreased as the percentage of the replacement increased. Meanwhile, for water absorption, it was found that the percentage of water absorption of brick was increased as the percentage of POFA increased, and it was decreased as the percentage of EPS increased. Based on the findings, the properties obtained has satisfied the requirement where the brick density for lightweight should be less than 1680 kg/m³ and the strength for load bearing and non-load bearing brick is 11.7 MPa and 3.45 MPa for each individual unit. Meanwhile, for water absorption, the percentage of water absorption of brick should be less than 12% [1,2]. From this study, it was found that, the replacement of sand and cement by EPS and POFA give significant impact towards density, strength and water absorption performance of concrete brick.

This study presented the strength and water absorption properties of lightweight concrete brick containing Expanded Polystyrene (EPS) as the material replacement for sand. EPS has been widely used by the construction industries in the production of lightweight building materials such as wall panel and lightweight concrete blocks. Hence, in this study, EPS has been used as the replacement material in the production of lightweight concrete brick. Replacement of sand by EPS was based on volume. The replacement percentage of EPS was 0%, 20%, 30%, 40% and 50%. The brick properties that have been investigated in this study were density, water absorption and compressive strength. Based on the experimental results, the density and compressive strength of the brick was decreased as the percentage of the replacement increased. Meanwhile, for water absorption properties, it was found that water absorption of the brick was decreased as the percentage of EPS increased. However, the properties obtained has satisfied the requirement where the brick density for lightweight should be less than 1680 kg/m³ and the strength for load bearing and non-load bearing brick is 11.7 MPa and 3.45 MPa for each individual unit. Meanwhile, for water absorption, the percentage of water absorption of brick should be less than 12% [1,2]. From this study, it was found that, the replacement of sand by EPS give significant impact towards strength and water absorption performance of concrete brick.

This study presents the comparison on behavior of kenaf fibre composite and normal concrete. Use of natural fibre in construction industry is of tremendously interest in the past few decades. This study focus on investigate the material characteristic and the structural behavior of kenaf fibre composite compare with normal concrete. The percentages of kenaf fibre composite were calculated depend on the weight of concrete. Experimental investigation and comparison on behaviour such as compression test, splitting tensile test, slump test, water absorption test and 4 point loading beam test were discussed in this study. These studies found that kenaf fibre composite have better behaviour than normal concrete. Kenaf fibre composite has higher load capacity as compare with normal concrete. Moreover, these show that kenaf fibre composite are capable to behave better than normal concrete in all aspect when act as structural member.

Ever since Self-Compacting Concrete (SCC) was introduced, various attempts have been made to further enhance its quality and robustness. The addition of steel fibers into the SCC mix is found to have increased the hardened properties of concrete. However, it is also acknowledged that the addition of steel fibers into the fresh SCC mix poses a negative effect on the workability which may cause segregation and bleeding. Thus, some modifications are required on the mix proportions to obtain a good flowability without bleeding mixes. In this study, four types of mixes were prepared which comprising of normal concrete (NC), SCC and Self-Compacting Concrete with Steel Fibers (SCCSF) with two volume fractions of still fibers 0.5% and 1.0%. The results revealed that an increased amount of steel fibers in the SCC mix improve the compressive strength of concrete but reduced the slump flow of the fresh SCC.

The concept of compaction has been widely used in the construction activities such as highways embankments, earth dams and others engineering structures where the loose soils must be compacted to increase the unit weights and thus increase the bearing capacity of the subjected soils. However, little intention has been directed towards understanding the influence of compaction energy on the behaviour of shear strength using consolidated drained triaxial test. This research was conducted to study the effect of different energy in compaction for 25 number of blows compare with 40 number of blows using Standard Proctor Test. Results shows that the effect of different energy in compaction is not too significant where the changes is merely about 1° only in effective friction angles. It is because during consolidation stage in triaxial, the effect of different energy has no influence on the specimens. During consolidation stages in triaxial, the soil particles rearrange to each other with different applied pressure thus eliminates the effect of different energy on the specimens due to compaction effort.

Landslide could be evaluated as a very serious issue in tropical countries due to its hazardous impact on lives and properties. One of the factors influencing to the development of landslides is the rainfall infiltration which is considered as a major triggering factor. It decreases the matric suction, increases the pore-water pressure and causes the groundwater table to rise. This paper is reviewing the mechanism of rainfall induced slope failure, the effect of rainfall infiltration, soil suction and the rise of groundwater table on slope stability. The results show high rainfall intensity infiltrates initially in a higher rate than soil permeability and develops a perched water table which induces shallow landslide. While, low rainfall intensity for a longer period is more dangerous than heavy rain for a short period. It increases the saturation of the soil and causes the matric suction to dissipate and this triggers landslide. Moreover, the review reveals that the factor of safety increases when the initial soil suction at the ground surface is high. The rise of groundwater increases the pore-water pressure and soften the slope-forming material and leads to landslide.

