Assessment of FEMA356 nonlinear static procedure and modal pushover analysis for seismic evaluation of buildings

Nonlinear static analysis as an essential part of performance based design is now widely used especially at design offices because of its simplicity and ability to predict seismic demands on inelastic response of buildings. Since the accuracy of nonlinear static procedures (NSP) to predict seismic demands of buildings affects directly on the entire performance based design procedure, therefore lots of research has been performed on the area of evaluation of these procedures. In this paper, one of the popular NSP, FEMA356, is evaluated and compared with modal pushover analysis. The ability of these procedures to simulate seismic demands in a set of reinforced concrete (RC) buildings is explored with two level of base acceleration through a comparison with benchmark results determined from a set of nonlinear time history analyses. According to the results of this study, the modal pushover analysis procedure estimates seismic demands of buildings like inter story drifts and hinges plastic rotations more accurate than FEMA356 procedure

CRITICAL SUCCESS FACTORS THAT INFLUENCING SAFETY PROGRAM PERFORMANCE IN MALAYSIAN CONSTRUCTION PROJECTS: CASE STUDIES

The construction industry is characterized as one with a poor safety culture globally. To achieve better site safety performance, emphasis has been placed on implementing effective safety programs. The main aim of this paper is to identify the Critical Success Factors that influencing safety program performance in Malaysian construction projects. In order to accomplish the aim of this study, the following objective was taken into consideration which is to study the factors contributing to the success of implementing safety program in construction projects. The study was carried out within Penang and Kedah States; it was basically focused on the respondents who involve in construction. Of 40 sets questionnaires were distributed, only 36 sets questionnaire returned and analyzed. After all the raw data obtained, the data were then inputted and analyzed with the software of Statistical Package for the Social Sciences (SPSS, version 17). The results of this study showed that good communication shall be treated as the most important factor, followed by clear and realistic goals, safety committee/safety officer, sufficient resource allocation and continuous participation of employee. On the other hand, work load/pressure was perceived as the least important factors. Apparently, these five factors have been given appropriate consideration in the construction sites and should be implied if it is not emphasized in construction industry in Malaysia.CSFs; Safety programme, Construction projects, Malaysia

Safety climate among contractor organizations

Understanding the safety climate of a contractor organization with regard to safety and risk in the workplace will provide the overview of the current safety culture of that organization. The perceptions and attitudes of the workforce are important factors in assessing safety need to facilitate workplace safety improvement. Safety performance may fail if they do not take into account these current attitudes and perceptions. The aim of this study is to examine the factors and assessment of safety climate in contractor organizations. This study utilizes questionnaires survey to gauge employee attitudes and perceptions using several attitudes dimensions. The full employee attitude survey questionnaire were divided into two sections consists of 49 statements. The responses of this study were quiet encouraging with 60% participants responded. However, only 38 valid questionnaires sets were subject to analysis. The findings indicated that there are many factors and indicators of safety climate that had been found from the review of literature. There is no agreement on the number of factors required in the safety climate measurements, or which factors are the most effective. From the review of safety climate factors, the most frequently measured dimensions are related to management, safety systems and risk, followed by work pressure and competence and rules/procedures. On the assessment of the contractor safety climate, all the total average scores for each dimension are in level of satisfactory with score ranging from 6.48 to 8.04. Also all the safety climate dimensions show scores in the satisfactory values with score above six (6) for the system interfaces of the contractor organizations by safety climate matrix. Hence, those contractor organizations have the positive safety climate toward safety in their workplace

Solar/wind pumping system with forecasting in Sharjah, United Arab Emirates

This paper demonstrates a water pumping hybrid power system design. The proposed system was designed for water related applications in Sharjah (Latitude 25.29 °N and Longitude 55 °E), United Arab Emirates. The proposed water hybrid system has two primary renewable power systems: solar PV panels and wind turbines. The proposed hybrid system considers the changes in weather conditions (humidity, wind speed, and temperature) since wind speed affects the performance of the wind turbines and solar panels are affected by solar irradiance. The following components are involved in the proposed design: battery (to store the power from solar panels), voltage regulator circuit (for getting stable DC voltage), three-phase rectifier (to convert the reduced AC voltage to DC), three-phase transformer (for reducing the obtained AC voltage), and DC electric motor (the main output of the proposed water pumping system). The proposed water pumping system relies on neural network blocks to achieve weather forecasting by obtaining solar irradiance values from the input temperature, wind speed, and humidity in a span of five years. Both MATLAB and Simulink are used simulate the performance of the proposed system under different weather conditions by changing the values according to the measured weather conditions values over five years

