Reclassifying forest type to a new forest class based on vegetation and lithology characteristics using geographic information system at southern Johore, Malaysia

Recently forest resources management with regard to precision forestry concept has been highlighted by forest managers, in order to fulfill the demand on quality and reliable information about forest area. According to the Malaysian National Forestry Act 1984, forest is classified into several types by general classification which is based on vegetation types broadly into dipterocarp forest, peat swamp forest and mangrove forest. In applying precision forestry approach, details classification and information are required to render more accurate about managed forest. Therefore, this study was carried out to reclassify forest type to a new forest class based on vegetation and lithology characteristic using GIS technique. Ten new classes were successfully generated and mapped by fusing layer of forest vegetation types and lithology layer in Southern Johore, namely Dipterocarp-Igneous, Dipterocarp-Sediment, Dipterocarp-Alluvial, Peat-Igneous, Peat-Sediment, Peat-Alluvial, Mangrove-Igneous, Mangrove-Sediment, Mangrove-Alluvial and Limestone forest. In this study, Syzygium spp. (19.83 %) was found in abundance in two new forest classes; Dipterocarp-Igneous and Dipterocarp-Sediment forest in Hulu Sedili Permanent Forest Reserve (PFR). Beside that, Elateriospermum tapos (9.92 %) and family of Lauraceae (7.22 %) were found to be the most dominant species in the Dipterocarp-Sediment forest, while Macaranga spp. (11.21 %) and Elateriospermum tapos (11.02 %) found dominant in Dipterocarp-Igneous forest. From the sample plot, Dipterocarpaceae family constituted only 3.09 % whereas the non-Dipterocarpaceae family was 96.91 %. Hence, this study indicated that there is variation in species dominancy at different lithology of the same forest vegetation site

Metal fabrication evaluation through additive manufacturing process of Indirect Metal Laser Sintering

This paper reports on an analysis of quality metal parts fabrication through Additive Manufacturing (AM) specifically use an Indirect Metal Laser Sintering (IMLS) technique. According to results from the case studies conducted, it show that the orientation selection was the most important aspect to consider for achieving optimum surface finish and surface layer characteristics of metal parts by IMLS process. Although the orientation was adequately achieved, it is still difficult to prolong their dimensional accuracy. There were indicated in the advance structures of many IMLS metal parts that have complex geometry, overhanging features and a thin section in the design. The fabricated by IMLS process using 3D Systems machine of those advance structures mentioned above have a tendency to deform and growth crack appear notably during the furnace infiltration/sintering stage. As results, less than 10% the distortion/deformation contribute during SLS fabrication, otherwise more than 10% of distortion/deformation happened during furnace infiltration/sintering. This paper approach was demonstrated by minimising distortion/deformation which can avoid growth of cracks and will be anticipated high quality manufacture metal parts can be produced through IMLS process

Deformation Behaviour of a High Carbon Co–Cr–Mo Medium-Entropy Alloy via Thermal Oxidation

Thermal oxidation is widely used in substrate surface modification before applying bioceramic coating to enhance implant resistant against corrosion and biocompatibility. In this work, mechanical and microstructural characteristics of a medium-entropy alloy Co61.9Cr29.6Mo6.5C0.24 (in wt.%) was thermally oxidize under controlled furnace atmosphere, at 450 °C, 650 °C, 850 °C, 1050 °C and 1250 °C for 3 h. It has been demonstrated that by oxidizing high carbon Co–Cr–Mo alloy can create a reasonably thick, stable and hard Cr2O3 layer on the substrate at 1050 °C. The exchange of substrate colour from silver to brownish and lastly dark green of oxide layer was observed and is evident from the variations of the surface morphology which is also a cause response to the increment of temperature. Within the interval of extremely high temperature considered (1250 °C), the alloy exhibits several unusual features, such as presence of massive porosity with clumpy blended of distinct composition of oxide layer like CoCr2O4 and Co0.8Cr0.2. The results also demonstrate that Cr2O3 layer recede in thickness as the temperature reaches 1250 °C and experienced oxide layer spalling due to bounteous chemosorption of O2 atoms react with dominant elements like cobalt and chromium in the substrate

