Seismic Hazard Assessment For Peninsular Malaysia Using Gumbel Distribution Method

This Paper Presents The Preliminary Study On Seismic Hazard Assessment Which Involved Developing Macrozonation Map For Two Hazard Levels, I.E. 10% And 2% Probabilities Of Exceedance In 50 Years For Bedrock Of Peninsular Malaysia. The Analysis Was Performed Using Statistic Theory Of Extreme Values From Gumbel. The Analysis Covered The Earthquake Data Processing (Such As Choosing A Consistent Magnitude To Be Used In The Analysis And Identifying Main Shock Events), And Selection Of Appropriate Attenuation Relationship. Results Showed That The Peak Ground Acceleration (PGA) Across The Peninsular Malaysia Range Between 10 And 25 Gal For 10% Probability Of Exceedance, And Between 15 And 35 Gal For 2% Probability Of Exceedance In 50 Years Hazard Levels. These Values Were Lower By About 50 To 65% Than Those Obtained From Deterministic Analysis

A Liquefaction Resistance of Sand-Fine Mixtures: Short Review with Current Research on Factors Influencing Liquefaction Resistance

Sand is well understood as susceptible material to liquefy under seismic condition. In many cases of liquefaction, the loss of property and damages occurred due to the earthquake phenomenon are caused by sandy soils. Thus, many laboratory experiments and field tests on soil liquefaction engineering have been mandatorily focusing on the liquefaction resistance of sand-fine mixtures. The interaction between sand and fines particles appears to be well studied subject. However, there are some contradictory findings on some factors influencing liquefaction resistance in sand-fine mixtures. Therefore, this paper aim to present results and current findings from previous researchers which focused on sand-fine mixtures using various type of sand to interpret liquefaction resistance and its behaviour. In addition, microstructure test needs to be conducted for verification and analysis of the results on grading and particle sizes characteristics. It has been identified that recent findings on the particle size distribution and grading characteristics of sand in sand-fine mixtures are still contradicting. It has also been found that there are no study using different types of sand to reconstitute tropical sand-fine mixtures; and limited study focused on the coefficient uniformity, CU and coefficient of curvature, CC on liquefaction resistance relationship

Properties of coal bottom ash from power plants in Malaysia and its suitability as geotechnical engineering material

Coal is one of the world’s most important sources of energy, fuelling almost 40% of electricity worldwide. Some power plants in Malaysia use coal as a raw material in generating the electricity since the year 1988. During the burning process of coal for the electricity generation, coal waste is produced which includes coal ash in the fraction of about 75 - 85 % Fly Ash (FA) and 15 - 25 % Bottom Ash (BA ) . The FA has been widely used in the cement industry but the BA is still not largely utilised in Malaysia. This might be due to the fears on the environmental hazard that might be occurred as a result of possible leaching of metal from the BA to the ground water. Research on the possible usage of BA in Geotechnical Engineering work ha s been taken place in Universiti Teknologi Malaysia since 2008 , in collaboration with the Tanjung Bin, Sultan Salahuddin Abdul Aziz Shah (or Kapar) and Sultan Azlan Shah (or Manjung) p ower plants in Johor, Selangor and Perak, respectively. This paper presents the physical, morphological, mineralogical, chemical and mechanical properties of BA and explores the possibility of using BA as alternative materials in Geotechnical Engineering works . Analysis of the results from the laboratory and physical model tests s how a huge potential of utilising this BA

Effect of depth placement of geocell reinforcement in sand: a review

In general, the tensile strength of the soil is poor. For this reason, the soil will need to be strengthened. The main objective of strengthening the soil mass is to improve stability, increase bearing capacity and reduce settlements and lateral deformation. There are several methods for improving the soil. One of the approaches is the use of geosynthetic materials. Geosynthetic is a well-known technique in soil reinforcement. The use of geosynthetic three dimensions can significantly improve the soil performance and reduce costs in comparison with conventional designs. In this paper, a review of experimental test carried out by different researchers in optimum depth of geocell in the sand had been made. Test results indicated that the inclusion of reinforcement in optimum depth of sand decreased settlements and leading to an economic design of the footings

Evaluation of the response of buried steel pipelines subjected to the strike-slip fault displacement

In this paper, the response of buried steel pipeline subjected to the strike-slip fault displacement is studied. This study aimed to identify the seismic fault under the pipe at the intersection of large displacement (up to 3 meter fault displacement) and identify failure modes in the pipe. Innovation studies the effect of thickness ratio of the diameter of the pipe failure modes of the fault displacement. The nonlinear finite element method analysis was conducted. By using ABAQUS software, nonlinear finite element analysis was carried out on the pipeline under fault displacement. Numerical modelling aimed at obtaining the amount of displacement corresponding to the nonlinear behaviour in the pipeline, as well as identifying failure modes pipes in displacement from 0.2 to 3 meter in diameter to thickness ratio, taking into account the impact of the pipeline. The results showed the nonlinear behaviour of the displacement 57.5 cm pipeline damage starts and the displacement of 1 meter buckling occurs in pipes. The displacement of 1 meter fault, failure mode is local buckling pipe, and displacement and deformation of the pipe is 1 meter looks like the letter S. The displacement of 1.5 meter high (3 meter) failure mode tube is wrinkling. And deformation of the pipe in the fault displacement of 1.5 meter, like the letter Z. With the increase in displacement from 1.5 meter to high wrinkling occurs in pipes and up to 3 meter displacement continues. Plastic strain in the fault displacement of 80 cm in diameter to thickness ratio of 112 and 96 occurs, Plastic strain ratio of diameter to thickness of 86 does not occur. Reduction in the diameter of the thickness has a positive impact on reducing plastic strain in the pipe

