Table of contents

Preface

The International Conference on Applications and Design in Mechanical Engineering 2017 (ICADME 2017) was held on 21-22 August 2017 in Penang, one of the most popular tourist destinations in Malaysia. ICADME 2017 was organized by Mechanical Engineering Programme in School of Mechatronic Engineering, Universiti Malaysia Perlis.

The ICADME 2017 aims to provide a platform for participants from diverse field of Mechanical Engineering backgrounds to exchange ideas and findings to promote cooperation, networking as well as knowledge sharing in both engineering practice and research in higher education. The conference includes the fields of Applied Mechanics, Themofluids and Energy as well as Design and Manufacturing. The conference received more than 100 papers from Malaysia and other countries over the world. After a rigorous peer-review process, 84 papers were accepted. The accepted papers that focused on theory, applications, design and experimental studies relevant to mechanical engineering field were invited to present in this conference.

I wish to record my gratitude to all reviewers, both local and international, for their time and effort in reviewing the papers. Their feedbacks to the authors have been excellent and useful to ensure the high quality of papers for the conferences. My sincere thanks also go to all sponsors for their generosity. Last but not least, I would like to thank also the organizing committee members for their hard work, cooperation and suggestions in ensuring the success of this conference.

Ir. Dr. Khairul Salleh Basaruddin

Chairman

ICADME 2017

List of Conference Meeting Figures are available in this pdf.

Organizing Committee for ICADME 2017

Chair

Ir. Dr. Khairul Salleh Basaruddin

Co-Chair

Dr. Mohd. Afendi Bin Rojan

Secretary

Dr. Mohd. Sani Mohamad Hashim

Dr. Ishak Ibrahim

Technical/Publication

Dr. Nur Saifullah Kamarruddin

Dr. Tan Wei Hong

Dr. Shah Fenner Khan Mohamad Khan

Bursary

Dr. Liyana Tajul Lile

Arrangement.

Mohd Hafif Basha Mohamad Jamel Basha

Secretariat.

Dr. Mohd Ridzuan Mohd Jamir

List of Advisory Committees are available in this pdf.

List of Participants are available in this pdf.

All papers published in this volume of Journal of Physics: Conference Series 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.

In this research, unsaturated polyester/kenaf fiber (UP/KF) composites was prepared by using hand lay-up process. The effect of surface treatment of kenaf fiber on mechanical properties of kenaf filled unsaturated polyester composites were studied. Different concentrationsof stearic acid (SA) were applied, i.e. 0, 0.4, and 0.8 wt%. The Fourier transform infrared (FT-IR) spectra of kenaf fiber shows high intensity of the peak around 3300-3400 cm^-1, which is attributed to the hydrogen bonded O-H stretching. However, the treated kenaf fiber with stearic acid shows the elimination of O-H group and this peak is vanished. This is due to the reaction of (-COOH) group of stearic with (-OH) group of kenaf fiber. The results of water absorption study revealed that increasing the loading of KF in the composite will result is increasing the tendency to absorb water. However, the absorption was significantly decreased after treatment with stearic acid as well as the time to reach to the equilibrium state.

In this research, unsaturated polyester/kenaf fiber (UP/KF) composites was prepared by using hand lay-up process. The effect of surface treatment of kenaf fiber on mechanical properties of kenaf filled unsaturated polyester composites were studied. Different concentrationsof stearic acid (SA) were applied, i.e. 0, 0.4, and 0.8 wt%. Tensile strength of untreated UP/KF composites was found to be higher for 40 wt% loading of kenaf fiber. The highest tensile strength value was obtained after treatment with 0.4 wt% concentration of stearic acid at 56 MPa and tensile modulus was at 2409 MPa. From the flexural strength result obtained, it is clearly seen that 40 wt% loading of kenaf fiber and treatment with 0.4 wt% concentration of stearic acid give the highest value at 72 MPa and flexural modulus at 3929 MPa.

A Kenaf composite was prepared by using hand lay-up process. The effect of weather on mechanical, morphology and thermal properties of kenaf composite were studied. Tensile strength of kenaf compositewas found to be 60MPa. Unfortunately, tensile strength of thecomposite starts to decrease after the first weathering month through to the weathering periods with constant reduction of tensile, at the end of the wreathing period., almost 85% the composite mechanical behaviour is lost. From the mechanical properties result obtained it clearly seen that natural fiber and their composites are not able to stand environmental condition because they have poor wettability, incompatibility with some polymeric matrices and high moisture absorption. Due to the high moisture absorption properties, there are formations of void in interfacial adhesion between fiber and matrix which can reduce the mechanical properties of composite such as flexural strength or flexural modulus this clearly supported by SEM results. Fortunately some modification can do towards improving the mechanical properties and it is good enough to achieve the high performance of the composite with proper system formulation during the modification processand the result of reinforced kenaffiber will be presented in our next publication.

Unprecedented growing on environmental concern has put research on completive driven effort to quest for new material in various application, the effort toward producing thermally stable polymer is ever gaining considerable interest. Thus, this study proposed the integration of glass fiber with kenaf based polymer to improve thermal properties. Based on the TGA and DSC results, the composites show slow and steady initial weight loss until major weight loss at 360°C. Thus, with incorporation of glass fiber extend region of degradation until 260-360 °Cshow no exothermic or endothermic changes, this reflected that the composites thermally stability have been improved.

Noise is always treated as a nuisance to human and even noise pollution appears in the environmental causing discomfort. This also concerns the engineering design that tends to cultivate this noise propagation. Solution such as using material to absorb the sound have been widely used. The fundamental of the sound absorbing propagation, sound absorbing characteristics and its factors are minimally debated. Furthermore, the method in order to pertain sound absorbing related to the sound absorption coefficient is also limited, as many studies only contributes in result basis and very little in literature aspect. This paper revolves in providing better insight on the importance of sound absorption and the materials factors in obtaining the sound absorption coefficient.

The aim of the study was to utilize polyaniline (PAni) as conductive filler in poly (ethylene oxide) / poly (vinyl chloride) (PEO/PVC) films. Naphthalene was used as surface modifier to increase the properties of PEO/PVC/PAni films. The electrical conductivity of PEO/PVC/PAni film improved with higher loading of PAni until it reached the percolation threshold at 10 wt%. Moreover, the conductivity of the films also improved with the addition of naphthalene compared to the films without naphthalene. These enhancements were due to the improved interfacial bonding between PEO/PVC blend and PAni, which were supported by scanning electron microscopy (SEM) analysis. In addition, no new chemical bonding was created with the incorporation of naphthalene as proved by the FTIR analysis.

In this paper, the electrical conductivity and the characterizations of poly (ethylene oxide) / poly (vinyl chloride) / polyaniline (PEO/PVC/PAni) films with and without the presence of Ethylene Dimethacrylate (EDMA) were investigated. The films were prepared using solution casting method using tetrahydrofuran as the solvent. The results indicated that the electrical conductivity of PEO/PVC/PAni films increased as the PAni loadings increased while PEO/PVC/PAni films with EDMA showed higher electrical conductivity than PEO/PVC/PAni films. PEO/PVC/PAni films with EDMA showed a value as high as 0.68 × 10^-4 S/mm as it enhanced the interfacial adhesion between the matrix and the filler as proved by the SEM morphology. Meanwhile, the FTIR analysis confirmed there are no new chemical bonding occurred with the introduction of EDMA into the films.

The wood fiber (WF) type of Pulverised Wood Filler obtained by combustion process at temperature under 700 °C for 3 hours was characterized and coated with ferric chloride (FeCl₃) by ethanol solution. Both carbonized wood fiber (CWF) and carbonized wood fiber-ferric chloride (CWF-FeCl₃) were used as filler in ethylene vinyl acetate (EVA) conductive polymer. The filler was coated with FeCl₃ to enhance the properties of the CWF to achieve progressive mechanical and electrical properties. The CWF and CWF-FeCl₃ loading were varied from 2.5 to 10.0 wt%. EVA/CWF and EVA/CWF-FeCl₃ conductive polymer were processed by using Brabender Plasticoder at 160 °C with 50 rpm rotor speed for 10 min. The mechanical properties were investigated by tensile testing and the tensile fractured surface of conductive polymers was analyzed by scanning electron microscopy (SEM) analysis. Then, the electrical conductivity of conductive polymer was determined by four-point probe I-V measurement system. The EVA/CWF-FeCl₃ conductive polymer showed greater electrical conductivity and tensile strength but lower elongation at break than EVA/CWF conductive polymer. SEM morphology displayed rougher surface between CWF-FeCl₃ and EVA phases compared to EVA/CWF conductive polymer.