Hybrid solar/wind/diesel water pumping system in Dubai, United Arab Emirates

This paper proposes a hybrid power system design for water pumping system in Dubai (Latitude 25.25 °N and Longitude 55 °E), United Arab Emirates using solar photovoltaic (PV) panels, wind turbines, and diesel generator. The proposed design considers the changes in weather conditions (humidity percentage, temperature in celsius, and wind speed in m/s) that directly affect solar irradiance values which alter the performance of the hybrid system. The proposed design deals with the problem of rare rainy days in Dubai between December and March and the high temperature throughout the year since that makes providing water to rural and isolated zones essential. The proposed system uses voltage regulator to maintain stable DC voltage from the solar power system, battery bank to store the voltage from solar PV panels, three-phase rectifier to convert the AC voltage from wind power system to DC, three-phase step-down transformers to reduce the AC voltage of the wind turbine and diesel generator, and DC electric motor for water pumping output. The system used neural network for solar irradiance forecasting over an interval of 10 years (from 2009 to 2019). The proposed system will be demonstrated using Simulink to show the stability and performance under different weather conditions

DELAYS FACTORS IN CONSTRUCTION PROJECTS DEVELOPMENT: THE CASE OF KLANG VALLEY, MALAYSIA

The problem of project delays in construction industry is a global phenomenon; Malaysia is no exceptional. Delays are always considered as costly to all parties involved in the project and very often it will results in dispute, claims, total abandonment and blight the feasibility for project owners and retard the development of construction industry. Therefore, the objectives of this paper are to identify the main causes and contributor to the project delays because delays can be minimized only when their causes are identified. Moreover, it is also aimed to investigate the most critical stage throughout the process of project development pertaining to the project delays as well as to recommend various methods that could be adopted by the construction industry players to mitigate the problems. In order to achieve the said objectives, a total of twenty one factors of delays which was then grouped under owner related, contractor related and consultant related delay factors and ten methods to mitigate the project delays were based on literature review. The structural questionnaires were distributed to the targeted respondents in Klang Valley, Malaysia. The findings from this paper shown that owner’s slow in decision making was perceived to be the most significant factor and main causes to the project delays. All of the respondents claimed that working drawing stage being the most critical stage in governing all of these owner’s related delay factors. Besides that, the contractor is deemed to be the main contributor to the project delays in Malaysia construction industry. It is assumed by all of the respondents that the contractor should be responsible for any delays at the construction stage which is considered as the most critical stage in governing the project delays. In order to mitigate the project delays, awarding bids to the right and experience contractor was suggested to be the utmost effective solution in resolving those contractor’s related delay factors.CSFs; Project delay, construction industry, construction project development, mitigates delays, Malaysia

Measurement of Nitrogen Fixed by Pueraria Phaseloides by N-15 Dilution Technique

A field experiment was carried out to determine the amount of nitrogen fixed by Pueraria phaseloides which was grown as a cover in the interrow of two-year old oil palms (Elaeis guineensis) in Seafield Estate, Batu Tiga, Selangor. The grasses that were found growing together with the legume cover were Paspalum congugatum and Ottochloa nodosa. Plots of 1 m by 1 m were randomly selected within the inter rows of the palms to give various mixtures of grass and legume. These plots were cut at 5 cm above the ground, and applied with 2 g Nlm 2 as ammonium sulphate enriched with 10% atom excess N-15. The regrowth of the legume and grass were harvested after three months, and analysed for total N and N-15 enrichment of the tissues. The. results show that there were significant differences in total N fixed by Peurana mixed with different percentages of grass. At 0 - 40% legume composition, the total N fixed by Peurana was 9.20 kg lha/3 months and increased to 22.34 and 37.80 kgIhal3 months at 41 - 60% and 61 - 80% respectively. Total N fixed at 81 - 100% legume composition was 22. 73 kg lha/3 months. The maximum amount of N fixed by Peuraria was when the mixture contained about 80% legume standing

Environmental Engineering (Laboratory)

This module will give the students an understanding of the Environmental Engineering (Laboratory) for the course DAC 12203 offered by the Centre of Diploma Studies (CeDS), Universiti Tun Hussein Onn Malaysia (UTHM)

DAC 12203 Environmental Engineering (Lecture Notes)

This module will give the students an understanding of the Environmental Engineering for the course DAC 12203 offered by the Centre of Diploma Studies (CeDS), Universiti Tun Hussein Onn Malaysia (UTHM

Partisipasi Masyarakat Dalam Pelestarian Mangrove Di Desa Bumbulan Kecamatan Paguat

Penelitian bertujuan untuk mengetahui bagaimana partisipasi  masyarakat dalam  pelestarian mangrove di Desa Bumbulan Kecamatan Paguat. Jenis Penelitian ini menggunakan penelitian kualitatif deskriptif, dan teknik pengumpulan data menggunakan observasi, wawancara  dan dokumentasi. Temuan dilapangan menunjukan  bahwa partisipasi masyarakat dalam pelestarian mangrove di Desa Bumbulan dikatakan baik yaitu berupa partisipasi dalam pengambilan keputusan, partisipasi dalam pelaksanaan, partisipasi dalam pengambilan manfaat, dan partisipasi dalam evaluasi. Berdasarkan hasil penelitian menunjukan bahwa yang paling dominan terhadap partisipasi masyarakat dalam pelestarian mangrove yaitu partisipasidalam pengambilan manfaat karenadengan adanya pelestarian mangrove masyarakat bisa membuat bagian dari tanaman  mangrove sebagai hasil yang bisa bermanfaat bagi masyarakat