Assessing and comparing PM10 pollutant behaviour using functional data approach

This study highlights the advantage of functional data approach in assessing and comparing the PM10 pollutant behaviour as an alternative statistical approach during and between the two extreme haze years (1997 and 2005) that have been reported in Selangor, state of Malaysia. The aim of the study was to improvise the current conventional methods used in air quality assessment so that any unforeseen implicit information can be revealed and the previous research findings can be justified. An analysis based on the daily diurnal curves in place of discrete point values was performed. The analysis results provided evidences of the influence of the change in the climate (due to the El-Nino event), the different levels of different emission sources and meteorological conditions on the severity of the PM10 problem. By means of the cummulative exceedence index and the functional depth method, most of the monitoring stations for the year 2005 experienced the worst day of critical exceedences on the 10th of August, while for the year 1997 it occurred between 13th and 26th September inclusively at different dates among the stations

Influence of halloysite nanotubes hybridized with kenaf core fibers on the physical and mechanical properties of low density polyethylene/thermoplastic sago starch blends

In this work, halloysite nanotubes (HNTs) were hybridized with kenaf core fibers (KCF) to reinforce low density polyethylene (LDPE)/ thermoplastic sago starch (TPSS) blends. The effects of HNT loading (3–15wt.%) on the mechanical and physical properties were examined. The results showed an enhancement in tensile strength and modulus with the inclusion of HNTs. Formation of FTIR bands that are assigned to Al-OH and Si-O vibrations indicated the presence of HNTs in the system. Moreover, the thermal stability of hybrid compo- sites was improved with the addition of HNTs. Water uptake decreased as higher amount of HNTs imparted to the hybrid composites

Incorporation of kenaf core fibers into low density polyethylene/thermoplastic sago starch blends exposed to natural weathering

The landfill disposal of a high volume of plastics that take a long time to decompose has led to a tremendous environmental problem. Incorporation of natural polymers and fibers into synthetic polymers accelerates the degradation rate by exposure to atmospheric agents such as sunlight, temperature and rainfall. In this work, thermoplastic sago starch (TPSS) and kenaf core fibers (KCF) from agricultural feed stocks were blended with low density polyethylene (LDPE) for natural weathering studies. The melt-mixed and compressed composite sheets had fiber loadings ranging from 0 to 40 wt.%, and were exposed to natural weathering conditions for a period of 3 and 6 months. The deterioration in mechanical, thermal, morphological and weight properties were investigated

Facility Management in Private Finance Initiative project in UTHM Pagoh Campus

Facility management (FM) in Private Finance Initiative (PFI) involved a long-time process and duration in improving the infrastructure and associating the facilities. FM will give a support role or service within an organisation that have been strategically integrated approach to operating, maintaining, improving, and adapting the buildings and supporting services in order to create natural environment. In a long-term relationship, facility management need to evolve to a higher strategic level in compliance with the organisation’s strategy. At the end of the process, it will achieve best value and performance on delivery of support services. In this research, direct observation has been done to analyze facility management provided in UTHM Pagoh Campus. Furthermore, the satisfaction level of building occupants also was investigated by using different measurement factors in a structured questionnaire to measure the effectiveness. Hence, the results concluded that the total overall satisfaction of users towards facility provided by private sector are mostly satisfied among building occupants. From the results obtained, outdoor area was ranked first out of eight measurement factors. An interview has been done in order to clarify the success of facility management. It can be summarized that all the facility supplied by private sector were meets Key Performance Indicators (KPIs), by meant it also need to improvise their services provision

Mechanical, Physical, Thermal And Biodegradability Studies Of Low Density Polyethylenethermoplastic Sago Starch Kenaf Core Flour Biocomposites