An increase in demand for industrial gears has instigated the escalating uses of plastic-matrix composites, particularly carbon or glass fibre reinforced plastics as gear material to enhance the properties and limitation in plastic gears. However, the production of large quantity of these synthetic fibres reinforced composites has posed serious threat to ecosystem. Therefore, this work is conducted to study the applicability and practical ability of using bamboo fillers particularly in plastic gear manufacturing as opposed to synthetic fibres via the Taguchi optimization method. The results showed that no failure mechanism such as gear tooth root cracking and severe tooth wear were observed in gear tested made of 5-30 wt% of bamboo fillers in comparing with the unfilled PP gear. These results indicated that bamboo can be practically and economically used as an alternative filler in plastic material reinforcement as well as in minimizing the cost of raw material in general.

The effect of nano clay filler on the mechanical and morphological properties of Napier/epoxy composites was investigated. Neat, 2 wt%, 3 wt%, 4 wt% and 5 wt% of Montmorillonite (MMT) nano clay filled Napier/epoxy composites were fabricated by vacuum infusion technique. These specimens were tested in the three points bending according to the ASTM D790. The flexural stress-strain curve, flexural strength, flexural modulus and strain to failure were then discovered based on the flexural test results. The results revealed that flexural strength and flexural modulus increased when a particular amount of nano clay was added to the epoxy matrix. 3 wt% of nano clay filler yielded the highest flexural strength with an improvement of 163% when compared to the neat Napier/epoxy composites. Moreover, a maximum of 180% increases in flexural modulus was registered at 5 wt% of nano clay filler. The enhanced properties of nano clay filled composites were highly achieved due to better dispersion and distribution of nano clay in the epoxy resin as well as an increase on the interfacial bonding. Using Scanning Electron Microscopy (SEM), morphological analysis was conducted to observe the fracture surfaces of the specimens after the flexural test. Overall, the presence of nano clay filler loading with a range of 3 wt% to 5 wt% in the Napier/epoxy composites shows the significant improvement in mechanical and morphological properties.

This paper describes the experimental investigation of the tensile properties of interwoven Hemp/PET hybrid composites. The effect of hybridization of hemp (warp) with PET fibres (weft) on tensile properties was of interest. Hemp and PET fibres were selected as the reinforcing material while epoxy resin was chosen as the matrix. The interwoven Hemp/PET fabric was used to produce hybrid composite using a vacuum infusion process. The tensile test was conducted using Universal Testing Machine in accordance to the ASTM D638. The tensile properties of the interwoven Hemp/PET hybrid composite were then compared with the neat woven hemp/epoxy composite. The results show that the strength of hemp/PET with the warp direction was increased by 8% compared to the neat woven hemp composite. This enhancement of tensile strength was due to the improved interlocking structure of interwoven Hemp/PET hybrid fabric.

Black-box modelling using system identification method to predict the performance of glass fibre reinforced epoxy (GRE) composite pipe under multiaxial loading stress ratio is presented. In this study, both linear and nonlinear models were derived namely; linear time-invariant parametric model and artificial neural network model. The models derived are to approximate the pure hydrostatic loading performance using GRE pipes with winding angles of ±55°. Three different linear model structures were derived, and the best fit model achieved at 96.64% of best fit. On the other hand, the Artificial Neural Network (ANN) modelling showed better accuracy with the best fit of 99.82%. Finally, the point of failure at which first damage takes place predicted by the models derived was validated using experimental data.

This paper describes the experimental investigation of the tensile properties of compressed moulded Napier grass fibres reinforced epoxy composites. The effect of treatment 5% sodium hydroxide (NaOH) concentrated solution and hybridization of Napier with CSM E-glass fibres on tensile properties was also studied. The untreated and treated Napier fibres with 25% fibre loading were fabricated with epoxy resin by a cold press process. 7% fibre loading of CSM glass fibre was hybrid as the skin layer for 18% fibre loading of untreated Napier grass fibre. The tensile tests were conducted using Universal Testing Machine in accordance with ASTM D638. The tensile properties of the untreated Napier/epoxy composites were compared with treated Napier/epoxy and untreated Napier/CSM/epoxy composites. The results demonstrated that the tensile performance of untreated Napier fibre composites was significantly improved by both of the modification; alkali treatment and glass fibre hybridization. Napier grass fibres showed promising potentials to be used as reinforcement in the polymer based composites.

The primary objective of this study was to investigate the effect of moisture absorption on the mechanical degradation of hybrid Napier/glass-epoxy composites. The hybrid Napier/glass-epoxy composites plates were produced by the vacuum infusion method using epoxy resin as a matrix. The hybrid composite specimens were tested after following 50 h of water immersion. The moisture content decreased as the glass fibre content increased. The wet and dry hybrid composite samples were subjected to tensile tests. The incorporation of the glass fibre into the Napier grass fibre-epoxy composites enhanced their tensile strength and tensile modulus. The tensile strength and tensile modulus of the hybrid Napier/glass-epoxy composites (24/6–70 vol%) were 43 MPa and 3.2 GPa, respectively. However, the tensile strength and tensile modulus properties highly degraded under wet conditions.

The present paper investigated the water absorption behaviour of hybrid interwoven cellulosic fibre composites. Hybrid composites consisting of interwoven kenaf/jute and kenaf/hemp yarns were prepared by an infusion manufacturing technique that used epoxy as the polymer matrix. Water absorption test was conducted as elucidated in ASTM D570 standard by immersing the composite samples in tap water at room temperature until reaching their water content saturation point. For each composite type, average from five samples was recorded and the percentage of water uptake against the square root of time was plotted. As the effect of hybridization, the water uptake, diffusion and permeability coefficient of the hybrid composites were lesser than the individual woven composites.

This paper presents the energy method to evaluate fracture behavior of enamel-cement-bracket system based on cement thickness. Finite element (FE) model of enamel-cement-bracket was constructed by using ANSYS Parametric Design Language (APDL). Three different thickness were used in this study, 0.05, 0.2, and 0.271 mm which assigned as thin, medium and thick for both enamel-cement and cement bracket interface cracks. Virtual crack closure technique (VCCT) was implemented as a simulation method to calculated energy release rate (ERR). Simulation results were obtained for each thickness are discussed by using Griffith's energy balance approach. ERR for thin thickness are found to be the lowest compared to medium and thick. Peak value of ERR also showed a significant different between medium and thick thickness. Therefore, weakest bonding occurred at low cement thickness because less load required to produce enough energy to detach the bracket. For medium and thick thickness, both increased rapidly in energy value at about the mid-point of the enamel-cement interface. This behavior occurred because of the increasing in mechanical and surface energy when the cracks are increasing. However, result for thick thickness are higher at mid-point compared to thin thickness. In conclusion, fracture behavior of enamel cracking process for medium most likely the safest to avoid enamel fracture and withstand bracket debonding.

The effects of elevated temperatures on the flexural strength of hybrid Napier/glass reinforced epoxy composites were investigated. Hybrid composites laminates were fabricated using untreated, 5%, or 10% alkali-treated Napier fibres with woven E-glass fibres and epoxy resin. The composites were manufactured using a vacuum infusion process; the volume fraction of the Napier, glass fibres and epoxy resin were 24%, 6% and 70% respectively. When tested at room temperature (RT), the maximum flexural strength was recorded for the hybrid composites with the 5% alkali-treated Napier fibres. When the test temperature greater than 60°C, the matrix cracking and delamination were occurred due to the temperature that approached the glass transition temperature (Tg) of the composites, which resulted in a reduction of the flexural strength. The fracture surface morphologies indicated that the 5% alkali-treated Napier fibres improved the fibre-matrix interfacial bonding of the hybrid Napier/glass reinforced epoxy composites.

This paper presents the analysis of coating substrate thickness ratio effect on the crown coating fracture behaviour. The bi-layer material is examined under four point bending with pre-crack at the bottom of the core material by using finite element. Three different coating thickness of core/substrate was tested which is 1:1, 1:2 and 2:1. The fracture parameters are analysed based on bilayer and homogenous elastic interaction. The result shows that the ratio thickness of core/veneer provided a significant effect on energy release rate.

Internal fixation is a mechanism purposed to maintain and protect the reduction of a fracture. Understanding of the fixation stability is necessary to determine parameters influence the mechanical stability and the risk of implant failure. A static structural analysis on a bone fracture fixation was developed to simulate and analyse the biomechanics of a diaphysis shaft fracture with a compression plate and conventional screws. This study aims to determine a critical area of the implant to be fractured based on different implant material and angle of fracture (i.e. 0°, 30° and 45°). Several factors were shown to influence stability to implant after surgical. The stainless steel, (S. S) and Titanium, (Ti) screws experienced the highest stress at 30° fracture angle. The fracture angle had a most significant effect on the conventional screw as compared to the compression plate. The stress was significantly higher in S.S material as compared to Ti material, with concentrated on the 4^th screw for all range of fracture angle. It was also noted that the screws closest to the intense concentration stress areas on the compression plate experienced increasing amounts of stress. The highest was observed at the screw thread-head junction.

