The effects of void on natural ventilation performance in multi-storey housing

Enhancing natural ventilation performance in multi-storey housing is very important for the living environment in terms of health and thermal comfort purposes. One of the most important design strategies to enhance natural ventilation in multi-storey housing is through the provision of voids. A void is a passive architectural feature, which is located in the middle of deep plan buildings. It is very crucial to consider the configurations of voids in the buildings for enhancing natural ventilation, especially for multi-storey housing. In this study, Malaysian Medium Cost Multi-Storey Housing (MMCMSH), which is an example of multi-storey housing located in a suburban area,has been selected in this study. This study aims to investigate the potential of void for enhancing natural ventilation performance in multi-storey housing by the comparison of two different void configurations. Field measurement of MMCMSH has been conducted to validate Computational Fluid Dynamic (CFD) model and Atmospheric Boundary Layer (ABL) is an important parameter for setting up the CFD Model’s domain. Ventilation rate (Q), which is necessary for comfort and health reasons, is an important parameter for the comparison of the different void configurations. This study revealed that the provision of void can enhance natural ventilation performance in multi-storey housing with an increase in the value of Q, from 3.44% to 40.07%, by enlarging the void’s width by 50% compared to the existing void

Transforming Physical Hands-on Laboratory Practice to Remote Laboratory Experimentation : A COVID-19 Experience

KNS 2601 is a laboratory course for Hydraulics and Geotechnical taught to Second-year students. The course exposes students to the technical background of hydraulics and geotechnical standard tests. Students are expected to comprehend and apply the principles of analysis and the scope of works in the hydraulics and geotechnical field. It is aimed to enhance students understanding from hands-on experience through standardized procedure and equipment provided in the laboratory. The experiments conducted are open-ended laboratory experimentations, where students need to come out with their own procedure and hypothesis. The course covers the psychomotor domain of P4 (Mechanism) and Critical Thinking (CT) skills. However, due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the instructors needed to outline a practical solution that could satisfy the outlined learning outcomes and expected taxonomies as quickly as possible. The pandemic hit us during the mid-semester break, when most students have completed half of the laboratory experiments (total of eight laboratory sessions) – leaving the course half-finished. Hence, a digitalbased learning experience with an introduction to virtual laboratory practice was introduced. Demonstration videos were prepared for students to access and ‘experience’ the experiments whilst not being physically present in the laboratory

Factors associated with asymptomatic COVID-19 patients in Petaling District, Selangor, Malaysia

The rapid spread of the Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) worldwide has led the World Health Organization to declare COVID-19 outbreak as a pandemic on March 11, 2020. As the local studies on factors leading to the absence or presence of clinical illness among the COVID-19 cases are sparse, the study aims to determine the factors associated with asymptomatic COVID-19 patients in Petaling District, Selangor, Malaysia. Data on COVID-19 patients were extracted from the database of confirmed cases in Petaling District Health Office, Selangor, Malaysia from 3rd February 2020 to 30th April 2020. An asymptomatic laboratory-confirmed case is a person infected with COVID-19 who does not develop any symptoms. The study included socio-demographic variables, the detailed information on clinical manifestations and co-morbidity of the patients. Descriptive and multiple logistic regression analyses were conducted to determine the factors associated with asymptomatic patients. The overall COVID-19 patients in Petaling District were 434. Approximately 70% (n= 292) of the patients were symptomatic while 32.7% (n= 142) were asymptomatic. Multivple logistic regression analyses revealed that factors significantly associated with asymptomatic patients were age below 40 years old (aOR: 1.79, 95% CI 1.11, 2.86), non-Malaysians (aOR: 3.22, 95% CI 1.44, 7.19) and local cases (aOR: 2.51, 95% CI 1.42, 4.42). Gender, ethnicity, co-morbidity and township were not significantly associated with asymptomatic patients. Approximately one-third of COVID-19 patients were asymptomatic and the risk factors identified were younger age, non-Malaysians and local cases. Rigorous epidemiological investigation is helpful in identifying COVID-19 cases among these group of people who are asymptomatic

Energy efficiency and Use of renewable energy for residential buildings - code of practice

This Malaysian Standard was developed by the Working Group on Architecture and Passive Design Strategy under the authority of the Industry Standards Commitee on Building, Construction and Civil Engineering

Women in construction boots: the enabling factors from the perspective of female adolescents

Shortage of local skilled workers still exists in the construction industry of Malaysia and this in general may affect its sustainability in the long term if the problem is allowed to continue. Presently, the main contractors have to employ foreign workers from less developed countries in order to fulfil the needs of manual manpower. However, the employment of foreign workers is not the solution which the country should adopt as their presence brings a lot of socio-economic problems. It is suggested that the industry should not only attract local male youth but start to encourage female to become construction skilled workers to widen up the pool of talents. The present paper reports the findings from a survey conducted among female adolescents in Selangor, Malaysia in order to have some understanding on what is the important factors that may attract female adolescents to consider to become construction skilled workers. A factor analysis has been performed and it is suggested that the policy makers should focus on these six important factors namely conviction, satisfaction, recognition, value, support and qualification factors in order to encourage more female local youth to become construction skilled worker

CFD modeling of natural ventilation in a void connected to the living units of multi-storey housing for thermal comfort

The void has been widely used in the multi-storey housing to induce natural ventilation in the living units for health and thermal comfort purposes. This research investigates the provision of the void to enhance natural ventilation performance in the living units of multi-storey housing. Malaysian affordable multi-storey housing (MAMSH), which is located in Malaysian suburban areas have been selected. The methods employed by the research are field measurement and computer simulation using CFD software. This study revealed that the indoor air velocity (m/s) in the living units of the studied building did not achieve the required rate for thermal comfort. However, by enlarging its size to 50% of the living units, natural ventilation performance in the living units is increased by up to 50.88%. The appropriate configuration of void been recommended based on the findings and venturi effect principle. This research contributes to the development of knowledge in enhancing natural ventilation performance in buildings. The suggestions might help the building industries to provide better designs option to enhance natural ventilation performance in the living units of multi-storey housing by providing an appropriate configuration of the void, and in turn, a sustainable living environment can be established

Outbreak of melioidosis and leptospirosis co-infection following a rescue operation

We analyzed the epidemiological data of all people who were involved in the search and rescue operation in Lubuk Yu, a natural recreational forest with waterfall and stream. The hospital admission records of the cases who fulfilled the case definition and the environmental samples result taken at Lubuk Yu recreational area were studied. 153 people were exposed to this outbreak, 85 (55.5%) were professional rescuers from various government agencies and 68 (44.5%) were villagers. 21 fulfilled the case definition. Ten cases were confirmed melioidosis, six melioidosis alone and four coinfected with leptospirosis. There were eight deaths in this outbreak, seven were villagers and one professional rescuer. Overall case fatality was 70%. All confirmed melioidosis cases and seven who died had diabetes mellitus. The morbidity rate were higher among the villagers, 23.5% compared to professional rescuers, 5.9%. The case fatality rate were also higher in this group which was 100% compared to 33.3% in professional rescuers. The soil and water samples in Lubuk Yu recreational area were positive for leptospira and Burkholderia pseudomallei. The presence of co-infection and co-morbidities especially diabetes mellitus among the exposed led to the high mortality in this outbreak hence a high index of suspicion is important among the healthcare professionals in the management of melioidosis cases. To avoid similar incident in future, search and rescue operation should be only conducted by professional rescuers with appropriate personal protective equipment. A register of rescuers should be maintained for surveillance and follow up if necessary