Applied Mechanics and Materials Vols. 773-774

Abstract: Thermal condition of a house is one of the comfort factors. Traditionally, village houses in Malaysia uses corrugated zinc roofing due to economic reason. Considering the thermal conductivities of the material, space under the roof coverage will intent to occur thermal discomfort due to Malaysian ambient temperature. The roof plays an important role to ensure the house is in a state insulated from the hot sun and rain where the zinc roofing will radiated by the sun in noon and yet become the heat source for in-house area. Thermal discomfort will result due to zinc highly heat absorbing material property. The space under the covering will experience significant temperature increase proportional to the amount of supplied heat from sunlight radiated to the zinc roof, and will further be aggravated if ventilation is poor. The purpose of this study is to compare the temperature distribution by two alternatives methods to reduce the temperature inside a zinc-covered house. The main concept of this cooling system is by splashing water throughout the area of the zinc roofing, where heat exchange process will occur upon contact. The process will dissipate heat from the zinc and will increase the water temperature. This research is focusing on the medium (water) re-cooling process by either open water exhausted or radiator system to state that which one will give better heat exchange. Open water exhausted system heated water will then free fall by gravity into a tank through perforated tube as water droplets. To facilitate higher rate of water-cooling, fan will be provided. Another re-cooling system is the radiator system, which use radiator device to cool down the heated water. Radiator use coolant as the medium to exchange the heat from the roof heated water. By the same heat transfer process, the circulated water temperature will be lower where, which will be recirculation back to the roof. Both systems had been compared about the differences of temperature drop distribution which result the better water re-cooling system.

Abstract: The combustion of bituminous coal, bio-oil, and their slurry mixtures were performed under air atmosphere using Thermogravimetric Analyzer (TGA). All samples were run from room temperature to 110°C and held for 10 minutes before the temperature was ramped to 1100°C and held again for 10 minutes at 1100°C at the heating rate of 10°C/min and gas flow rate of 50mL/min. Kinetic evaluation was conducted using a simple Arrhenius-type kinetic model with first-order decomposition reaction. Apparent activation energy, E_a, and pre-exponential factor, A, were calculated from the modelling equation. Results reveal that the reactivity of CBS fuel is higher than a single coal fuel to which the addition of bio-oil helps to increase the combustion performance of the blends. The optimum fuel ratio appears at 50:50 ratio with equal contribution of coal and bio-oil properties that contribute to the increase in volatile matter causing maximum combustion rate achievable at much lower temperature compared to single coal fuel.

Abstract: This study aims to measure the concentration of heavy metals of concern Lead (Pb), Copper (Cu), Chromium (Cr), Cadmium (Cd) and Nickel (Ni) at three university campus buildings which was situated adjacent to an industrial district. Heavy metals particulates were sampled from the PM₁₀ sampling device (Met One Instrument) in 24 hours sampling between lecture and holiday periods. Determination of heavy metals concentrations were conducted using Inductively Coupled Plasma – Mass Spectrometry (ICP-MS) after the filter papers were digested with mixture of nitric acid (HNO₃) and sulphuric acid (H₂SO₄). These heavy metal concentrations were compared to the Standard Concentration on Air such as World Health Organization Health (WHO), Ambient Air Quality Criteria Act 1994 (AAQC), National Environment Protection Council (NEPS) and also Texas Commission on Environmental Quality (TCEQ). The comparison with Standard Concentration of Air shows that Cd and Cu have low concentrations 0.0033±0.0018 μg/m³ and 0.0894±0.0614 μg/m³ while Cr and Ni have high concentrations of 0.1882±0.0535 μg/m³ and 0.1278±0.0323 μg/m³ respectively. The Pb gives irregular result and high standard deviation of 2.0410±3.4999 μg/m³. This finding produces significant contribution to some knowledge of the level of heavy metals in the study area. It identifies research needs and suggests potential approaches to addressing outstanding problems.