In this study, films consisting of a blend of poly (ethylene oxide)/poly (vinyl chloride) (PEO/PVC) and a conductive filler, graphite were prepared and characterized for their mechanical and electrical properties. Solid polymer blend films based on PEO/PVC (50/50 wt%/wt%) with different graphite loading were prepared by using solution casting technique. Electrical conductivity results discovered the conductivity increased with increasing of filler loading. However, increasing amount of graphite loading led to a decreased in tensile strength and young's modulus of PEO/PVC/Graphite polymer films. The dispersion of graphite and mechanism of conductive path in the polymer films were also investigated by scanning electron microscopy (SEM). The morphology of the PEO/PVC/Graphite polymer films shows that agglomeration occurred to complete the connection of conductive path, thus improving the conductivity behavior of the polymer films.

The paper presents the impact responses, compression and burst tests of glass reinforced epoxy (GRE) composites pipes. Impact loadings of three different energy levels (5 J, 7.5 J, and 10 J) were applied, followed by monotonic burst tests. Uniaxial compressive tests were conducted GRE samples using a universal testing machine in accordance with ASTM D695-10. In addition, the tests were also repeated with samples of different winding angles of ±45 ° and ±55 ° and tested at room temperature, and elevated temperatures of 45 °C and 65 °C. The result shows that the higher the impact energy applied to the pipes, the lower the burst strength of the pipes. The maximum burst strength found decreased with an increase in the impact energy level. The results also indicate that the strength of the GRE pipes significantly decreases with increase in temperature though, they are also found to increase as the winding angles decrease.

Osteogenesis imperfecta (OI) is a genetic disease which affecting the bone geometry. In a severe case, this disease can cause death to patients. The main issue of this disease is the prediction on bone fracture by the orthopaedic surgeons. The resistance of the bone to withstand the force before the bones fracture often become the main concern. Therefore, the objective of the present preliminary study was to investigate the fracture risk associated with OI bone, particularly in femur, when subjected to the self-weight. Finite element (FEA) was employed to reconstruct the OI bone model and analyse the mechanical stress response of femur before it fractures. Ten deformed models with different severity of OI bones were developed and the force that represents patient self-weight was applied to the reconstructed models in static analysis. Stress and fracture risk were observed and analysed throughout the simulation. None of the deformed model were observed experienced fracture. The fracture risk increased with increased severity of the deformed bone. The results showed that all deformed femur models were able to bear the force without experienced fracture when subjected to only the self-weight.

The aim of the study was to analyse the effect of physical properties of natural fibre to the sound absorption coefficient. It was also aimed to study the relation of the physical properties of natural fibre to wider the frequency range and increase the sound absorption coefficient. There were two types of natural fibre will be studied such as kenaf fibre and rice straw fibre. The performance of sound absorption coefficient was measured using fabricated impedance tube according to ISO 10534-2. The physical properties of the natural fibre may affect the sound absorption coefficient either shifted to low frequency or shifted to high frequency range. All the physical properties that influence the sound absorption coefficient of natural fibre will be explained. The physical properties of natural fibre that will be studied were fibre thickness, fibre diameter and compressed fibre. Results have shown that the fibre thickness and diameter have a big effect to sound absorption coefficient. From the results, the utilization of the sound absorption coefficient can be achieved by choosing the suitable natural fibre according to its physical properties for a suitable application.

Composite material has been growing rapidly throughout the year for its unique properties in comparisons with metal. Recently, there has been a growth on studying the way to reduce the delamination failure, which is the primary challenge on laminated fibre composite. This failure can degrade the strength of composite materials, hence loses its function. In this review, database search was performed using the keywords search on "interlaminar fracture toughness", "double cantilever beam", "delamination resistance" and "Mode-I G_IC". The searches were performed on Google Scholar, Scopus and Web of Science with further cross-referencing with other databases. Most relevant studies were selected for review and referencing by the author. This review paper gives a brief explanation on Mode-I interlaminar fracture toughness of composite material. This fracture mode is the most common modes on studying the delamination failure.

Shock absorber is a part of the suspension system which provides comfort experience while driving. Resonance, a phenomenon where forced frequency is coinciding with the natural frequency has significant effect on the shock absorber itself. Thus, in this study, natural frequencies of the shock absorber in a 2 degree-of-freedom system were investigated using Wolfram Mathematica 11, CATIA, and ANSYS. Both theoretical and simulation study how will the resonance affect the car shock absorber. The parametric study on the performance of shock absorber also had been conducted. It is found that the failure tends to occur on coil sprung of the shock absorber before the body of the shock absorber is fail. From mathematical modelling, it can also be seen that higher vibration level occurred on un-sprung mass compare to spring mass. This is due to the weight of sprung mass which could stabilize as compared with the weight of un-sprung mass. Besides that, two natural frequencies had been obtained which are 1.0 Hz and 9.1 Hz for sprung mass and un-sprung mass respectively where the acceleration is recorded as maximum. In conclusion, ANSYS can be used to validate with theoretical results with complete model in order to match with mathematical modelling.

This study is to investigate the fatigue life of high speed rail in Malaysia. This paper describes about the experimental and simulation analysis investigation on fatigue life of rail profile UIC 54 using bulk specimen according to ASTM E 466-15 standard. The Fatigue life testing was performed in the fatigue testing machine (Instron 8800) 100 kN. Meanwhile, the fatigue life analysis was performed in ANSYS Workbench 14.5. Furthermore, the stress levels for experimental testing were applied as 16.7%, 25%, 35%, 50%, 58.3%, 66.77% and 75% with machine frequency of 20 Hz. Apart from that, the total fatigue life cycles for rail profile UIC 54 were acquired from both experimental and simulation. The fatigue life S-N curves were plotted and validated with the results of the simulation analysis with experimental results.

The present study aims to investigate the effect of micro-damage in particulates metal matrix composite on the elastic properties. The micro damage that perhaps could occurs during manufacturing process or due to environmental effects was modelled in three different types, namely shattered, debonded and breakage particulates with variation of volume fraction. The modelling and analysis were conducted based on homogenization theory by utilizing multiscale finite element software (Voxelxon). The results suggest that the elastic properties of metal matrix composite was sensitive to the geometrical defects of its particle.

Characterisation of static and dynamic behavioural are presented in this study of hybrid filled natural rubber. The hybrid filler consists of a combination of oil palm ash (OPA) and egg shell powder (ESP). Testing on the samples are conducted in three different aspects namely static compression testing, time dependent stress relaxation testing in compression and dynamic compression testing. Mechanical properties such as the static stiffnesses, hysteresis loss ratios, stress relaxation responses, dynamic stiffnesses, phase angles and damping ratios are reported. The static stiffness values of the hybrid filled rubber, although lower than rubber filled carbon black, presented potential if the ESP content were to be increased. The stress relaxation responses lacked consistency in the uploading stages but were fairly consistent in the unloading stages where the relaxation was close to that of rubber filled carbon black. The dynamic properties appear to be no significant improvement over that of rubber filled carbon black filled. All hybrid filled rubber samples conformed to general dynamic properties of viscoelastic material and did not display any unexpected behaviour. Collectively, there is a trend of improvement with increasing ESP content but no prominent improvement over rubber filled carbon black is observed.

The in vitro degradation and mechanical properties of a 3D porous Pennisetum purpureum (PP)/polylactic acid (PLA) —based scaffold was investigated. In this study, composite scaffolds with PP to PLA ratio of 0%, 10%, 20%, and 30% were immersed in PBS solution at 37 °C for 40 days. Interestingly, the degradation rate was reduced for the PLA/PP₂₀ scaffold, though insignificantly, this could be attributed to the improved mechanical properties and stronger fibre-matrix interface. The FESEM results indicated that a sound fibre-matrix interface was formed in the PLA/PP₂₀ scaffold, which reflected the addition of P. purpureum into PLA decreasing the degradation rate compared to in pure PLA scaffolds. The results suggest that the P. purpureum/PLA scaffold degradation rate can be altered and controlled to meet the requirement imposed by a given tissue engineering application.