Different types of structures behave differently on the effect of differential settlement. In this study, 40 buildings were selected to represent the vast development of national houses. The buildings were selected based on visual observation on cracks and tilted walls. The buildings comprise mostly of piled and unpiled raft foundation supporting framed structures and shear wall structures, except one framed structure with isolated piled foundation. Performance of the structures was compared by using angular distortion. It has been proven that angular distortion can give an indication of the order of magnitude of stresses induced by deformation of the ground. Shear wall structures were found to be more sensitive to vertical ground movement compared to framed structures.

This paper presents the calculation of vertical bearing capacity factor N_γ of strip footings, which is generally representative of the footing of the buildings, by using the finite element algorithm based elasto-viscoplastic solution. The soil behaviour is idealized as elastic perfectly plastic satisfying the Mohr Coulomb yield criterion with only non-associated flow rules because it tends to treat the actual behaviour of soil in which value of its frictional angle is always different from that of dilative angle. The total bearing resistance is computed using the superposition assumption in Terzaghi classical equation of the three basic components. The comparison of the present solutions with the previous published works including experimental and numerical studies have been presented and discussed. The results reveal in close agreement with the existing published data. In the nutshell, by applying the non-associated soil flow rule representing the real behaviour of soil, the conservation of the superposition assumption is confirmed. Therefore, it could conclude that the results obtaining from these techniques may be confidently applied to a wide range of soil bearing resistance problems.

Effective information management is one of the key success factors in managing the humanitarian aid distribution process during and post disasters and it depends on how much, how accurate, and how reliable the available information is. However, there are several key issues that need attention, such as redundancy of information about the disaster and fraudulent reports that could be retrieved by malicious persons which can have negative effects on the humanitarian aid distribution process. This paper aims to investigate the current practices of the information management system used by disaster management stakeholders in Malaysia during a natural disaster. Eighteen participants were interviewed to find out about their current strategies or plans for managing information during a natural disaster. Findings revealed that there is no information management process or protocol for non-government organizations (NGOs) requesting and receiving information on humanitarian aid. Conclusions are drawn about proposing a new information management process or protocol in the humanitarian aid distribution process.

Rainfall induced shallow slope failures in hilly terrain in the tropics is a complex soil mechanical behavior when it is difficult to be back analysed using the conventional slope stability method. The basis of the problem is in the applications of the linear soil shear strength failure envelope with cohesion intercept that over-estimate shear strength on the low stress levels i.e. for effective stresses less than 100 kPa or for failure depth less than 5 m. At this low stress levels the genuine shear strength behaviour is in fact non-linear with zero cohesion. Besides, the failure is not related to the groundwater table (GWT) when it is located at greater depth and has no influence on the failure. Theoretically the shallow slip failure surface is very difficult to be replicated with factor of safety (FOS) less than unity and that pose difficulties in understanding the failure. A slope stability method that deployed mechanics of unsaturated soils and calculate stability base on the advancement of the wetting front has been applied to characterize the shallow slips. The stability method uses the soil true non-linear soil shear strength behavior with respect to effective stress and suction. The method has been validated against a shallow slips triggered by rainwater infiltration that occurred along a road side in Cameron Highland, Malaysia.

In this study, the electrical breakdown strength tests were performed on low voltage insulation material, crosslinked polyethylene (XLPE) insulated cable rated at 0.6/1 (1.2) kV. In Malaysia, this type of cable was found to have premature degradation within three to five years of service. The objective of this experiment is to study the characteristic of XLPE used as the insulation material of the aged cable. The allowable maximum operating temperature of this cable is at 90 °C. New cables of different manufacturers were tested and a degraded cable taken from field was used as a reference sample. The thermal consequences on each cable were compared. XLPE sheets sliced from the cable insulations were prepared as the test samples. New samples were heated to a temperature of 90 °C to accelerate the ageing process in an oven. An electrical breakdown tests were carried out to assist the evaluation of the degradation on the unaged and aged cables. It has been shown by the experiment that the electrical properties of the aged XLPE of low voltage cable for both manufacturers were greatly affected when exposed to the heat. This can be considered as defect to the manufacturing process because the insulation layers could possibly be made of a substandard material, that fails to perform according to the specification.