Abstract: The characteristics of water sources are important factors that determine the methods of treatments and quality of water distributed to consumers. The quality of Langat River and borehole water were investigated in this study to obtain the baseline water quality for riverbank filtration (RBF) systems. Water samples from Langat River and seven boreholes constructed at different distances from the river bank were collected and analyzed for turbidity, color, BOD₅, COD, NH₃-N, E. coli, and heavy metals. Results indicate that the average levels of BOD₅, COD, and NH₃-N in the river are 23, 52, and 2 mg/L, respectively. The water is also very turbid with a turbidity value of over 400 NTU. Metals in the river water are not an issue, except for iron (Fe) and arsenic (As) with average levels of 4.92 and 0.073 mg/L, respectively. In addition, the average concentration of the pathogenic bacteria E. coli in the river is also high with a value of 7,500 per 100 mL. The quality of water from boreholes exhibits improvement in terms of turbidity, color, total dissolve solid (TDS), dissolved oxygen (DO), COD, and E. coli. However, the levels of trace elements, such as arsenic (As), are higher in boreholes; the readings reached 0.13 mg/L. The 0presence of manganese (Mn) in wells is likewise high, with readings between 0.35 and 0.95 mg/L. Results indicate that distance is not the main factor in the increase in removal efficiency. Instead, site geology and biogeochemical processes in groundwater are probably the factors that determine pollutant removal and increased As and Mn concentrations in borehole water. Based on the information presented, this study may be able to provide baseline information regarding the suitability of an RBF system for a selected area.

Abstract: Malaysia is experiencing water pollution crisis recently. In particular, greywater discharge directly to drains. Therefore, a greywater treatment system was designed to overcome this drain pollution. To investigate the operation and performance of the treatment system, constructed wetland was designed and builds for a small single household. Lepironia Articulata was chosen for populating wetland. The wetland was supplied with kitchen greywater. The selected house is appropriate because it lacks proper drainage system. This study evaluates the characteristic of kitchen greywater before and after treatment. The quality parameters of greywater that involve in this study are Total Coliform and E-coli. The range for reduction efficiency for Total Suspended Solid was 16.02 to 60.56, E.coli was 26% to 51% and Total Coliform was 5% to 63%. Generally, this study showed improved kitchen greywater quality before discharging to the nearest water body. The findings can be used significantly to enhance the knowledge in constructed wetland where it can serve as effective and integrated solutions for managing greywater discharging using control at source approach. A constructed wetland was best chosen due to its good visual impact, removal efficiency of organic material and other pollutant, as well economical.

Abstract: The designing of rainfall temporal pattern is very important in displaying the diversity and intensity of rainfall in addition to flood estimation and planning. The main purpose of this study was to develop a temporal rainfall pattern for Segamat District. Average Variability Method, AVM which had recommended by the Australian Rainfall and Runoff were used to derive design rainfall temporal patterns for this study. The survey data for 5 minute interval from 2003 to 2012 for 4 selected rainfall stations that obtained from the Drainage and Irrigation Department, DID have been selected. In this study, the temporal rainfall pattern is built for 10 minutes, 15 minutes, 30 minutes, 60 minutes, 120 minutes, 180 minutes, and 360 minutes. The results shows the actual rainfall on the field in the form of temporal rainfall pattern. Up to 75% of the temporal patterns in the region can be classified as intermediate type while the advance and delay type are 11% and 14%, respectively. From the temporal rainfall pattern, the duration of rainfall occurs can be predicted, therefore, the probability of the flooding during the period can be estimated.

Abstract: The wet market wastewater may lead to pollution, odour and aesthetic problems to the environment and society if not treating properly. Thus, this research was conducted to culture microalgae Scenedesmus sp. and to identify the optimal concentration of microalgae Scenedesmus sp. due to the nutrient and heavy metal removals from wet market wastewater based on laboratory scale. The samples were taken from Public Market Parit Raja, Batu Pahat at 9a.m. in the morning using grab sampling technique. The characteristics of raw wastewater and microalgae Scenedesmus sp. were determined. There are five sample wastewater (used 625ml for each five sample wastewater) with five different sample concentrations of microalgae which are 6.50x10⁵, 49.88x10⁴, 34.75x10⁴, 19.63x10⁴ and 49.88x10⁴ cell/ml with 16 days as duration for period study. The microalgae were cultured by BBM for eight days and another eight days for treatment with replicates three times for each sample. The analysis were measured due to the nutrient and heavy metal removals which are TN, TP, TOC, Fe and Zn during eight days treatment process. Based on experimental result, the optimum efficiency removals for each concentration were achieved 45.6-86.4% of nutrients and heavy metals removal. The highest amount of nutrient and heavy metal removals after wastewater treatment by microalgae are TN 74.77%, TP 82.17%, TOC 86.36%, Fe 65.76% and Zn 84.14%. As conclusion for this experiment, Sample 2 (concentration 49.88x10⁴ cell/ml of microalgae Scenedesmus sp.) is the optimum concentration due to the highest percentage of nutrients and heavy metals removal which achieved 65.3-82.1% which TN 65.32%, TP 76.77%, TOC 80.34%, Fe 65.76% and Zn 82.12%.