The effect of stress ratio on the fatigue behaviour of the GFRE composite has been investigated. The glass fibre reinforced epoxy (GFRE) composite plates were fabricated using vacuum infusion method. Static tensile was performed in accordance with the ASTM D5766 standard, and the cyclic test was conducted according to ASTM D3479 with three different stress ratio, R = 0, 0.5, -1. Static tensile tests were carried out to determine the ultimate strength of this composite. Subsequently, fatigue tests loads ranging from 30% to 90% of the ultimate load were applied to each specimen. The S–N curve of different stress ratio loading of fibreglass/epoxy composites was then established. The results show that the number of cycles to failure increases as the loading is decreased. The specimens for fatigue tests loads 30% at R = 0 and -1 recorded the highest number of cycles at 2 million cycles. The results obtained from this test indicated a significant life reduction for R = -1 compared with the tension-tension loading, with the life reduction for R = -1 being greatest. The fatigue behaviour of the GFRE composite materials is not only influenced by the percentage of fatigue tests load but with different of stress ratio.

Imperfection of adhesive bonding in the corrugated core sandwich plate microstructure is commonly occured due to inaccuracies in fabrication process or environmental effect. Considering the geometrical changed due to the adhesive imperfection, it could influence the mechanical properties of sandwich plate structure. Hence, this paper was caried out to predict the effective elastic constants of corrugated core sandwich plate microstructure by considering the effect of adhesive imperfecction. Unit cell of corrugated core microstructure with variation of adhesive imperfection was developed using multiscale finite element software named Voxelcon. Homogenization method was integrated with probability function to predict the effective elastic constants of corrugated core sandwich plate structure. The proposed method could potentially be extended to other types of periodic microstrostructure in predicting the reliable homogenized properties of heterogeneous materials.

This paper aims to investigate the effect of void shape and arrangement on the effective elastic properties of porous microstructure. The characteristics of the voids are in different shapes, sizes and arrangement. The porous microstructure models were developed using CATIA. Then, Voxelcon was employed to analyse the multiscale finite element model and determine the homogenized properties. Based on the results, void shape, size, and arrangement of porous microstructure were found sensitive to the elastic (homogenized) properties. Ellipsoidal shape having the highest Young's modulus, whereas the spherical shape has the highest Poisson's ratio and shear modulus. Cubical shape was the lowest for all the elastic properties. Moreover, the formation arrangement in void cubical shape produced the highest Young's modulus and shear modulus.

The primary objective of this work was to study the effect of different soaking time in an alkaline solution for oil palm empty fruit bunch (OPEFB) fibre. For this purpose, the OPEFB fibres were treated with the sodium hydroxide (NaOH) at 5% concentration for ½ hour, 1-hour, 3-hour, 5-hour, 7-hour and 24-hours. The single tests of treated and untreated fibre were then performed in accordance with the ASTM D3822-07 standard. Next, the surfaces of the fibres prior and after the treatment were observed with a scanning electron microscope (SEM) TM3000. The result shows that at 7 hours of soaking time exhibits the highest tensile strength compared to the other soaking time and untreated fibre.

This paper presents the results of an experimental work to determine the dynamic stiffness and loss factor of elastomeric mounts. It also presents the results of theoretical analysis to determine the transmissibility and vibration power flow of these mounts, which are associated with their contribution to structure-borne noise. Four types of elastomeric mounts were considered, where three of them were made from green natural rubber material (SMR CV60, Ekoprena and Pureprena) and one made from petroleum based synthetic rubber (EPDM). In order to determine the dynamic stiffness and loss factor of these elastomeric mounts, dynamic tests were conducted using MTS 830 Elastomer Test System. Dynamic stiffness and loss factor of these mounts were measured for a range of frequency between 5 Hz and 150 Hz, and with a dynamic amplitude of 0.2 mm (p-p). The transmissibility and vibration power flow were determined based on a simple 2-Degree-of-Freedom model representing a vibration isolation system with a flexible receiver. This model reprsents the three main parts of a vehicle, which are the powertrain and engine mounting, the flexible structure and the floor of the vehicle. The results revealed that synthetic rubber (EPDM) was only effective at high frequency region. Natural rubber (Ekoprena), on the other hand, was found to be effective at both low and high frequency regions due to its low transmissibility at resonant frequency and its ability to damp the resonance. The estimated structure-borne noise emission showed that Ekoprena has a lower contribution to structure-borne noise as compared to the other types of elastomeric mounts.

Plantar fascia is a ligament found in human foot structure located beneath the skin of human foot that functioning to stabilize longitudinal arch of human foot during standing and normal gait. To perform direct experiment on plantar fascia seems very difficult since the structure located underneath the soft tissue. The aim of this study is to develop a finite element (FE) model of foot with plantar fascia and investigate the effect of the surface hardness on biomechanical response of plantar fascia during running. The plantar fascia model was developed using Solidworks 2015 according to the bone structure of foot model that was obtained from Turbosquid database. Boundary conditions were set out based on the data obtained from experiment of ground reaction force response during running on different surface hardness. The finite element analysis was performed using Ansys 14. The results found that the peak of stress and strain distribution were occur on the insertion of plantar fascia to bone especially on calcaneal area. Plantar fascia became stiffer with increment of Young's modulus value and was able to resist more loads. Strain of plantar fascia was decreased when Young's modulus increased with the same amount of loading.

Pneumatic Artificial Muscles (PAMs) have been known for its wide application in various aspects of industrial automation and robotic equipments. Many advantages in terms of high power-to-volume ratio, high power-to-weight ratio, stick-slip-free operation and high degree of safety offer by PAM compare to traditional actuators. However, behind this benefits lie a limitation of significant compatibility of PAM mechanism which have to be considered so as to fully understand how the PAM works during load-lifting. In this study, the mesh suitability experiment and the effect of force load on PAM contraction experiment have been carried out. PAM is constructed and compatibility of bladder and the braided mesh to produce uniform expansion is investigated. Moreover, the first experimental result of finding compatibility is used to verify the contraction value under various loads.

A smaller diameter conduit pointing at 12 o'clock position is typically hot-tapped to a horizontal laying production header in offshore platform to tap produced gas for downstream process train. This geometric feature is commonly known as T-junction. The nature of multiphase fluid splitting at the T-junction is a major operational challenge due to unpredictable production environment. Often, excessive liquid carryover occurs in the T-junction, leading to complete platform trip and halt production. This is because the downstream process train is not designed to handle excessive liquid. The objective of this research is to quantify the effect of different diameter ratio on phase separation efficiency in T-junction. The liquid carryover is modelled as two-phase air-water flow using Eulerian Mixture Model coupled with Volume of Fluid Method to mimic the slug flow in the main pipe. The focus in this paper is 0.0254 m (1 inch) diameter horizontal main arm and vertical branch arm with diameter ratio of 1.0, 0.5 and 0.3. The present research narrowed the investigation to only slug flow regime using Baker's map as reference. The investigation found that, contrary to common believe, smaller diameter ratio T-junction perform worse than larger diameter ratio T-junction.

Atrium is a modern architectural design of buildings that has an open space at the middle and contains several floors. In atrium structure the smoke due to fire can easily flow through the open spaces and causes smoke contamination. CFD simulation using fire dynamic simulator (FDS) software is conducted in this work, to investigate the effect of balcony open upstand on smoke contamination in atrium's balconies and compare it with balconies with solid upstand. It was found that in case of open upstand, the smoke contamination occurrence decreased inside the balcony comparing with balconies with solid upstand.

Structural stresses developed in an artificial bileaflet mechanical heart valve (BMHV) due to pulsed blood flow may cause valve failure due to yielding. In this paper, von-Mises stresses are computed and compared for BMHV placed in two types of aortic root geometries that are aortic root with axisymmetric sinuses and with axisymmetric bulb, at different physiological blood flow rates. With BMHV placed in an aortic root with axisymmetric sinuses, the von-Mises stresses developed in the valve were found to be up to 47% higher than BMHV placed in aortic root with axisymmetric bulb under similar physiological conditions. High velocity vectors and therefore high von-Mises stresses have been observed for BMHV placed in aortic root with axisymmetric sinuses, that can lead to valve failure.

An alternative electrical source has l has become the major quest of every researchers due to it numerous advantages and applications of power supply and as electronic devices are becoming more and more portable. A highly efficient power supply is become inevitable. Thus. in this study, present ultrasonic based assisted fabrication of electrochemical silicon-Titanium nano thin film by in-house simple technique, uniformly silicon Nano film was fabricated and etched with HF (40%): C2H5OH (99%):1:1, < 20 nm pore diameter of silicon was fabricated. The surface and morphology reveal that the method produce uniform nano silicon porous layer with smaller silicon pores with high etching efficiency. The silicon-Titanium integrated nano porous exhibited excellent observation properties with low reflection index ~ 1.1 compared to silicon alone thin film.