Detection of damage at early stage is necessary to prevent catastrophic collapse of civil structure. The quantification of small damage has however, not received the much needed attention from researchers. Amongst various non-destructive methods studied by researchers to identify structural defects are Wavelet Transform (WT) and Artificial Neural Network (ANN). In this paper, a technique is proposed to quantify damage by combining WT and ANN. The study is divided into two phases. The first phase involves detection and location of damage in a plate numerical model by WT decomposition of the mode shape difference. Due to difficulties in obtaining higher mode shapes in practice, the difference of the first mode shapes of the damaged and undamaged plates are applied. After obtaining the damage location, the coordinates of the damage location and the mean values of the obtained WT moduli are applied as input to the designed neural network. The output of the ANN is the severity of damage in the plate model. This method is demonstrated by using a numerical square steel model with all the four sides fixed. The results indicate the ease of the method and that reliable damage identification can be obtained by combining ANN and WT.

Impact-echo is an effective method in identifying and detecting delamination in concrete structures. Recently, the contact sensor is replaced with air-coupled sensor due to the interest in rapid testing method. This paper presents a study of the optimum test configuration of air-coupled impact echo and conventional concrete-coupled impact echo tests by means of numerical simulation. Two-dimensional finite element analyses were performed on concrete slab to investigate the effect of impact-to-sensor distance and sensor height from concrete surface. Two concrete slabs, one without delamination and one with delamination, were modelled. For intact concrete, both sensors were effective in detecting concrete thickness at any point within the specified location range. However, for air-coupled IE performed on concrete with 40 mm delamination depth, optimum sensor location is 60 to 100 mm away from impact point at height of 10 mm.

Seven dynamic load tests were performed on six large diameter piles, installed near the Gumti river Bangladesh. The diameter of five cast in situ piles was 1.5 m, and that of the steel pile was 1 m. The steel pile was tested twice: under both drive and re-drive conditions. The pile lengths varied from 45 m to 71.8 m. The distribution of pile bearing resistance under static load were evaluated using the program DLTWAVE by signal matching. In addition, standard penetration tests were conducted in the vicinity of all the six piles. The results of dynamic load test were calibrated by comparing the static capacity obtained from static and dynamic load tests, conducted on two identical cast in place piles. Therefore, the skin frictional resistance and pile tip resistance are calculated using the conventional formulae of static analysis utilizing the developed correlation for the clay layers. The consistency of clay soil is observed to play an important role in the development of shaft resistance. For very stiff to hard clay, DLTWAVE indicates the development of shaft resistance smaller than that obtained from the formula (static analysis). Greater skin frictional resistance was obtained in DLT re-drive, as compared to that during initial drive.

Wavelet Transform (WT) is an efficient signal processing tool used extensively to detect damage in various types of structures. It is capable of describing signals in both time and frequency domains. However, improper sensor distance may result to false detection of damage, thus affecting the reliability of the method. A small sensor distance leads to large number of sensors, thus increases the financial cost and causes higher computational time, while large sensor distance may provide inadequate data for accurate damage detection. In this paper, the optimum sensor placement for damage detection is investigated by considering the effect of noise and sensitivity of WT. This involves using Continuous Wavelet Transform (CWT) to decompose the mode shape difference of a plate numerical model. Different measurement distances and different levels of uncertainties are added to the mode shape data to evaluate the optimum sensor distance that provide the best damage detection result. A numerical plate model with all four sides fixed is used as an example. The results indicate that increase of noise reduced the detectability of damage. It is also observed that excessive sensor distance increment significantly effects damage detectability.

In Malaysia, the majority of structures and infrastructures have not been designed for seismic actions. Recent earthquakes in the country, however, has raised the attention of authorities toward the seismic vulnerability of these structures. Bridges are among the crucial infrastructures that their functionality during ground motions is of great importance. In this study, three bridges with different pier heights of 10 m, 20 m, and 30 m were selected and their nonlinear response was determined through pushover and incremental dynamic analysis. By using 15 far-field earthquake records the seismic fragility curves of the bridges were derived. Peak ground acceleration was considered as the ground motion intensity measure and the drift ratio was selected as the engineering demand parameter. The obtained fragility curves revealed different patterns for the probability of exceeding light to severe damage for the studied bridges. While the difference between the probabilities of exceeding light and severe damage in the shortest bridge was significant, in the tallest bridge it was negligible. The bridge with the pier height of 20 m had the largest probability of exceeding light to severe damage when compared to other bridges. The tallest bridge, on the other hand, showed the lowest seismic vulnerability when compared with other bridges. Comparison between Malaysia national annex to Eurocode 8 and the obtained fragility curves revealed that for the estimated PGA in Kuala Lumpur, all studied bridges could remain functional.