Developing priorities and ranking for suitable forest road allocation using Analytical Hierarchy Process (AHP) in Peninsular Malaysia

In hilly forest area, aligning forest roads is the key towards an effective and sustainable forest management. Constraints in forest road planning are mainly due to environmental factors and topographical conditions. Selecting the criteria for planning forest road and setting the priorities, ranking them for environmental sustainability and reduce cost in road construction is important. Different criteria are required at different forest area since the quantifiable relationship between cause and effect to meet the goal are not comprehensively prioritized. In order to solve the problem, the relative importance factor from multi criteria basis, namely Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP) was applied. Therefore, the objective of this study was to develop priorities and rank a selected criterion for planning forest road in hilly area using AHP approach. Four criteria had been identified to meet the goal of suitable forest road allocation namely slope, river crossing, elevation and existing forest road. The suitable criteria selected were sorted with weight in ranking order to minimize the impact of timber harvesting. Our results showed that the priorities and ranking were as follows; slope (w = 0.558), followed by river crossing (w = 0.303), elevation (w = 0.095) and lastly existing forest road (w = 0.044), respectively. Therefore, the relative preference factor developed in this study can be used by the Forestry Department for formulating suitable forest road allocation in hilly area simultaneously to be integrated with geographic information system technology

Effect of wire EDM cutting parameters for evaluating of additive manufacturing hybrid metal material

Hybrid metal materials produce through Additive Manufacturing of Indirect Selective Laser Sintering (ISLS) process have been highly interested by the researchers and industries nowadays in producing near net shape metal components. These materials have a strengthening affect such as high thermal conductivity, good wear resistance, high corrosion resistance, good insulation, high-strength material which applicable in industry of aerospace, automotive, tooling manufacture and also in biomedical industry. The material tested is FeCuSn hybrid metal material which machined by wire electrical discharge machining (WEDM). However, there are some difficulties in generating a model that can accurately correlate the input parameters of WEDM with the responses because the parameters setting are restricted with the operator’s experience. Hence, there are no specific parameters for hybrid metal materials in WEDM. The machining parameters such as pulse-on time, pulse-off time, peak current and voltage will be reset according to the Design of experiment (DOE) while the analysis will be focused upon the effect of the working surface and the hardness of work material. Thus, the final result of optimization parameters was established. The objective of this paper is to highlight those important parameters to be considered in wire cutting process of FeCuSn hybrid metal material produce by Additive Manufacturing of Indirect Selective Laser Sintering process for fabricating the near net shape metal component

Bees algorithm for Forest transportation planning optimization in Malaysia

Algorithm is widely used in various areas due to its ability to solve classes of problems. Due to multiple objectives to be met and varied algorithm application in this digital era, addressing the problem-solving optimization in a more efficient and effective way has become more reasonable. Forest transportation planning is one of the most expensive activities in timber harvesting and can be optimized through algorithm application. Forest transportation planning is a vital component of timber harvesting activities. Inappropriate planning may raise the overall costs of harvesting activities. This paper aims to give an overview of several algorithm application in optimizing the forest transportation planning problem and give an insightful information regarding the relationships between algorithm and the integration of transportation system characteristics and variables. Examples of algorithm that are finding their way to the forest transportation planning problem include Genetic Algorithm (GA), Particle Swarm Optimization (PSO) algorithm, Ant Colony Optimization (ACO) algorithm, Simulated Annealing (SA) algorithm and Tabu Search (TS) algorithm. Although no literature was found regarding forest transportation planning problem optimization with regards to Bees Algorithm (BA), rules set for several transportation problem evidenced from literature search seems to be applicable to forestry. Generally, in this paper, the BA has been given focus for forest transportation planning problem optimization as a potential algorithm to overcome the challenges of environmental degradation and efficiency of timber extraction used, as well as its accuracy and less processing time for problem-solving