THE STUDY ON THE SOIL HEAT TRANSFER CHARACTERISTICS FOR THE DEVELOPMENT OF A COST-SAVING UNDERGROUND AIR COOLING SYSTEM

The soil heat transfer characteristics are important aspect when dealing with construction in contact with the soil. For example, in order to build a good cool and comfortable home, we should build it floors, walls and ceiling using highest conductivity materials internally and highest insulation material externally. This can also be applied for buried ducting in various type of soils. Buy knowing the thermal effects of the buried pipe, we can predict the consequence of burying different materials of pipe underneath different materials of soil. In this study, the thermal characteristics of various soil types i.e. sand, peat soil, loam soil, powdery soil as external material, combined with the metals i.e Aluminium, stainless steel, carbon steel, copper for internal materials. The test rig is designed such a way that the cross combinations of the above materials can be carried out easily. There are 5 types of soil thermal characteristics were studied in this research, they are peat soil, fine and course sandy soil, loam soil and organic soil. As example the combination of copper pipe with the porous soil or the combination of the carbon steel pipe underneath the lateritic soil. The test results show that with the increase of soil thermal conductivity, the heat in the metal ducting can be drained out faster to the earth hence cooling down the temperature in the ducting. From the thermal conductivity test for six types of soil using proctor test is peat soil and organic soil: 0.4499 W / (m.K), second is stone yellow soil: 0.4424 W / (m.K), following the loam soil: 0.4275 W / (m.K), fine sandy soil: 0.37019 W / (m.K) and coarse sandy soil: 0.349 W / (m.K). The thermal conductivity experiment of six type of soil via laboratory experiment is peat soil: 0.4699 W/mK

Mechanical Design and Analysis of All‐terrain Mobile Robot

This paper presents the conceptual mechanical analysis of the all-terrain mobile robot (AMoBo). The locomotion concept for all-terrain mobile robot is based on six independent motorized wheels. The mobile robot has a steering wheel in the front and the rear, and two wheels arranged on a bogie on each side. The front wheel has a spring suspension to guarantee optimal ground contact of all wheels at any time. The steering of the vehicle is realized by synchronizing the steering of the front and rear wheels and the speed difference of the bogie wheels. A prototype AMoBo was designed and fabricated. The developed prototype is about 66 cm in length and 23 cm in height. Testing size results show that the prototype able to overcome obstacles of same height as its wheel diameter and can climb stairs with step height of over 10 cm. Finite element analysis was used to analyse and verify the strength of each critical part of AMoBo. The base plate appeared to be the critical part with the highest shear stress and the lowest safety factor

Exploration to find green building materials from recycled solid wastes

This research studied the properties and the production of thermal insulation materials from recycled solid waste and their applications in residential house construction. Recycled materials that were used as specimens are aluminum, plastic, bagasse, textile, oil palm leaves, twigs, paper, corn cob, rubber, coconut husk, coconut shell, granite, wood, iron, glass, kenaf, and concrete. The specimens were produced by using composite method with epoxy solution as the binder to the loose grain of recycle waste material. Experimental method of the specimens has also been discussed in this project which is by recording the temperature of each specimen in several time periods and apply the data in the Fourier’s equation to determine heat transfer rate. This project therefore discussed mainly about theory of heat transfer which consist of conduction and radiation. From the research, it is found that textile, oil palm leaves, kenaf, coconut shell, twigs, paper, and coconut fiber are good insulator. Since the quantity of oil palm leaves and textile are abundantly available and have longer life span as compared to the rest, the oil palm leaves and textile are selected to be the based materials for the building insulation

DEVELOPING ENTREPRENEURIAL LEADERSHIP STYLES IN IMPROVING SMIs MANUFACTURING BUMIPUTERA TECHNOPRENEURS PERFORMANCE IN MELAKA

Understanding developing the effectiveness entrepreneurial leadership styles were important for theoretical and practical reasons because Bumiputera technopreneurial leaders were the individual that need to lead small and medium industries (SMIs) in today‟s innovative and dynamic market in Melaka. The objective of this study was to examine the developing effective entrepreneurial leadership styles in impoving SMIs manufacturing bumiputera technopreneurs performance in Melaka. The research had identified the certain personality traits, behaviors, competencies technopreneurial leaders. There were positive and significant relationship between entrepreneurial leadership styles namely transformational leadership style, transactional leadership style and charismatic style with entrepreneurial leaders‟ personality traits, entrepreneurial leaders‟ behaviours, entrepreneurial leaders‟ competencies, entrepreneurial leaders‟ monitoring companies‟ operation and entrepreneurial leaders‟ monitoring companies‟ performance. The analysis shown that Bumiputera technopreneurial leaders and entrepreneurial leaders‟ monitoring operation and performance among the Bumiputera can use it‟s to evaluate SMIs success and ventures success. Also practitioners of high-risk lending may be interested in methods of assessing entrepreneurial leadership that can be introduced into their risk calculus and potentially improve the likelihood of higher returns of their venture in investments. Thus, charismatic leadership style was found most highly related to entrepreneurial leaders‟ personality traits, entrepreneurial leaders‟ behaviours, entrepreneurial leaders‟ competencies, entrepreneurial leaders‟ monitoring companies‟ operation and entrepreneurial leaders‟ monitoring companies‟ performance followed by transactional leadership style and transformational leadership style. The conclusion, the research had provide insights for team building in executives‟ teams of SMIs, for example providing guidance in finding team members that can make unique contributions via their personality traits, behaviors, competencies and ways to monitor SMIs operation and performance. Suggestions of the research can be used as a guide to present and future SMIs technopreneurs regarding developing the effectiveness entrepreneurial leadership style that have to be practiced to become successful Bumiputera technopreneurial leader in Melaka