This paper shows the analysis of high reinforced concrete buildings in Ranau that have experienced low intensity intensity earthquakes. This study refers to the performance of five (5) high rise reinforced concrete frame when subjected to a variation of low earthquake intensity analysis with 5% damping ground motion measurements. The IDARC software is used to study structures through nonlinear dynamic analysis. Beam-column points are examined to determine damage to the index and to build damage levels subject to varying seismic load. Result shows the first yielding occurred at 4.82 seconds for the beam element at when 0.05g load applied. Based on the result, all buildings cannot withstand seismic load when goes up to 0.2 ground acceleration. It may have arisen that the building is categorized to the extent of the major damage where there is structural affect and structural affect up to 0.15g intensity.

This study investigates the effects of different confinement methods for longitudinal reinforcement bars in reinforced concrete, RC columns. Comparison is made between three RC columns; two were transversely reinforced with carbon steel in single tie and continuous spiral form, and the third sample were transversely reinforced with Fibre Reinforced Polymer, FRP strips in continuous spiral form. Numerical simulation is conducted using validated numerical models. All three RC column models were subjected to a constant axial load and cyclic loading. Hysteresis curves and backbone curves were used to analyse cyclic behaviour of each samples. Comparisons between the RC columns were made based on the ultimate load capacity and energy dissipation capacity ratio. Results show that, RC column transversely reinforced with FRP strips exhibits the highest ultimate load and energy dissipation capacity. The ultimate load capacity is 15% and 10% higher than the RC column transversely reinforced with carbon steel in single tie and continuous spiral form respectively. The FRP strips also increases the energy dissipation capacity up to 35% and 22% compared to the one transversely reinforced with carbon steel in single tie and spiral form respectively. It can be concluded that the usage of FRP strips as transverse reinforcement in RC column is able to improve the cyclic responses of the conventional RC columns.

Channel section is one of the most common cold-formed steel sections uses today. Cold formed steel members are widely used in roof trusses. Yielding and crushing are the modes of failure for short compression members or stub column. Design equations can be used to determine local buckling load capacity of stub column. In building construction, the stub column is found in the roof trusses. The purpose of this study is to understand buckling behaviour of the cold formed stub channels under compression. Seven (7) specimens were tested in this study. The results of local buckling, maximum load capacity and axial displacement of seven (7) cold-formed stub channels specimens were obtained by conducting the stub column test (compression test) and tensile test. Five (5) specimens are conservative to mean ratio and two (2) specimens are unconservative. Load-displacement graphs were plotted and two (2) specimens had achieved the expected curve. The failure patterns of the stub channels showed that the buckling occurred at the top edge and bottom edge of stub channels.

Fibre-reinforced concrete (FRC) contains fibrous material which increases its structural integrity. The application of irregular arrangement of fibres to concrete altogether upgrades its essential characteristics, for instance, static flexural strength, influence quality, elasticity and flexural stiffness. Filaments are added to cement to control breaking because of plastic shrinkage and to drying shrinkage. This paper exhibits the use of steel fibre, electrical waste copper wire fibre and electrical waste glass fibre of various percentages of volume fractions such as 0.25%, 0.5%, 0.75%, 1.0% and 1.25% incorporated in concrete. Mechanical properties such as compressive strength, splitting tensile strength and flexural strength tests were conducted for normal concrete and fibre reinforced concrete for a curing period of 7 days, 14 days and 28 days. In addition to that modulus of elasticity of concrete for various percentages of fibre content was investigated for a curing period of 28 days. The test results of fibre reinforced concrete were compared with normal concrete to determine the influence of fibres used.

This paper present the result from experimental studies on using bentonite mixed with residual soil. The entire testings were performed on Salak Tinggi residual soil mixed with various percentage of bentonite content (5%, 10% and 15%). A series of laboratories were performed to investigate the effectiveness of mixed samples associated to physical properties testing such as: particle size distribution, pH, plastic index (PL), liquid limit (LL), plasticity index (PI) and linear shrinkage (LS). Meanwhile the standard proctor compaction test was conducted on mixed soil-benonite samples to determine the maximum dry density (MDD) and optimum moisture content (OMC). In addition the permeability test to determine the hydraulic conductivity was conducted at MDD condition at effective stress of 100 kPa. It was found that the addition of bentonite to the Salak Tinggi residual soil changed the physical properties result. Meanwhile, compaction results show a decrement in the MDD with increment of bentonite percentage mixed. The result also showed the bentonite mixed decreases the hydraulic conductivity value (k < 1x10⁻⁹ m/s) for Salak Tinggi soil significantly. This finding shows that by using the small amount of 5% bentonite significantly can be used as compacted of soil liner materials.