At times, the polycrystalline diamond compact (PDC) bit's performance dropped and affects the rate of penetration (ROP). The objective of this project is to investigate the effect of PDC cutter geometry and optimize them. An intensive study in cutter geometry would further enhance the ROP performance. The relatively extended analysis was carried out and four significant geometry factors have been identified that directly improved the ROP. Cutter size, back rake angle, side rake angle and chamfer angle are the stated geometry factors. An appropriate optimization technique that effectively controls all influential geometry factors during cutters manufacturing is introduced and adopted in this project. By adopting L₉ Taguchi OA, simulation experiment is conducted by using explicit dynamics finite element analysis. Through a structure Taguchi analysis, ANOVA confirms that the most significant geometry to improve ROP is cutter size (99.16% percentage contribution). The optimized cutter is expected to drill with high ROP that can reduce the rig time, which in its turn, may reduce the total drilling cost.

The main purpose of this study is to make improvement for the UniMAP Automotive Racing Team car chassis which has several problems associated with the chassis must be fixed and some changes are needed to be made in order to perform well. This study involves the process of designing three chassis that are created based on the rules stated by FSAE rules book (2017/2018). The three chassis will undergo analysis test that consists of five tests which are main roll hoop test, front roll hoop test, static shear, side impact, static torsional loading and finally one of them will be selected as the best design in term of Von Mises Stress and torsional displacement. From the results obtained, the new selected chassis design which also declared as the new improved design poses the weight of 27.66 kg which was decreased by 16.7% from the existing chassis (32.77 kg). The torsional rigidity of the improved chassis increased by 37.74%.

The mathematical modeling approach has been applied in order to increase the cam profile curve of Modenas CT115s performance by using MATLAB software as a programmed to calculate the mechanism of the cam profile. Cam is used inside the engine to push the rocker and consequently open and close the engine valve that allows the fuel-air mixture to be entered during the combustion process. The B-Spline curve was implemented in order to enhance the current performance of the cam profile. The calculation had been done by using manual and MATLAB software. The results obtained has been analyzed and interpreted in plotting the graphs. From the analysis, the profile that had the highest displacement factor, sk produced higher cam curve performance of the engine. Thus, it can be concluded that the increase of the displacement factor, sk can increase the engine performance as the valve displace further in which allow higher fuel-air mixture entrance during the combustion process.

Internal stresses or residual stresses in the structural elements are very crucial in carrying out in-service evaluations and fitness-for-purpose assessments. The generation of these internal stresses can occur as result of the fabrication of the steel members, installation sequence or other ad-hoc events such as accidents or impact. The accurate prediction of the internal stresses will contribute towards estimating the integrity state of the structural elements, with respect to their material allowable stresses. This paper investigates the explicit FE based numerical modelling of the ultrasonic based non-destructive technique, utilising the measurable longitudinal critical refracted wave (LCR) and relating these to the internal stresses within the structural elements by the evaluation of the material dependent acoustoelastic factors. The subsurface travel path of the LCR wave inside the structural elements makes it a sub-surface stress measurement technique and the linearised relationship with corresponding internal stresses can be systematically applied repeatedly. The numerical results are compared against laboratory tests data to correlate the findings and to establish modelling feasibility for future proof-of-concepts. It can be concluded from this numerical investigation, that the subsurface ultrasonic LCR wave has great potential to be implemented for in-situ structural residual stress measurements, as compared to other available surface measurements such as strain gauges or x-ray diffraction.

Gold-mining activities have been an issue, especially when it involves in contamination of chemicals, for example arsenic and mercury. However, despite of these hazards, gold-mining activities are still being conducted. This is because the gold is worth, regardless of the problems. Gold-mining, as known needs a very large area of land, or site plant. Vast amount of labor force, mechanical force and fund are a must in order for the mining process to be continued. High demand of gold, made gold-mining industries as ones of the most profitable industries in the world. Thus, this has encouraged another alternative way to extract gold. At the mining site, researchers found that biomineralization of gold by Delftia acidovorans can be conducted. How it is done still cannot be understood. It is said that the bacteria secretes secondary metabolites, Delftibactin as a defensive mechanism against the toxicity of the soluble gold. Researchers try to find another source of elemental gold besides of the earth's core. The options are either lava of a volcano or ocean. Here, the focus is seawater. The problem of seawater is that its composition still not yet to be proved. Dissolve gold existed as gold chloride in seawater, but in a very small amount. So, the gold separation should be focused, in order to make this process to be a successful one. Factors such as depth, climate, region, temperature need to be considered. If this difference affecting the separating process, standardized seawater composition have to be proposed.

With the increasingly serious environmental problems, especially the impact of fog and haze, the development of air powered vehicles has become an important research direction of new energy vehicles. Quadrature test was done with different materials, i.e. stainless steel and aluminum alloy, at different inlet pressures, using different expansion gases, i.e. air, CO₂, for heat exchanging properties for pneumatic vehicles. The mathematics as well as simulation methods are used to analyze the different heat exchanging effects in the multistage cylinder. The research results showed that the stainless steel has better effects in heat exchanging than Aluminum Alloy; the intake pressure has little effect on CO₂ than the air in heat exchanging effect. CO₂ is better in heat exchanging than air.

This paper studies the energy release of the pneumatic engine in different thermodynamic processes, the isothermal process is the highest power output process, while adiabatic process is the lowest energy output process, and the energy release of the pneumatic engine is a multi-state thermodynamic process between them. Therefore heat exchanging should be increased between the pneumatic engine and the outer space, the gas expansion process in the cylinder should be as close as possible to the isothermal process. Heat exchange should be increased between the cylinder and the external spaces. Secondly, the fin structure is studied to increase the heat exchanging between the cylinder body and the outside space. The upper part has fin structures and the lower cylinder has no fin structure, this structure improved the working efficiency of pneumatic engine. Finally the cam and the hydraulic bottle of pneumatic engines are designed. Simulation and theoretical calculation are used to the analysis of the whole structure, which lay the foundation for the manufacturing and design of the pneumatic engines.

Design for dis-assembly (DFD for short) is the key issue for green design automation. In this paper an assembly-level function-to-form mapping CAD system is reported for green design computing. The research work mainly includes: the assembly-level function definitions, product network model, two-step mapping mechanisms, dis-assembly sequencing based on graph theory, dis-assembly analysis etc. The function-to-form mapping is divided into two steps,i.e. mapping of function-to-behavior, called the first-step mapping, and the mapping of behavior-to-structure, called the second-step mapping. After the first step mapping, the three dimensional transmission chain (or 3D sketch) is established, and the product network model is created, on the basis of which the assembly/dis-assembly analysis and sequencing of the whole mechanism could be fulfilled. A mechanical hand is illustrated to verify the feasibility of the design methodologies.

Controlling numerous processing parameters and sustaining the optimal performance of multiple quality characteristics give a great challenge to manufacturer to produce a high-quality product with low operating cost. It was quite tricky to find the optimal combination parameters if used unsystematic techniques such as trial and error method. In this study, the Taguchi method was adopted to identify the significant processing parameters affected the shrinkage and tensile properties of plastic gears. The effectiveness of Taguchi's OA in reducing the number of experiment was studied and the results were analysed by ANOVA. Through the analysis, six parameters; melting temperature, mould temperature, packing pressure, packing time, cooling time and injection pressure, were carried out as significant parameters that influence dimensional stability and mechanical properties of plastic moulded gear. The findings showed that the Taguchi method is a systematic and straight forward approach that can be used in obtaining the significant processing parameters particularly in plastic gear manufacturing.

The demand of production of hydroxyapatite (HA) has been increasing for the purpose of medical and dental application. HA possesses the excellent properties leads to the priority choice for ceramic bone replacement. Synthesis route by wet chemical precipitation is commonly practised in industrial scale. Calcium hydroxide and Orthophosphoric acid are the precursors for production scale. The synthesis of HA is conducted by varying the synthetic condition: stirring rate, calcium-phosphate and calcination temperature. This paper is focused on the properties of HA produced by regulating the synthetic condition so that the qualities of HA can be well performed. Characterization studies were also carried out by Fourier Transform Infrared Spectroscopy (FT-IR) for functional group identification, Scanning Electron Microscope (SEM) for surface morphology analysis and X-Ray Diffraction (XRD) for phase composition and crystallinity respectively. Narrow particle size distribution contributed to better quality of hydroxyapatite for bone replacement. Both calcium-phosphate ratio and calcination temperature would affect the phase composition of calcium phosphate.