Permasalahan alam sekitar berkait dengan penggunaan plastik tipikal atau lebih dikenali sebagai polimer sintetik telah mengarahkan kepada penggunaan polimer terbiodegradasi dan pengisi semulajadi untuk menghasilkan satu gabungan komposit terdegradasi. Usaha kini dijalankan dalam menghasilkan komposit yang sedemikian dengan menggunakan kanji sagu termoplastik (TPSS) dan pengisi teras kenaf (KCF) di dalam polietilena berketumpatan rendah (LDPE). Dalam kajian ini, kesan nisbah adunan, rawatan pengisi semulajadi dan penghibridan dengan pengisi mineral bukan organik terhadap sifat mekanikal, fizikal, termal dan ciri-ciri terbiodegradasi telah dikaji. Pertama sekali, komposit LDPE/TPSS/KCF yang mengandungi 0-40 % berat TPSS dan 0-40 phr KCF telah disediakan dengan menggunakan kaedah pencampuran adunan lebur dan pengacuanan mampatan. Penambahan 10 % berat TPSS bersama 10 phr KCF telah menghasilkan kekuatan tegangan tertinggi. Persamaan kimia diantara TPSS dan KCF telah membentuk ikatan hidrogen seperti yang ditunjukkan pada spectrum IR dan interaksi tersebut menunjukkan lekatan antara muka yang lebih baik dikesan melalui morfologi SEM. Malah, penambahan kedua-dua TPSS dan KCF, juga menunjukkan peningkatan terhadap kestabilan termal dan meningkatkan peratusan penyerapan air disebabkan sifat hidrofilik mereka. Kesan pemerosotan komposit disebabkan oleh pendedahan kepada pencuacaan semulajadi boleh dilihat dengan penurunan keseluruhan sifat-sifat tegangan akibat penambahan TPSS dan KCF. Spektrum IR seterusnya mengesahkan yang foto-degradasi berlaku dengan kemunculan puncak karbonil (C=O). Begitu juga, ciri-ciri tegangan, FTIR, SEM dan kehilangan berat oleh sampel yang ditanam di dalam tanah membuktikan bahawa berlakunya aktiviti degradasi sepanjang waktu yang telah ditentukan. Berikutnya, kesan cantuman kopolimer metil metakrilat terhadap KCF serta pemuatan mereka di dalam komposit telah diperiksa. KCF tercantum menunjukkan darjah penguatan yang boleh menambah kekuatan tegangan, khususnya pada pembebanan sebanyak 10 phr dan ini dibuktikan oleh SEM morfologi yang menunjukkan lekatan matriks pada permukaan pengisi. Keputusan FTIR juga mengesahkan bahawa, KCF tercantum membentuk kumpulan karbonil ester yang di kenal pasti menghubungkan pengisi dan matriks. Seterusnya, KCF tercantum menunjukkan penurunan sifat-sifat tegangan komposit yang kecil walaupun terdedah kepada cuaca. Walaubagaimanapun, mereka masih terdedah kepada degradasi kerana kehadiran sejumlah kecil monomer dan ia disahkan oleh FTIR, SEM dan keputusan kehilangan berat. Akhir sekali, pengaruh penambahan pengisi mineral bukan organik (iaitu bentonit dan haloisit) di dalam komposit pada pelbagai pembebanan (3-15 phr) telah dinilai. Penambahan pengisi meningkatkan kekuatan tegangan sehingga pembebanan 12 phr. Bila pembebanan pengisi melebihi 12 phr, kekuatan tegangan semakin merosot. Sehubungan dengan itu, sifat termal komposit ternyata lebih stabil dengan penambahan pengisi silikat. Pendedahan kepada pencuacaan semulajadi telah menyebabkan kemerosotan sifat tegangan secara berterusan pada sampel komposit dengan haloisit berbanding sampel kawalan. Kecenderungan yang sama telah diperoleh daripada sampel yang ditanam di dalam tanah. Tahap perosotan degradasi telah disahkan dengan pembentukan liang-liang yang lebih besar dan rekahan serta kehilangan berat yang banyak. _______________________________________________________________________________________________________ Environmental problems associated with the use of typical plastics or so called synthetic polymers have direct to the utilization of biodegradable polymer and natural fiber for producing a degradable composite. The efforts currently are underway in producing such composites with the use of thermoplastic sago starch (TPSS) and kenaf core fillers (KCF) in the low density polyethylene (LDPE). In this work, the effect of blend ratio, treatment of natural filler and hybridization with inorganic mineral fillers on the mechanical, physical, thermal and biodegradability properties of composites were studied. Firstly, the LDPE/TPSS/KCF composites containing 0-40 wt. % of TPSS and 0-40 phr KCF were prepared by using melt-blended mixing and compression molding method. The addition of 10 wt. % of TPSS as well as 10 phr KCF had resulted the highest tensile strength. Chemical similarity of TPSS and KCF formed hydrogen bonding as shown in IR spectra and such interaction indicated better interfacial adhesion detected by SEM morphology. As such, the addition of both TPSS and KCF showed an improvement in thermal and has boosted up the water absorption percentages due to their hydrophilic nature. The deteriorating impact of composites due to exposure to natural weathering can be seen with the collapse of overall tensile properties upon addition of TPSS and KCF. The IR spectra is further confirming the photo-degradation occurred with the appearance of carbonyl (C=O) peaks. Likewise, tensile properties, FTIR, SEM and weight loss of soil burial samples also proved the degradation activities over a predetermined time. Next, the effects of graft copolymerization of methyl methacrylate (MMA) onto KCF as well as their loading on the composites were examined. Grafted KCF is found to be a promising reinforcement to augment the tensile strength, particularly at 10 phr loading and this is evidenced by the adhesion of matrices onto the filler surface in SEM morphology. This is further confirmed by FTIR results whereby grafted KCF formed ester carbonyl groups which are assumed to provide linkage between filler and matrix.Subsequently, the tensile properties of composites with grafted KCF are somehow slightly retained upon exposure to weathering. However, they are still susceptible to degradation due to the presence of monomer and it is verified by FTIR, SEM and weight loss. Lastly, the influences of inorganic mineral filler (halloysite clay) incorporation into the composites at various loadings (3-15 phr) were evaluated. Addition of filler raised the tensile strength up to 12 phr loading. When the filler is loaded beyond 12 phr, the strength tended to decline. Correspondingly, the composites became thermally stable upon inclusion of this silicate fillers. Upon weathering, composite samples with halloysite results a progressive decay in tensile properties compared to the control samples. Similar tendency was obtained from soil burial samples. The severity of deterioration upon degradation was confirmed by the formation of the larger pores and cracks as well as greater weight loss