Ordinary Portland Cement (OPC) is widely used as a binder material for various construction application and has been increasing in demand especially in developing countries. However, growing concern about the effect of OPC towards the environment either during production or transportation process captures the researcher's interest to come out with more sustainable binder material that has similar characteristic as OPC. This paper prescribed the study on the strength performance of no-cement mortar consist of waste materials such as ground granulated blast furnace slag, fly ash and rice husk ash partially replaced with silica fume up until 20% of total binder weight. Eleven different mix designs were fabricated with constant 0.5 water/binder ratio cured under ambient temperature. The mortar specimens of 40 x 40 x 160 mm prisms were prepared and test for their flexural and compressive strength at aged 7, 14 and 28 days after curing. Laboratory tested on strength performance studies indicate that different curing ages exhibit different silica fume replacement level to achieve their optimum strength. Maximum compressive strength achieved at 28 days is 27 MPa at 12% silica fume replacement level.

Steel reinforcement bar compliments concrete in reinforced concrete structures to provide the required strength, rigidity and durability. This study investigates the level of conformity of reinforced steel bars available in the Nigerian construction industry through investigations on the percentage of chemical composition and tensile properties in relation to relevant local and international standards. Samples from 12 different companies were considered in this research. The chemical analysis results discovered 16 elements, some of which are residual elements in minute quantities. 9 samples had carbon content of less than 0.27%, 17 samples had phosphorus content less than 0.055%, 16 samples had sulphur content less than 0.055%, 9 samples had copper content less than 0.25% and 17 samples had carbon equivalent of less than 0.54% which are all requirements of NIS 117. Similarly, most of the samples examined did not meet the requirements of NIS 117 and BS4449 in respect of steel bar diameter, characteristic strength, ductility, ultimate to yield strength ratio, or a combination of the parameters with the yield strength ranging from 462.02 N/mm² to 558.27 N/mm². An indication of the level of quality of steel bars available in Nigerian construction industry can be deduced from the results of this research.

The study is to identify the influence of porosity on the tensile strength of fine grained mortar containing fly ash (FA), palm oil fuel ash (POFA) and rice husk ash (RHA). The aim of this study is to reduce the consumption of cement due to its negative impact on the environment. The cement-to-sand ratio used in the mix design of fine grained mortar is 1: 2. The maximum size of fine grained sand used in this study is 0.6 mm. There are four (4) mix designs of fine grained mortar which include control mortar (100% OPC), 80% OPC + 20% FA, 90% OPC + 10% POFA and 80% OPC + 20% RHA. The selection of the mix design for each type of fine grained mortar was based on the mix designs of previous studies which produced the highest compressive strength. The tensile strength test and the porosity test were carried out in this study. The tensile strength test was performed on cylinder specimens measuring 100 mm diameter and 200 mm height according to ASTM C496. On the other hand, the porosity test was conducted on prism specimens measuring 40 x 40 x 160 mm. The results showed that fine grained mortar containing FA achieved the highest tensile strength of 5.9 N/mm² and a low porosity of 12.7%.

The building must be maintained to keep it in optimal operation in giving service and it is vital and also it can be influenced towards the building performance. Therefore, immediately after construction of the building project is completed, maintenance start to set in. The conducive environment that provided for the buildings will give a good performance and significant impact. Therefore, building maintenance is crucial in making sure the buildings can deliver a good service or function, but in certain reason building maintenance and repair activities that were not performed when they should have been will be deferred. Deferred maintenance occurs because there is no efficiency in managing building maintenance. Deferred maintenance has become a pressing issue in many countries and have adverse effects to the organization (stakeholders and users). Hence, this study is intended to provide definitions, issues and challenges of deferred maintenance of the buildings.