In an automobile, the rear upright are used to provide a physical mounting and links the suspension arms to the hub and wheel assembly. In this work, static structural and shape optimization analysis for rear upright for UniMAP's Formula SAE racing car had been done using ANSYS software with the objective to reduce weight while maintaining the structural strength of the vehicle upright. During the shape optimization process, the component undergoes 25%, 50% and 75 % weight reduction in order to find the best optimal shape of the upright. The final design of the upright is developed considering the weight reduction, structural integrity and the manufacturability. The final design achieved 21 % weight reduction and is able to withstand several loads.

The current pumping system (DC water pump) for agriculture is powered by household electricity, therefore, the cost of electricity will be increased due to the higher electricity consumption. In addition, the water needs to be supplied at different height of trees and different places that are far from the water source. The existing DC water pump can pump the water to 1.5 m height but it cost money for electrical source. The hydraulic ram is a mechanical water pump that suitable used for agriculture purpose. It can be a good substitute for DC water pump in agriculture use. The hydraulic ram water pumping system has ability to pump water using gravitational energy or the kinetic energy through flowing source of water. This project aims to analyze and develop the water ram pump in order to meet the desired delivery head up to 3 meter height with less operation cost. The hydraulic ram is designed using CATIA software. Simulation work has been done using ANSYS CFX software to validate the working concept. There are three design were tested in the experiment study. The best design reached target head of 3 m with 15% efficiency and flow rate of 11.82l/min. The results from this study show that the less diameter of pressure chamber and higher supply head will create higher pressure.

This article presents an approach to evaluate the effects of different machining conditions on the specific cutting energy of carbon fibre reinforced polymer composites (CFRP). Although research works in the machinability of CFRP composites have been very substantial, the present literature rarely discussed the topic of energy consumption and the specific cutting energy. A series of turning experiments were carried out on two different CFRP composites in order to determine the power and specific energy constants and eventually evaluate their effects due to the changes in machining conditions. A good agreement between the power and material removal rate using a simple linear relationship. Further analyses revealed that a power law function is best to describe the effect of feed rate on the changes in the specific cutting energy. At lower feed rate, the specific cutting energy increases exponentially due to the nature of finishing operation, whereas at higher feed rate, the changes in specific cutting energy is minimal due to the nature of roughing operation.

The main objective of this study is to analyse and design an optimum cooling system for macro compartment. Current product of the refrigerator is not specified for single function and not compact in size. Hence, a refrigeration system using refrigerant R134a is aimed to provide instant cooling in a macro compartment with sizing about 150 × 150 × 250 mm. The macro compartment is purposely designed to fit a bottle or drink can, which is then cooled to a desired drinking temperature of about 8°C within a period of 1 minute. The study is not only concerned with analysing of heat load of the macro compartment containing drink can, but also focused on determining suitable heat exchanger volume for both evaporator and condenser, calculating compressor displacement value and computing suitable resistance value of the expansion valve. Method of optimization is used to obtain the best solution of the problem. Mollier diagram is necessary in the process of developing the refrigeration system. Selection of blower is made properly to allow air circulation and to increase the flow rate for higher heat transfer rate. Property data are taken precisely from thermodynamic property tables. As the main four components, namely condenser, compressor, evaporator and expansion valve are fully developed, the refrigeration system is complete.

One of the challenges of utilizing natural fibre as reinforcement in polymer composite is poor interfacial bonding with thermoplastic matrix. In this study, hemp and polyethylene terephthalate (PET) fibre were selected to develop the interwoven fabric as reinforcement and polyoxymethylene (POM) was chosen as the matrix. The interwoven Hemp/PET fabric was used to produce hybrid composite using hot-press moulding technique. Different production methods of using POM layers and POM pellets were investigated. Three point bending test was used to determine the flexural modulus and compared. The results show that the different process in producing Hemp/PET/POM hybrid composite did not give significant effect towards the flexural property of composite. The modulus of elasticity for both specimens produced with POM layers and POM pellets is 2.24 GPa and 2.15 GPa, respectively. Modulus of elasticity of composite with POM layers is higher than POM pellets by 4%. This may due to POM thermoplastic characteristic which can be reversibly melted and re-solidified without significant changes to the mechanical properties.

Rice husks, a complex lignocellulosic biomass which comprised of high cellulose content (38-50%), hemicellulose (23-32%) and lignin (15-25%) possesses the potential to pursue as low cost feedstock for production of ethanol. Dilute sulfuric acid at concentration of 1, 2, 3 (%, v/v) were used for pretreatments at varied hydrolysis time (15-60 min) and enzymatic saccharification at range of 45-60˚C and pH 4.5-6.0 were evaluated for conversion of rice husk's cellulose and hemicellulose to fermentable sugars. The maximum yield of fermentable sugars from rice husks by dilute sulfuric acid (2%, 60 minutes) was 0.0751 g/l. Total fermentable sugar was identified using dinitrosalicylic acid (DNS) method and expressed in g/l. Enzymatic hydrolysis for conversion of cellulose to fermentable sugar has been studied by applying response surface methodology (RSM) and Analysis of Variance (ANOVA). Two independent variables namely initial pH and incubation temperature were considered using Central Composite Design (CCD). The determination coefficient, R² obtained was 0.9848. This indicates that 98.48% capriciousness in the respond could be clarified by the ANOVA. Based on the data shown by Design Expert software, the optimum condition for total sugar production was at pH 6.0 and temperature 45˚C as it produced 0.5086 g/l of total sugar.

This paper presented the analysis of materials and design architecture of 2-station hip simulator. Hip simulator is a machine used to conduct the joint and wear test of hip prosthetic. In earlier work, the hip simulator was modified and some improvement were made by using SolidWorks software. The simulator consists of 3DOF which controlled by separate stepper motor and a static load that set up by manual method in each station. In this work, finite element analysis (FEA) of hip simulator was implemented to analyse the structure of the design and selected materials used for simulator component. The analysis is completed based on two categories which are safety factor and stress tests. Both design drawing and FEA was done using SolidWorks software. The study of the two categories is performed by applying the peak load up to 4000N on the main frame that is embedded with metal-on-metal hip prosthesis. From FEA, the value of safety factor and degree of stress formation are successfully obtained. All the components exceed the value of 2 for safety factor analysis while the degree of stress formation shows higher value compare to the yield strength of the material. With this results, it provides information regarding part of simulator which are susceptible to destruct. Besides, the results could be used for design improvement and certify the stability of the hip simulator in real application.

In recent years, many research works from institutions that participated in Formula SAE had highlighted on suspension systems. The aim is to improve the system in term of performance and robustness. However, every suspension system for a racing car is tailored to the car itself. Thus, this paper proposes a new design for front suspension system for UniART FSAE car. The new design was than being compared to the previous suspension system for enhancement. The analysis covered in this paper based on several conditions such as braking, cornering and bumping condition and was carried out using finite element analysis. Each main component for the suspension system such as lower arm, upper arm and knuckle has been analysed in term of strength and performance. From the results, the proposed new design of the suspension system has improved in term of strength and performance compared to the previous suspension system.

Assembly line balancing (ALB) is about distributing the assembly tasks into workstations with the almost equal workload. Recently, researchers started to consider the resource constraints in ALB such as machine and worker, to make the assembly layout more efficient. This paper presents an ALB with resource constraints (ALB-RC) to minimize the workstation, machine and worker. For the optimization purpose, genetic algorithm (GA) with two new crossovers is introduced. The crossovers are developed using ranking approach and known as rank-based crossover type I and type II (RBC-I and RBC-II). These crossovers are tested against popular combinatorial crossovers using 17 benchmark problems. The computational experiment results indicated that the RBC-II has better overall performance because of the balance between divergence and guidance in the reproduction process. In future, the RBC-I and RBC-II will be tested for different variant of ALB problems.

The increasing number of people who underwent both hip implant surgery based on World Health Organization (WHO) has received massive attention from researchers lately to develop various types of hip simulators in order to test the hip implant. Various number of hip simulator have been developed with different functions and capabilities. This paper presents the design development of biped hip simulator using SolidWorks software by taking into consideration some improvement and modifications. The finite element method is used to test the design whether it is safe to be used or not. The biped hip simulator has been successfully designed and ready to be fabricated as the endurance testing shown a positive results. The von Mises stress induced in the material is an alloy steel which is 2,975,862.3 N/m² lower than the yield strength. Thus, the design is safe to be used as it obey the safety criterion.

This paper described the mechanical properties from hardness testing and tensile testing of Friction Stir Welded (FSW) materials. In this project, two materials of aluminium and steel are welded using conventional milling machine and tool designed with different profile and shoulder size. During welding the temperature along the weld line is collected using thermocouples. Threaded pins was found to produce stronger joints than cylindrical pins. 20 mm diameter shoulder tool welded a slightly stronger joint than 18 mm diameter one, as well as softer nugget zone due to higher heat input. Threaded pins also contributed to higher weld temperature than cylindrical pins due to increase in pin contact surface. Generally, higher temperatures were recorded in aluminium side due to pin offset away from steel.