Abstract: Malaysia has an abundance of agro waste material that have not been fully utilized to a maximum production. Thus, the finding of a new alternative fiber in non wood material will be favorable in paper production. Pineapple (Ananas Comosus) is the common tropical plant, which consists of coalesced berries. This pineapple is leading member of the family of Bromeliaceae and it came from genus Ananas. Fiber bundle from pineapple leaf can be separated from the cortex where it reveals the pineapple leaf fiber in multi-cellular and lignocelluloses pattern. This leaf has a ribbon-like structure and cemented together by lignin, pentosan-like materials, where it contributes to the strength of fiber [7]. All parts in pineapple from fruits to leaves could be consumed to give a health benefit for human life. Pineapple had been used as textile fiber, anti-inflammatory and also anti-helminthic agent. According to the FAO online database, the Malaysian country had consumed 255,000 tones per year and in third position in the world of consuming pineapple production. Pineapple is mainly produced as canned fruits and also coarse textiles in some Southeast Asian countries. Leaves of pineapple had been used as coarse textiles because of the fiber composition and structure inside the leaves [3]. All fibrous in non wood materials especially pineapple leaf consists of cellulose, holocellulose, hemicelluloses and lignin along with some extraneous material called extractives such as gum and resin. Previous research indicates pineapple leaf fiber contained higher cellulose content than wood fiber. Pineapple leaf fibers also consist of lignin [23], an adhesive component that binds the cellulose and hemicellulose. Pineapple leaf fiber had the lowest lignin content than other alternative fiber, which is favorable during chemical processing [12]. The chemical composition aspects have been considered in the previous literature, such as banana stem, coconut and oil palm and had been reported extensively. Pineapple leaf reported has a lowest lignin (10.5%) rather than banana stem (18.6%), oil palm (20.5%) and coconut (32.8%) that suggest can undergo bleaching more easily and have high fiber strength [12]. Besides that, pineapple leaf contains high holocelulose content (87.6%) than banana stem (65.2%), oil palm (83.5%) and coconut (56.3%) [11]. Those properties depend on the content of chemical composition in the pineapple leaf fiber, which is cellulose, hemicelluloses and lignin content [15].

Abstract: Sustainable development has become an important aspect of the construction industries. There are many ways sustainability elements can be incorporated in the design, construction, operation and deconstruction of a building. Importantly sustainability represents the link between society and built environment professionals. In relation to that, this study involves a look at the stakeholders outlook and interaction with sustainability. In this study, the focus will be aimed on the role of the Local Governments and how the perception of the stakeholders. Therefore, this study intend to look into the sustainable development and better understanding the strength and weaknesses and other relevant factors that promote or hinder the Sustainable Development. This study is to contribute to the enrichment of knowledge on the role of Local Governments in Sustainable Development. Therefore, this research seeks to find out whether sustainable development is being practiced and seeks to find out what is happening with respect to issues of what, how and why things are being done with the development of Sustainable Development globally and in Malaysia in general.

Abstract: Hybrid reed bed systems (HRBs) have a good potential for wastewater treatment in developing countries due to its simple operation and low implementation costs. HRBs units were constructed at Bukit Putri, in UKM university campus, Malaysia, of which were planted with Scirpus grossus plants, commonly known as club-rush or bulrush (water loving plants). Generally, HRBs are classified into two categories: surface-flow and subsurface-flow. Both systems are capable of removing Chemical Oxygen Demand (COD) from different types of wastewaters. The aim of this study was to determine the percentage removal of Chemical Oxygen Demand (COD) at different concentration of domestic wastewater by using a HRB systems. This hybrid system was arranged in a serial stages consisting of a surface-flow (SF) bed, followed by a vertical-flow (VF) bed and finally by a horizontal-flow (HF) bed. In the present study, the performance of the HRB on domestic wastewater, particularly on COD, with and without plants was investigated. It is observed that the planted system with Scirpus grossus had performed better than the unplanted system. The result shows that the COD removal varied between 60 and 92%, depending on the loading rates (53-86 mg/L/day). The treatment system was operated for three months in the continuous flow process. Based on the results, it can be concluded that the HRB system ensures a more stable removal of organic pollutants (COD) from domestic wastewaters.