This paper presents a comparative study of methods building condition assessment used in Asian countries. The following methods were compared: a Malaysia method to assess buildings condition, an Indian, Hong Kong and Singapore method about buildings condition assessment and the assessment methods. The comparative analysis included three tasks. First, every approach was described separately. Then, the main features of the methods were compared. Finally, some guidelines to improve or strengthen the Malaysia method were drawn. Main differences of the methods are the objectives and scope of the assessment, the assessment criteria, the type final results obtained and type of surveyor. The main similarities are that the assessment is carried out mainly by visual inspection method, the scope of inspection had to assess structural element and the tools developed for its implementation. Malaysia method should maintain the present assessment model, suggests a website to manage the entire assessment procedure such as document form related to assessment, checklist and guideline. Thus, the summary of this paper shall improvise Malaysia method from perspective defect process or factor, Non Destructive Test (NDT) test procedure and selection of the concrete repair material.

Accelerated erosion has been a threat on the agronomic productivity of arable lands, especially in the tropics with prevalent high-velocity winds and seasonal rainfalls. To prevent further soil degradation, geotextiles are installed as soil cover to provide interim protection until the soils are stabilized with vegetation as a long-term slope protection. This study examined the mechanical properties of a locally available fiber source to assess its viability as geotextile fabric for steep slopes. A woven natural geotextile was fabricated from the fibers of thorny bamboo ("kawayang tinik"). Ropes of 6-mm and 8-mm diameters were produced from the bamboo fibers, and subjected to tensile strength tests in accordance to ASTM D4268. Runoff simulations were carried out to compare the sediment yield between 60° slopes with and without geotextile netting. Sediment yield analysis showed significant reduction in topsoil erosion from the geotextile-covered slope. The bamboo geotextile performed effectively in mitigating slope failure in barren slopes.

Bearing strength of concrete is one of important design characteristics in transmit the bearing force in structural supports such as column corbel, bridge bearing system, concrete connection, anchorage in post-tension members and other types of structure supports. Concrete bearing strength is depending on ratio of unloaded-to-loaded area and compressive strength of concrete. However, the effect of concrete block height on bearing strength of concrete is not included. Hence, the effect of different heights on concrete bearing strength were investigated using numerical modelling. The three-dimensional finite element model (FEM) for nonlinear analysis of concrete bearing were developed and analyzed in ABAQUS/Explicit. The FE models were validated based on pre-existing experimental results. The confinement effect and structural ductility of concrete blocks with different heights were evaluated. The FE results indicate that the level of internal confinement and the structural ductility of concrete blocks were affected significantly as increasing of concrete block heights. The bearing force for the concrete block with 150mm high was significantly dropped to 55% as compare to control specimen of 50mm high.

The bearing capacity of concrete loaded through steel plate has been the subject of numerous studies, play as an important element that need to be considered in designing many types of concrete members such as foundation structure, the end bearing zone of prestressed post-tensioned concrete beams and even for concrete pedestal in bridges. This paper presents an experimental investigation into the bearing capacity of concrete blocks axially loaded through square and circular steel plates. The relative area of the surface of concrete block specimen to the area of the bearing plate is one of the most significant factors influencing the bearing capacity of concrete blocks. Thus, the main purpose of this study is to determine the maximum bearing capacity and observe the failure modes of concrete blocks concentrically loaded through square and circular steel plates. A total of twenty-one (21) numbers of specimens with three different types of concrete blocks were experimentally investigated. There are three (3) specimens of plain concrete blocks, nine (9) specimens of concrete blocks laterally reinforced with ties (loaded and tested under three different sizes of square steel plate) and nine (9) specimens of concrete blocks laterally reinforced with ties (loaded and tested under three different sizes of circular steel plate). The use of steel plate helps in determining the bearing capacity when concentrically loaded on top of the specimen. The results of the experimental testing herein were compared with the bearing capacity values calculated based on previous researches and international standards. Experimental results demonstrate that concrete blocks laterally reinforced with ties loaded and tested under larger relative area of the steel plate gave lower value of bearing capacity compared with other reinforced specimens. Meanwhile, the failure pattern of concrete blocks under the bearing load was found to vary with the increase in sizes of steel plates.

Competency in safety is important for construction personnel and it is compulsory for all construction personnel in Malaysia to attend safety training/courses. A literature review of the recommended safety module revealed gaps in evaluating the effectiveness of safety cognition among construction personnel. Therefore, this paper investigates the safety cognition based on safety education. A structured, self-administered questionnaire was designed and used to assess the level of safety cognition in safety education. The results show the safety cognition of construction personnel is still at a moderate level and there is a difference level of safety cognition among construction personnel on Occupational Safety module.