A rapid growth in awareness level over environmental problems have brought researchers to find a substitute lubricant to reduce the use of mineral based lubricants. In this paper, the lubrication performance of RBD palm stearin was evaluated in order to be utilized as alternative lubricant for metal forming lubricant. Commercial paraffinic mineral oil VG460 and VG95 were used for comparison purposes. The experiment was conducted using cold work extrusion apparatus that consists of taper die (made of tool steel SKD11) and a pair of billet (made of pure aluminium A1100). The results obtained from these experiments showed that RBD palm stearin can reduce extrusion load, produce a lower surface roughness value and have smooth surface profile compared to commercial paraffinic mineral oils. It is demonstrated that RBD palm stearin have promising lubrication performance and can be considered as alternative lubricant in metal forming process.

Bone fracture is a serious skeletal injury due to accidents and fragility of the bones at a certain age. In order to accelerate fracture healing process, fracture bone plate is use to hold the fracture segment for more stability. The purpose of this study is to fabricate mandibular fracture plate by using indirect additive manufacturing methods in order to reduce time taken during bending and shaping the fracture fixation plate that conform to the anatomy of the fractured bone site. The design and analysis of the plates are performed using CATIA and ANSYS software. The 3D-CAD data were sent to an additive manufacturing machine (fused filament fabricated) to generate master pattern using PLA and the mould were fabricated using Plaster of Paris. A melt ZAMAK 3 was poured directly into the moulds, and left it until completely harden. 3point bending test was performed on the prototype plate using universal testing machine. Stress-strain curve shows the graph exhibited a linear relationship of stress-strain up to a strain value of 0.001. Specimens give a maximum yielding stress and then break before the conventional deflection. Since the maximum flexural stress and the breaking stress are far apart with a plateau stating at strain value of 0.003mm/mm in most specimens, the specimen's failure types are considered plastic failure mode. The average thickness and width are 1.65mm and 2.18mm respectively. The flexural modulus and flexural strength are 189.5GPa and 518.1MPa, respectively.

Nanogap is increasingly known to be beneficial, dependable and higher sensing technology. Another possible purpose is to examine a bioactivity and study the reaction of single molecule. It is important to carefully recognize the differences between the sensor surface and electrode in order to incorporate the biological system with nanogap. Also, it crucial to examine the dielectric properties between the planar nanogap with and without a sample. Electrical concentration between the electrodes could be increased due to integrating of microfluidic channel when the sample is being used. This paper is a report on an electrical point of view of planar nanogap capacitor device with comparison of different excitation frequency with and without microfluidic channel. By using 40 nm Si nanogap devices, the sensitivity of nanogap was compared by dropping deionized water and pH 7 onto the target. Experiments were carried out in wide range of frequencies from 1 Hz to 1 MHz at room temperature with 30 mV input signal (0 V, DC, Offset). Both effects of excitation frequency on capacitance sampling with 10 µm microfluidic integration were analyzed.

Magnetite nanoparticles were prepared by co-precipitation method at different precipitation temperature and pH of solution. The produced inverse spinel cubic structure can be denoted to magnetite structure as deduced from X–ray diffraction (XRD) result. X-ray peak broadening analysis was utilized to determine the crystallite sizes and lattice strain present by the Williamson-Hall method. The results showed that the average crystallite size and tensile strain of the nanoparticles was first decrease before rising again at a certain temperature. The same phenomenon of size was experienced on the pH variation of the solution with compressive and tensile strain was displayed. Is was observed that the almost perfect structure (very low strain) and relatively small nanoparticles was synthesized at temperature of 70 °C and pH of 11.94 with 8.89 nm in size.

In designing suitable isolators to reduce unwanted vibration in vehicles, the response from a mathematical model which characterizes the transmissibility ratio of the input and output of the vehicle is required. In this study, a Matlab Simulink model is developed to study the dynamic behaviour performance of passive suspension system for a lightweight electric vehicle. The Simulink model is based on the two degrees of freedom system quarter car model. The model is compared to the theoretical plots of the transmissibility ratios between the amplitudes of the displacements and accelerations of the sprung and unsprung masses to the amplitudes of the ground, against the frequencies at different damping values. It was found that the frequency responses obtained from the theoretical calculations and from the Simulink simulation is comparable to each other. Hence, the model may be extended to a full vehicle model.

This paper presented the design process and manufacturing of a benchtop and inexpensive injection moulding machine for use as learning and teaching equipment in a manufacturing laboratory. The design use a vertical plunger type of injection equipped with clamping system. The maximum volume of barrel is 290 cc combined with injection plunger 60 mm provides ideal capacity for lab. The design concept process and preliminary test result are discussed. The flow rate increases with increase of motor speed and the packing time decrease with increase of motor speed. At 2500rpm the flow rate is 0.42m/s and pack time is 15 second.

Airbox system consist of filter element which greatly influenced the quality air into the engine system. The main objective of this study is to improve the performance of airbox system that attached in MODENAS CT115S engine system. Airbox, an empty air chamber, accumulates the outside air and feed it to the cylinder of the engine for combustion process and contains filter element. The function is to provide cleaner air for greater combustion rate and cleaner emission. The performance of airbox can be influenced by changing the location of the filter element and the geometry of airbox. By changing these parameters, the performance of the airbox system can be enhanced. In this study, the geometry of the airbox inlet has been changed in terms of shape and size. The inlet shape for Design 1 in round shape with a diameter of 43.60 mm. Meanwhile for Design 2, the geometry of airbox inlet was changed to a rectangular shape. Between these two designs, Design 1 provides a better result in terms of mass flow rate (10.41 kg/s), velocity (9.84 m/s) and pressure difference (83.44 kPa). By increasing the performance of airbox, the performance of engine can be increased.

This paper describes the design differences between the intake manifold and restrictor used in racing cars that participate in the Formula Student (FSAE) competition. To fulfil the criteria of rules and regulation of the race, each race car must have a restriction device that has a maximum diameter of 20 mm installed between the throttle body and intake manifold. To overcome these problems, a restrictor has been designed and analysed using the steady state analysis, to reduce the loss of pressure in the restrictor. Design of the restrictor has a fixed parameter of the maximum diameter of 20mm. There are some differences that have been taken to make the comparison between the design of the restrictor, the diameter of the inlet and outlet, the curvature of the surface, convergence and divergence angle and length of the restrictor. Intake manifold was designed based on the design of the chassis, which shall not exceed the envelope defined by the FSAE competition. A good intake manifold design will affect the performance of the engine. Each design have made an analysis designed to ensure that each cylinder engine gets its air evenly. To verify the design, steady state analysis was made for a total mass flow rate and the velocity of air leaving a runner in each engine. Data such as the engine MAP reading was recorded by using Haltech ECU Management Software as reference purposes.

The fully developed buoyancy-induced (natural convective) Couette-Poiseuille flow in a vertical microchannel is investigated with the velocity slip and temperature jump boundary conditions. Closed form analytical solutions for the velocity and temperature fields are obtained. The effects of the fluid-wall interaction parameter, wall-ambient temperature difference ratio, Knudsen number, mixed convection parameter, and the dimensionless pressure gradient on the velocity, temperature, volume flow rate, heat flux between the plates and the Nusselt number have been discussed in detail through graphs. The outcomes of the investigation indicate that the volume flow rate increases with increasing values of mixed convection parameter, wall-ambient temperature difference ratio, and Knudsen number.

In this research, the effects of Rice Straw (RS) reinforced Standard Malaysian Rubber (SMRL) on curing characteristics, tensile properties and physical properties were investigated. All compounds were prepared using two roll mill at five different RS loading (10, 20, 30, 40, 50 phr). In addition, two different size of RS, fine size (FS) at 300 μm and coarse size (CS) at 10 mm were used. The properties such as cure characteristics, tensile properties and physical properties were determined. Results indicated that the fine size of RS filled SMRL contributed to the better properties such as tensile, hardness and crosslink density compare to coarser size of RS filled SMRL at same loading.

El-nino phenomenon that strikes Malaysia with temperature recorded more than 35°C can lead to extreme temperature rise in car cabin up to 80°C. Various problems will arise due to this extreme rising of temperature such as the occupant are vulnerable to heat stroke, emission of benzene gas that can cause cancer due to reaction of high temperature with interior compartments, and damage of compartments in the car. The current solution available to reduce car cabin temperature including tinted of window and portable heat rejection device that are available in the market. As an alternative to reduce car cabin temperature, this project modifies the car's air conditioning blower motor into dual direction powered by solar energy and identifies its influence to temperature inside the car, parked under scorching sun. By reducing the car cabin temperature up to 10°C which equal to 14% of reduction in the car cabin temperature, this simple proposed system aims to provide comfort to users due to its capability in improving the quality of air and moisture in the car cabin.