TRIBOLOGICAL PROPERTIES OF HYBRID COMPOSITES BASED ON WOVEN CARBON FIBER/FINE KENAF FABRIC REINFORCED EPOXY MATRIX FOR AUTOMOTIVE APPLICATION

The demand for a combination of materials that satisfy the requirements of the world market has been exponentially growing in recent years. It is predicted that the upcoming years will guarantee a significant evolution of new classification of hybrid composite materials. The exploration of applicable alternatives to minimize the usage of synthetic fibers have led to the concepts of using both kinds of fibers as reinforcements to thermoset polymers. These highlight the fact that kenaf fibers are an emerging partial substitute to carbon fibers as reinforcements in polymer composites. Despite this interest, limited attention has been devoted to the quality of textile architecture of kenaf fabrics which eventually affects the overall properties of the laminated composites. The true challenge is to obtain more balanced properties in the fabric plane which can be achieved by appropriate fiber-matrix adhesion. Hence, using appropriate fabrication techniques the fundamental mechanisms of hybrid composites under different processing parameters and loading conditions may be understood and determined. In this work, interlacing layer hybrid composites were fabricated using vacuum infusion technique at which woven carbon and kenaf fibres were used as reinforcing agents with epoxy matrix. The volume fraction of fibre and thickness of hybrid composites varied from 40 vol.% to 50 vol.% and 3mm to 5 mm, respectively. In addition, four different sequences (CCCCC, KKKKK, KCKCK, CKCKC) were introduced. Mechanical testing including tensile test and flexural test were carried out according to ASTM D3039 and ASTM D790, respectively. Scanning Electron Microscope and Optical Microscope were used to determine the mode of failures in both tensile and flexural tests of carbon/kenaf hybrid composites. The optimization of mechanical properties was done using Design of Expert (DOE). Consequently, dry sliding wear and friction test was performed using Pin-On-Disc Tester. Under sliding conditions (applied loads and sliding speeds), the composite parameters (stacking sequences and compositions) greatly affected the tribological properties (coefficient of friction and wear rate) of these types of hybrid composites

Intelligent lamp system / Norshahida Abd Karim

Many people nowadays concern about the technology that can help or make their life easier especially at home. This project is about an Intelligent Lamp System, which capture an image using a LinkSprite JPEG Color Camera after receiving a signal from Long Analog Distance Sensor, process it, store the image and then turn LED on. A prototype of the lamp assistance system based on the proposed architecture was constructed here. The adopted hardware, software and implementation solutions in this prototype construction are described in this project. The effective image processing technique is used which is to convert hex code into a JPEG image. The design of home model by using AutoCAD and SketchUp software is also described in this project

Effect of oregano essential on the properties of mango kernel starch films

The mango kernel starch (MKS) - glycerol (GLY) films were prepared via solution casting method. The blend ratio of MKS and GLY was fixed at 1:1 wt. %, while the composition of oregano essential oil (OEO) was varied from 0, 0.3, 0.4, 0.5, and 0.6 wt. %. In this study, the effect of OEO on mechanical, morphological and biodegradable properties of MKS - GLY films were evaluated. From the analysis, the optimum tensile strength of MKS – GLY film was obtained at 1.10 MPa, while the addition of 0.4 wt. % OEO to MKS – GLY film resulted in optimum tensile properties, which give a smooth surface with less voids, as presented in the micrographs by scanning electron microscope (SEM). Moreover, the addition of 0.4 wt. % OEO to MKS – GLY film exhibited minimum weight loss during soil burial test, thus confirmed the function of OEO as an antimicrobial agent