This study examined the influence of a small-scale service learning experience on engineering undergraduates. The aim of this study is to test the potential of service learning to develop social responsibilities, soft-skill competencies, engineering design self-efficacy and risk attitude of engineering students. Our results suggested that conducting a service learning flood risk reduction initiative increase learning and help to develop the necessary hard and soft skills to address community needs.

Building Information Modelling (BIM) enables close collaboration among project stakeholders to visualize what is to be built in a simulated environment by identifying any potential design, construction or operational issues. Despite the fact of its well-documented benefits, the extensive integration of BIM throughout the project lifecycle remains sporadic. The conventional contracts used in the Malaysian construction industry were established before the development of BIM. As BIM becoming ingrain in the delivery process, the inadequacies of these existing contracts have become visible. This paper presents the results of an exploratory case study using Qualitative Content Analysis dedicated to a BIM project and discusses a procurement approach of BIM to establish the contractual context by addressing the legal and contractual impediments namely; intellectual property, liability and process related risks-allocation in a Malaysian public construction. This paper also outlines the reasons why the implementation of BIM will foster the evolution of integrated contract delivery methods.

This paper discusses about the advantages of using wooden formwork to cast concrete. The type of wood focused in this paper is BBCC plywood. The discussion on the wooden formwork arises when it is being compared to the steel formwork. The fact that steel-type formwork has bigger virtues over wooden formwork is undeniable. However, it should be understood that in making decision and judgement on formworks application, one must consider few important factors like cost and suitability. Wooden formwork has its own uniqueness and by some modifications, wooden formwork could be as good as steel formwork or even better from it. The advantages of using wooden formwork, specifically plywood-type will be explained from three perspectives; the cost, performance, and safety of wooden (plywood) formwork. Based these three perspectives, the paper presents positive arguments and facts to accentuate the wooden formwork if to compare to the steel formwork, with regard to the situation and environment of their usage. Based on the discussion in the paper, wooden (plywood) formwork is as dominant as steel formwork, especially if it is used in research and laboratory environment.

The construction industry in Malaysia which is rapidly growing is indirectly contributing towards the economic influx to the country. However, the waste generation in construction is increasing proportionally with new construction developments. The current construction methods focus on minimal recycling process where most construction wastes are dumped at landfills because construction companies are required to set aside a higher preliminary cost for proper waste disposal. This study focuses on creating a more potential outcome in decreasing the construction waste by implementing eco-costing in development for the construction waste generated from the beginning stages of a project. Therefore, this study discusses the construction waste management using the eco-costing per value ratio (EVR) assessment. The EVR assessment for eco-costing were targeted to the construction waste products from Shah Alam. The analysis included 5 selected sample sites in Shah Alam conducted within the year 2013 to 2017. The findings indicated that EVR index ranged between 0.054-0.1225 for conventional and semi industrialised building system (IBS) method based on five-selected sample of sites. This range signify on current EVR index which will be compared with Malaysian EVR benchmarking in result and discussion. Furthermore this result is useful to evaluate EVR index between residential for construction waste management towards sustainable development.

This paper focuses on the composite action of two samples each consisting of two composite beams and a composite slab with bent up rebar as a shear connector. The specimens were knowingly adapted to have different shear transfer capacities along the interfaces with different geometries of the composite beams. By using the four-point bending tests of the two full-scale specimens, the authors experimentally evaluated the flexural behaviour of the partially encased composite beams. Therefore, this paper presents experimental works on the structural performance of composite beams consisting of cold-formed steel (CFS) section with self-compacting concrete (SCC) by means of the shear connection mechanism of the proposed using deformed reinforcement bar. "The results have shown that the theoretical value of flexural capacities designed agrees well enough with the experimental results. Based on the present beam tests results it was realised that the new composite system showed slightly higher results than predicted with ultimate moment ratios between 0.89-0.91% and 0.83-1.08% for the 250 mm and 150 mm beam respectively. According to the experimental bending test results, the composite section can reach the ultimate strength without compression buckling failure or local shear when the proposed shear connector was presented in the composite action. Analysis and design of composite beams are studied to validate the present test results."