Flood forecasting of Malaysia Kelantan river using support vector regression technique

The rainstorm is believed to contribute flood disasters in upstream catchments, resulting in further consequences in downstream area due to rise of river water levels. Forecasting for flood water level has been challenging, presenting complex task due to its nonlinearities and dependencies. This study proposes a support vector machine regression model, regarded as a powerful machine learningbased technique to forecast flood water levels in downstream area for different lead times. As a case study, Kelantan River in Malaysia has been selected to validate the proposed model. Four water level stations in river basin upstream were identified as input variables. A river water level in downstream area was selected as output of flood forecasting model. A comparison with several benchmarking models, including radial basis function (RBF) and nonlinear autoregressive with exogenous input (NARX) neural network was performed. The results demonstrated that in terms of RMSE error, NARX model was better for the proposed models. However, support vector regression (SVR) demonstrated a more consistent performance, indicated by the highest coefficient of determination value in twelve-hour period ahead of forecasting time. The findings of this study signified that SVR was more capable of addressing the long-term flood forecasting problems

Sequestering atmospheric CO₂ inorganically:a solution for Malaysia's CO₂ emission

Malaysia is anticipating an increase of 68.86% in CO2 emission in 2020, compared with the 2000 baseline, reaching 285.73 million tonnes. A major contributor to Malaysia's CO2 emissions is coal-fired electricity power plants, responsible for 43.4% of the overall emissions. Malaysia's forest soil offers organic sequestration of 15 tonnes of CO2 ha(-1) year(-1). Unlike organic CO2 sequestration in soil, inorganic sequestration of CO2 through mineral carbonation, once formed, is considered as a permanent sink. Inorganic CO2 sequestration in Malaysia has not been extensively studied, and the country's potential for using the technique for atmospheric CO2 removal is undefined. In addition, Malaysia produces a significant amount of solid waste annually and, of that, demolition concrete waste, basalt quarry fine, and fly and bottom ashes are calcium-rich materials suitable for inorganic CO2 sequestration. This project introduces a potential solution for sequestering atmospheric CO2 inorganically for Malaysia. If lands associated to future developments in Malaysia are designed for inorganic CO2 sequestration using demolition concrete waste, basalt quarry fine, and fly and bottom ashes, 597,465 tonnes of CO2 can be captured annually adding a potential annual economic benefit of (sic)4,700,000.</p

Tunnel and Microtunnel For Future Smart and Sustainable Infrastructure Solution

Underground facilities and tunnels is not a rare discussion anymore. More and more underground explorations were carried out as to fulfil the need of mankind. In this paper, discussion on how to utilise tunnel and underground space knowledge in order to sustain green development thus to provide smart solution for infrastructure facilities (electrical cable, manhole etc) is discussed. Types of tunnel and its excavation methods especially the recent micro-tunnelling method also presented. Affect to the green and sustainable development and case study are also presented

Engineering characteristics of kaolin mixed with various percentages of bottom ash

Coal is one of the world's most important sources of energy, fuelling almost 40% of electricity worldwide. The burning of coal produces coal ash that mostly consists of fly ash and bottom ash. Bottom ash (normally recognized as coal combustion residues) has been categorized as solid waste (garbage). However, the utilization of bottom ash in constructionrelated applications has received some attention within the last decade. This paper presents the engineering characteristics of kaolin, mixed with 25%, 50% and 60% of bottom ash. Kaolin, in powdered forms, was mixed with bottom ash and compacted at optimum moisture content. By adding bottom ash to kaolin, lower specific gravity, higher permeability and relatively speed of consolidation would be increased to a great amount to the mixture would be achieved. It was found that the granular texture of bottom ash increased the friction angle and decreased the cohesion of kaolin. The addition of 25% bottom ash leads to the highest shear strength among mixtures. This can be attributed to its granular nature which renders an increase in frictional of the mixtures. The California Bearing Ratio (CBR) test shows that the most economical mixture that gives the highest value of penetration resistance and CBR is kaolin to bottom ash ratio of 50%: 50%. It appears that the bottom ash could be suitable for various uses in civil constructions depending on the requirements of applications

Time-dependent physicochemical characteristics of Malaysian residual soil stabilized with magnesium chloride solution

The effects of non-traditional additives on the geotechnical properties of tropical soils have been the subject of investigation in recent years. This study investigates the strength development and micro-structural characteristics of tropical residual soil stabilized with magnesium chloride (MgCl2) solution. Unconfined compression strength (UCS) and standard direct shear tests were used to assess the strength and shear properties of the stabilized soil. In addition, the micro-structural characteristics of untreated and stabilized soil were discussed using various spectroscopic and microscopic techniques such as X-ray diffractometry (XRD), energy-dispersive X-ray spectrometry (EDAX), field emission scanning electron microscopy (FESEM), Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR) and Brunauer, Emmett and Teller (BET) surface area analysis. From the engineering point of view, the results indicated that the strength of MgCl2-stabilized soil improved noticeably. The degree of improvement was approximately two times stronger than natural soil after a 7-day curing period. The results also concluded the use of 5 % of MgCl2 by dry weight of soil as the optimum amount for stabilization of the selected soil. In addition, the micro-structural study revealed that the stabilization process modified the porous network of the soil. The pores of the soils had been filled by the newly formed crystalline compounds known as magnesium aluminate hydrate (M-A-H).Ministry of Education Malaysia under the Fundamental Research Grant (FRGS) (R.J130000.7822.4F658); Universiti Teknologi Malaysia (UTM); Construction Research Centre UT