In this work, co-pyrolysis of rice straw and polyethylene terephthalate (PET) was carried out at different temperatures (450,500,550, and 600°C) at ratio 1:1 by using fixed bed drop-type pyrolyzer. The purpose of this work is to determine the effect of pyrolysis temperature on the product yield. As the temperature increased, the pyrolysis oil increased until it reaches certain high temperature (600°C), the pyrolysis oil decreased as of more NCG were produced. The temperature 550°C is considered as the optimum pyrolysis temperature since it produced the highest amount of pyrolysis oil with 36 wt.%. In pyrolysis oil, the calorific value (13.98kJ/g) was low because of the presence of high water content (52.46 wt.%). Main chemicals group from pyrolysis oil were an aldehyde, ketones, acids, aromatics, and phenol and all compound have abundant of hydrogen and carbon were identified. Co-pyrolysis of rice straw and PET produced a higher amount of carbon oxides and recycling back the NCG could increase liquid and char yields.

Demand for alternative energy is growing due to decrease of fossil fuels sources. One of the promising and popular renewable energy technology is a photovoltaic (PV) technology. During the actual operation of PV cells, only around 15% of solar irradiance is converted to electricity, while the rest is converted into heat. The electrical efficiency decreases with the increment in PV panel's temperature. This electrical energy is referring to the open-circuit voltage (V_oc), short-circuit current (I_sc) and output power generate. This paper examines and discusses the PV panel with water and air cooling system. The air cooling system was installed at the back of PV panel while water cooling system at front surface. The analyses of both cooling systems were done by using ANSYS CFX and PSPICE software. The highest temperature of PV panel without cooling system is 66.3 °C. There is a decrement of 19.2% and 53.2% in temperature with the air and water cooling system applied to PV panel.

The growth in population and economy has increases the energy demand and raises the concerns over the sustainable energy source. Towards the sustainable development, energy efficiency in buildings has become a prime objective. In this paper, the integration of thermal energy storage was studied. This paper presents an experimental investigation on the performance of an air conditioning unit integrated with sensible heat storage (SHS) system. The results were compared to the conventional AC systems in the terms of average electricity usage, indoor temperature and the relative humidity inside the experimented room (cabin container). Results show that the integration of water tank as an SHS reduces the electricity usage by 5%, while the integration of well-insulated water tank saves up to 8% of the electricity consumption.

A numerical study is conducted to understand the effect of magnetic field on the natural convection in a tilted parallelogrammic porous enclosure. The two opposing side walls are differentially heated with a temperature difference specified, while the upper and lower walls are adiabatic. Using the Darcy model to formulate the problem, a finite difference scheme consisting of the Alternating Direction Implicit and Successive Line over Relaxation methods are used to solve the coupled non-linear governing equations. Computations are carried out for a wide range of Rayleigh number ranging from 100 to 5 × 10³, inclination of the walls of the parallelogram ϕ from -60⁰ to 60⁰, angle of inclination of the enclosure α from -60⁰ to 60⁰, aspect ratio from 0.5 to 2 and Hartmann number from 0 to 20. The flow structure and the corresponding heat transfer characteristics inside the enclosure are presented in detail. The results revealed that both the magnetic force and the inclination angle have significant effect on the flow field and heat transfer in porous medium. The reported results are in good agreement with the available published work in the literature.

Cutting fluids play very important role in machining application in order to increase tool life, surface finish and reduce energy consumption. Instead of using petrochemical and synthetic based cutting fluids, vegetable oil based lubricants is safety for operators, environmental friendly and become more popular in the industrial applications. This research paper aims to find the advantage of using vegetable oils (coconut oil) with additional of nano particles (CuO) as lubricant to the energy consumption during machining process. The energy was measured for each run from 2 level factorial experimental layout. Obtained results illustrate that lubricant with enhancement of nanoparticles has capability to improve the energy consumption during the machining process.

Daylighting systems is one of alternative to reduce a high energy consumption that caused by artificial lighting. However the use of passive light pipes in daylighting systems with various bending angles may affect the efficiency of light transfer from the sunlight to the room. Thus this paper is proposed to study the effect of various bending angles on a light pipe. Three bending angles of light pipe, which are 0°, 30° and 45°, were analyzed through the experimental works. A test bed room was constructed in order to simulate daylighting in a room. The results were then visualized in graphs based on the efficiency by considering the maximum average internal illuminance achieved by each light pipe. From the results, it shows that when the bending angle increases, the average internal illuminance decreases. And the highest average internal illuminance was achieved by 0° light pipe.

This paper is about an experiment for performing engines diagnostic using wireless sensing Internet of Thing (IoT). The study is to overcome problem of current standard On Board Diagnosis (OBD-II) data acquisition method that only can be perform in offline or wired method. From this paper it show a method to determined how the data from engines can be collected, make the data can be easily understand by human and sending data over the wireless internet connection via platform of IOT. This study is separate into three stages that is CAN-bus data collection, CAN data conversion and send data to cloud storage. Every stage is experimented with a two different method and consist five data parameter that is Revolution per Minute (RPM), Manifold Air Pressure (MAP), load-fuel, barometric pressure and engine temperature. The experiment use Arduino Uno as microcontroller, CAN-bus converter and ESP8266 wifi board as transfer medium for data to internet.

Integration of thermoelectric cooling (TEC) within a space cooling system in the lecturer room is studied. The studied area (air conditioned surrounding) is encapsulated with wall, floor, roof, and glass window. TEC module is placed on the glass window. The prototype of the studied compartment is designed using cabin container. The type and number of TEC module are studied and the effects on the cooling performance are analyzed as it is assumed to be tested within an air conditioned lecturer room. The experimental and mathematical modeling of the cooling system developed. It is expected that the mathematical modeling derived from this study will be used to estimate the use of the number of TEC module to be integrated with air conditioner unit where possible.

This paper numerically examines the influence of a circular thin baffle on thermosolutal convection in a vertical annular enclosure. The inner and outer cylindrical walls, and the baffle are retained with different temperatures and concentrations, while the upper and lower boundaries are kept at adiabatic and impermeable. The model equations are solved using an implicit finite difference scheme consisting of ADI and SLOR methods. Numerical simulations are performed to understand the size and position effects of the baffle on the thermosolutal convection and are successfully captured through our results. It has been observed that the baffle size and location has very important role in controlling the thermosolutal convective flow and the corresponding heat and mass transport characteristics. Further, our results are in good agreement with the available benchmark results for limiting cases.

Driving cycle is a series of data points representing the speed of vehicle versus time and used to determine the performance of vehicle in general. One of the critical portions of driving cycle development is route selection methodology. This paper describes the efficient methodology of route selection for driving cycle development. Previous data from JKR Road Traffic Volume Malaysia (RTVM) in 2015 is studied and analysed to propose the methodology in route selection. The selected routes are then analysed by using Google Maps. For each region, four (4) routes are selected for each urban and rural. For this paper, the selection of route is focused on northern region of Malaysia specifically in Penang. Penang is chosen for this study because it is one of the developed state in Malaysia that has many urban and rural routes. The methods of route selection constructed in this study could be used by other region to develop their own driving cycles.

Almost all regions in the world are facing with problem of increasing electricity cost from time to time. Besides, with the mankind's anxiety about global warming, it has infused an ideology to rapidly move towards renewable energy sources since it is believed to be more reliable and safer. One example of the best alternatives to replace the fossil fuels sourced is solar energy. Photovoltaic (PV) panel is used to convert the sunlight into electricity. Unfortunately, the performance of PV panel can be affected by its operating temperature. With the increment of ambient temperature, the PV panel operating temperature also increase and will affect the performance of PV panel (in terms of power generated). With this concern, a water cooling system was installed on top of PV panel to help reduce the PV panel's temperature. Five different water mass flow rate is tested due to investigate their impact towards the thermal performance and heat transfer rate.

Generation of waste heat was ineluctable especially during energy producing process. Waste heat falls into low temperature grade make it complicated to utilize. Thermoelectric generator (TEG) offers opportunity to harvest any temperature grade heat into useful electricity. This project is covered about recovery and utilizing waste heat from portable electric generator by using a TEG which placed at exhaust surface. Temperature difference at both surfaces of TEG was enhanced with supplying cold air from a wind blower. It is found that, even at low air speed, the TEG was successfully produced electricity with aid from DC-DC booster. Results shows possibility to harvest low temperature grade heat and still exist areas for continual improvement.