Concrete filled steel tubular (CFST) truss structures are widely being used in bridges and transmission towers all over the world. Design of connections is one of the most critical issues in truss structures; and it becomes even more complicated when corrosion causes loss of outer steel tube section. However, behavior of composite joints is among the least understood topics in structural engineering today. Previous attempts (numerical and experimental) to study the behavior of composite joints have focused mainly on the effect of sustained loading. But the widespread use of CFST structures in harsh, marine environment necessitates observing the performance of composite joints under corrosion alongside long-term loading. The aim of this paper therefore is to study the combined effect of chloride corrosion and sustained loading on circular composite K-joints through finite element analysis (FEA). The results thus obtained have been presented and verified against experimental observations of previous researchers. For a side by side comparison with composite K-joints, FEA has also been established for circular hollow section (CHS) K-joints. In addition to these, failure modes and load-deformation characteristics of both the composite and hollow K-joints have been thoroughly investigated under various practical loading cases and different corrosion scenario. From numerical analyses, it has been observed that corrosion in infilled chord leads to only 4% loss of joint strength whereas, corrosion of equal intensity in hollow braces decreases the joint capacity by 35%. Finally, joint strength and ductility have been predicted based on the full-range numerical analyses. Concrete infills have been found to enhance the joint strength by 2.5-3.0 times.

The economic growth of a country will be greatly influenced by road and bridge infrastructure that serves as a connecting flow of goods and human transportation. There are still some road and bridge construction projects in Indonesia that show the occurrence of accidents because lack of awareness by the management of the adverse effects of safety. Therefore, the author tries to find solutions to the improvement measures in minimizing the occurrence of occupational accidents by providing safety knowledge to the Project Managers and related staff, to be more concerned about the safety and the environment around the project. Based on data collected from the Ministry of Public Works and Indonesian People's Housing, there are several work accidents in toll road projects in Indonesia from August 2017 to February 2018. When viewed from several of these accidents, it can be concluded that the main cause is the lack of knowledge of the management staff about the need to enforce safety regulations, especially in the work of lifting object to the upper structure. Therefore, a commitment is needed to implement serious occupational safety regulations from all stakeholders who play a role in developing this infrastructure project.

This paper investigates the completeness of process, input-output (I-O) and hybrid life cycle inventory (LCI) analysis and their applicability as applied to the Malaysian construction materials. The process, I-O, and hybrid analysis were evaluated at the basic materials and products level to identify the gaps between models and further incorporated into the material and product inputs of a selected building. It was found that the largest differences in embodied energy (EE) and embodied carbon (EC) intensities of the materials and products between I-O and hybrid analysis accounted for up to 65.90% and 62.08%, respectively. Further analysis of the EE and EC intensities of the building revealed that the hybrid analysis were significantly higher than I-O analysis estimated to be 44.39% and 43.57% respectively. On average, the EE and EC intensity values using I-O analysis were lower than hybrid analysis due to inherent limitations in this model. Although using I-O data was considered not representative due to inherent limitation, it was considered applicable for energy analysis due to lack of process data in Malaysian building industry.

Reinforced concrete structures might require rehabilitation after years exposed to extreme environment conditions. The use of Fiber Reinforced Polymer (FRP) material in construction industry has become popular due to its properties such as high tensile strength, durable and lightweight which can be used to improve mechanical behavior of structures. This research emphasis on the use of Carbon Fiber Reinforced Polymer (CFRP) to improve the flexural performance of reinforced concrete beam which is exposed to saltwater for 6 months. The purposes of this research are to determine the maximum flexural strength of normal reinforced concrete beam and reinforced beam strengthened with CFRP plate and to determine the effects of salt water on the flexural strength of concrete beam reinforced with CFRP plate. Two beam samples with dimension of 125mm x 300mm x 1800mm were prepared labelled as control beam and specimen beam respectively. The control beam was cure in fresh water while the specimen beam was cured in salt water for 28 days. All of the beams were tested using four point bending test. The control beam was tested until failure whereas the specimen was subjected to 30% of maximum load from control beam as pre-cracking load. The specimen beam was repaired by installing CFRP plate using near surface mounted (NSM) and is immerse in saltwater for another 6 months. After 6 months, the specimen beam was tested until failure. As a result, the flexural strength for normal beam and specimen beam is slightly the same. The specimen beam has form modes of failure known as concrete cover separation. It is also found that saltwater exposure did affect the performance of beam that has been repaired.

Some humans are the cause of environmental damage. Employee Green Behaviours must be able to maintain environmental quality because the construction industry is a contributor to high environmental damage in the world. Integrated control is needed in developing green behavioural awareness especially for human resources involved in building and housing projects. The purpose of this study is to develop a conceptual framework towards Behavioural Green Index (BGI) in construction. The methodology developed using frameworks studies and factors analysis. Factor analysis is carried out on factors that have been found to have influence on green behaviour such as external factors and internal factors. The results of this study is conceptual framework as inputs for developing a BGI that needs to be followed up by increasing green behaviour, reducing behavioural barriers, and supporting habitability.