EDITORIAL : EMPOWERING INDUSTRY AND TRANSFORMING SOCIETY TOWARDS SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT

This special issue presents the selected peer-reviewed full-text papers from the 13th International UNIMAS Engineering Conference 2020 (EnCon 2020), which was successfully organised through an online platform on October 27-28, 2020 by the Faculty of Engineering of Universiti Malaysia Sarawak (UNIMAS), Malaysia, along with various prominent co-organizers, the Institution of Engineers, Malaysia (IEM), Swinburne University of Technology, Malaysia, SRM Institute of Science and Technology, India, the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE), Malaysia and Universiti Teknologi PETRONAS (UTP), Malaysia

Construction procurement framework incorporating form enhancement modules for the selection of standard form of contract in Malaysia

The research work here has produced a procurement selection framework to help and guide choice of an optimally, fit-for-purpose standard form of contract with enhancement modules for the Malaysian construction industry. The developed framework and guideline for standard form selection alongside relevant directed enhancement modules provide the Malaysian construction industry with a systematic, comprehensive and efficient guideline able to enhance existing local standard forms of construction contract

Comparative study of structural steel and reinforced concrete construction methods : a Malaysian case study

Structural steel construction is a rather common and frequently opted for construction method all around the world, especially in more developed countries. However, in Malaysia, steel construction is yet to be as popular, with the industry still greatly favoring traditional construction methods such as reinforced concrete construction. From this study, it is hoped that structural steel usage in Malaysia can be strengthened and all parties in the industry can take the time saving of construction aspect into more serious consideration when choosing their construction methods

Reviews of cases of construction disputes in Malaysia and its relation with standard form of construction contract

In Malaysia itself, the construction industry has well governed the economic trend and providing the pathway towards modernization. Construction industry is a huge process that involves many activities in different phases and participation of various professions. The complexity of this industry has made it closely linked to disputes. There are always possibilities of dispute occurrence even when almost all projects are governed by their respective contracts. This study is initiated to find the relationship of standard forms of contract with construction disputes. The focus of this study will be on the construction disputes litigation cases in Malaysia reported to the Current Law Journal (CLJ) between year 1999-2009. The secondary data for this study is obtained from questionnaire survey distributed throughout Malaysia, which looks into construction dispute cases that were not referred to formal law journals. Research findings identified that all projects are governed by standard forms and even though the parameters causing construction dispute are actually monitored by the standard form itself, disputes are not declining or effectively resolved, and hence, making the standard forms as one of the the major causes of construction disputes

OCCURRENCE AND IMPACT ANALYSIS FOR TIME-RELATED RISKS IN MALAYSIA PUBLIC INFRASTRUCTURE PROJECTS

The public works sector in Malaysia has generally executed construction projects that are highly complex, requiring multiple components and involving a large scale of resources and management. Many construction works are carried out in rural settings with challenges and constraints in terms of site access, transportation and material availability. Hence, the problem of timely delivery of projects persists. It is critical to identify and manage schedule-related risks rigorously to ensure a successful and timely project delivery which is a precursor for the nation’s sustainable development. This study, part of efforts to set up a Malaysia-based risk registry, involves the identification of key risks related to scheduling in Malaysia’s public works infrastructure projects and the analysis of their occurrences and impacts. A total of 111 of 123 projects from the Sarawak state’s Public Works Department are studied via the case study method. The selection of projects was based on whether a project’s completion date was extended due to the occurrences of delay events. The number of occurrences is calculated based on the number of times a delay event occurred in the 111 projects. The impact analysis is carried out based on the total delay over the overall project delay for a project. The findings show that the most frequently occurring risk in the 111 projects is “exceptionally inclement weather”, “whereas risks related to land blockage”, “obstructions by others and approval from other authorities” are risks that caused high severity in terms of delay in schedule. Information obtained from this research is part of key effort for risk data and knowledge retention and dissemination which can be used for further risk analysis for future construction projects