Design and Development of A Vertical Wind Turbine Using Slow Wind Speed for Mini Power Generation

Wind energy can be changed into other forms of energy, either mechanical or electrical energy. To convert the kinetic energy into electricity, the wind turbines, which consists rotor blades, shaft and electricity generator is needed. Rotor blade is the most important part because when the wind forces the blades to move, it will transfer most of its energy to the rotor. Then the rotor transfers its mechanical, rotational energy to the shaft, whereby it is connected to the center of the rotor before enters an electrical generator on the other end. The aim of this study is to investigate the possibility of improving wind energy capture, under low wind speed conditions using various blade configurations. This paper deals with the results of the first part of the study which is the development of the methodology using physical test rig and computer modeling using commercial computational fluid dynamics (CFD) code. This study focuses mainly on analyzing the efficiency of the energy conversion and torque coefficients in relation to the tip speed ratio of wind turbine. For the overall performance, the results show that the output power produced by the wind turbine has great potential to be used in the slow wind region in the range of 5 to 10 km/hr

Effect Of Heat Treatment On Microstructure And Mechanical Properties Of Az61 Magnesium Alloys

Magnesium alloys have been increasingly considered as an attractive material in the transportation industry. Extruded magnesium alloys have been found in the center of interest combining their lightweight, surface quality with the wide range of possible achievable geometries. In this study, the AZ61 alloy has been chosen for investigation as one of the most common commercial magnesium wrought alloys. The microstructure change and Mgl7AI2 precipitate in the alloy had been investigated and its influence on hardness had been studied. After primary microstructure characterization and mechanical testing in the as-extruded condition the specimens have been subjected to heat treatment to the temperature 400°C for one hour followed by quenching in the water. Specimens treated were found to have a coarse grain, homogeneous structure with a substantial increase in grain size. Then the specimens are aged at temperature 200°C for half and two hours followed by quench in the water. Optical observations reveal Mg17AI2 precipitations grow in the form of needle shape within the grain after two hour aging. The hardness and mechanical properties of the AZ61 magnesium alloy is also found to increase owing to secondary hardening by precipitation strengthening

Modeling of electrical properties in the fabrication of layered superconducting thin films

The Pulse laser deposition (PLD) is a sole tool that is used to develop fine quality superconducting (YBCO) epitaxial films. The description and devices application aspect of the PLD on high temperature superconducting epitaxial films have an important role in the field of superconductivity. In the present study, thin films fabrication by PLD, buffer layers and electrical properties have been probed numerically with computer simulations. The electrical transport properties are discussed in term of thermally-activated flux motion model. The present study concludes that the plume dynamics is important in fabricating high quality epitaxial films thus improving the superconducting electrical transport properties

Mechanical Properties of UV Irradiated Bio Polymer Thin Films Doped With Titanium Dioxide

This study report on the effect of UV-light on the mechanical properties of bio polymer thin films (BPF) doped with 10% Titanium Dioxide(TiO2). Bio monomer was mixed with 4, 4'-methylenebis (phenylisocyanate) (MDI) to produce neat BPF and TiO2 was added to form BFP doped with 10% TiO2. The film samples were irridiated in UV accelerated Weathermeter at 50 degree C with different exposure time. Universal Testing machine was used to measure the tensil strength and the fracture surfaces of the tensile specimens were observed by scanning Electron Micrisopy (SEM)

Development of Low-Cost Solar Water Heater Using Recycled Solid Waste for Domestic Hot Water Supply

This research is focused on the development of a low-cost solar water heater (SWH) system by utilizing solid waste material as part of system elements. Available technologies of the solar water heater systems, heat collectors and its components were reviewed and the best system combinations for low cost design were chosen. The passive-thermosiphon system have been chosen due to its simplicity and independency on external power as well as conventional pump. For the heat collector, flat plate type was identified as the most suitable collector for low cost design and suits with Malaysia climate. Detail study on the flat plate collector components found that the heat absorber is the main component that can significantly reduce the solar collector price if it is replaced with recycled solid waste material. Review on common solid wastes concluded that crushed glass is a non-metal material that has potential to either enhance or become the main heat absorber in solar collector. A collector prototype were then designed and fabricated based on crashed glass heat collector media. Thermal performance test were conducted for three configurations where configuration A (black painted aluminum absorber) used as benchmark, configuration B (crushed glass added partially) that use glass for improvement, and lastly configuration C (black colored crushed glass) that use colored glass as main absorber. Result for configuration B have shown a negative effect where the maximum collector efficiency is 26.8% lower than configuration A. Nevertheless, configuration C which use black crushed glass as main heat absorber shown a comparable maximum efficiency which is at 82.5% of the maximum efficiency for configuration A and furthermore have shown quite impressive increment of efficiency at the end of the experiment. Hence, black colored crushed glass is said to have quite a good potential as the heat absorber material and therefore turn out to be a new contender to other non-metal heat absorber such as plastic and rubber