THE FEASIBILITY STUDY OF EVAPORATION COOLING USING POROUS MATERIALS

Human thermal comfort evaluation is essential to avoid heat illness and can be used as an indicator for city development and thermal manikin is one of the tools for it. In this paper, porous materials such as red clay, white clay and plaster are investigated for outdoor thermal comfort evaluation in developing sweating thermal manikin. Unglazed red clay and white clay pots are filled with water and covered with an aluminium foil. However, unglazed plaster pots are filled with absorbent cotton wool saturated with water. They are compared with control specimens (those without water filling). The weights of the pots are measured every hour to check the evaporation rate and the surface temperatures and ambient temperature of all pots are also measured. Based on the analysis, the rate of evaporation for the porous material increases as the ambient temperature increase. The surface temperature of control samples was slightly higher than the samples filled with water where the increase in ambient temperature raised the evaporation cooling effect. In comparison, the white clay pot with its porosity characteristics shows more consistent results. The outcome of this investigation can be used as a reference for the development of sweating thermal manikin to achieve sustainable cities statu

A 3-stage treatment system for domestic wastewater: Part II. Performance evaluation

A 3-stage micro-scale wastewater treatment system that consisted of 1) a spiral-framed human hair-based filter, 2) a plastic medium mixed flow biotower, and 3) a free surface water wetland system filled with Pistia Stratiotes (water lettuce) operating in series was recently developed and performance tests were conducted. Performance tests were carried out to determine the efficiencies of the system for removal of physically emulsified and free oils, organic matters such as biochemical oxygen demand, ammoniacal-nitrogen, suspended solids, and nutrients such as nitrogen, phosphorus and potassium from semi-synthetic wastewaters. From this study, it was found that the human hair-based filter could retain approximately 73.5% of physically emulsified oils, while the mixed flow biotower was capable of reducing approximately 35.0% biochemical oxygen demand, 57.4% ammoniacal-nitrogen, 51.8% nitrogen, 13.4% phosphorus, 21.8% potassium, and 21.9% reduction in turbidity. The Pistia Stratiotes-based free surface water wetland was found to remove approximately 24.1% biochemical oxygen demand, 30.6% ammoniacal-nitrogen, 38/0% nitrogen, 41.5% phosphorus, 46.7% potassium and 31.7% reduction in turbidity. When the mixed flow biotower and free surface water wetland system were to operate in series, the combined removal efficiencies were approximately 59.2% for biochemical oxygen demand, 87.9% for ammoniacal-nitrogen, 90.6% for nitrogen, 54.9% for phosphorus, 68.5% for potassium, and 59.0% reduction in turbidity. Experimental data also showed that daily uptake rates (mg/kg-day) of organics and nutrients by per kilogram of Pistia Stratiotes were approximately 1,731 mg for biochemical oxygen demand, 1,015 mg for ammoniacal-nitrogen, 1,206 mg for nitrogen, 1,468 mg for phosphorus, and 5,431 mg for potassium

Minimisation of Construction Waste Using the Principles of Waste Management

Construction industry being largest consumer of raw materials derived from natural resources also produces high amount of material waste that negatively impacts the environment . The building industry alone in Malaysia has reportedly generated approximately 25,600 tonnes of construction and demolition wastes daily due to rapid development. Therefore, any means of reducing material waste will not only result in significant cost savings within the projects but also reducing the pressure on the landfills and ease environmental concerns dealing with such waste conversion and recycling; and reduction. This study examines the causes and prevention of material waste in the construction specifically the building industry through the principles of waste management available. Questionnaires survey is the main tool deployed for data collection. The average and relative index were used to analyse the various aspects of the data collected. Stages of works used for the study include the material handling and storage stage; procurement of material stage; usage and operation of the material stage; and the design and documentation stage. The results indicate that respondents are aware of the concept of waste management but lack of awareness on the availability of such guidelines. It is hopeful that this study can improve on waste management implementation in order to uptake the principle of reduce, recycle and reuse material waste so as to reduce construction costs, provide good savings to the end users and improve the level of productivity of the nation