Authors:Sabrina Soloi, Azrad Usman Pages: 1 - 7 Abstract: The paper presents some results on the ability of palm oil polyol to replace the petroleum-based polyol in polyurethane (PU) synthesis. In this study, palm oil polyol with amine functionality with hydroxyl value (OH value) between 240 - 253 mg KOH/g was used as the polyol component to replace the conventional petroleum-based polyol. Four different formulations of polyurethane coating have been prepared using pre-polymer process namely PU1, PU2, PU3 and PU4 with the polyol to isophorone diisocyanate ratio (OH:NCO) of 1:0.6 and 1:0.5 and acetone within 25-50 wt %. PU1 (1:0.6) and PU2 (1:0.5) result in brittle film, while PU3 (1:0.6) and PU4 (1:05) has a soft and flexible film with better transparency. This finding establishes that the acetone content effect the final properties of the polyurethane formed. The polymerization reaction was monitored using the fourier transform infra-red spectroscopy and it was found that the peak corresponds to NH (3302 cm-1), CO (1627 cm-1) and CN (1543 cm-1) stretching of urethane linkage appearing in all the PU films. The water uptake test was done on the films and it was found that the percentage of water uptake is less than 5% within 24 hours of immersion.The surface morphology of the PU films shows that homogeneity was achieved in 1:0.6 of OH:NCO ratio with 25 wt% of acetone. The PU films have the potential to be developed for water resistant coating. PubDate: 2021-12-02 Issue No:Vol. 13, No. 2 (2021)
Authors:Taofik Oyedele Dauda, Adewale O. Adetayo Pages: 8 - 16 Abstract: This work was accomplished to assess the rainfall probability density function (pdf) of Katsina State and adopt the most parsimonious density function using 2003 – 2018 rainfall data from the Nigeria Institute of Meteorological Services. The data were subjected to cleaning, descriptive statistics and investigation of five distribution functions (General pareto, general extreme value, Gumbel maximum, Uniform and Normal distribution) through parameterizations. The results intimated that Daura experienced the highest mean annual rainfall ranging between 75.667 mm for 2003 and 82.417 mm for 2018. Both Dutsin-Ma and Safana local Government returned the least mean annual rainfall alternately and it ranged between 57.500 mm (2009 rainfall for Dutsin-Ma) and 67.167 mm for 2018 mean annual rainfall of Safana. The order of performance of the five (5) prominent pdf in each of the sites differs but the Generalized Pareto distribution (GPD) ranked highest across all the sites. The distribution characteristics for the GPD (the most parsimonious of the pdf) are, mean = 61.15098 (Duara), 58.93371 (Dutsinma) and 79.20851 (Safana) and variance of 9212.603 (Duara), 6709.908 (Dutsinma) and 6687.102 (Safana). The examination of the visual analysis of the residuals of the mean annual rainfall indicated that only the mean rainfall for Dutsin-Ma gave the most precise parameter estimates. PubDate: 2021-12-02 Issue No:Vol. 13, No. 2 (2021)
Authors:N.H. Diyana Nordin, Muhammad Imran Jaafar, Hossameldin M.M.M. Rabah, Asan G.A. Muthalif, Azni N. Wahid Pages: 17 - 24 Abstract: Energy harvesting devices are needed as an alternative to batteries as it is costly to power up wireless sensor network. However, the power generated and operating bandwidth for the typical energy harvester are still compromised. Therefore, in this work, the use of permanent magnet in Piezoelectric Energy Harvester (PEH) is proposed to increase the operating bandwidth. A simulation study was conducted using COMSOL Multiphysics software to observe the effect of mechanical tuning using magnet on the voltage produced. It shows that PEH with oscillating magnetic field is capable of reaching generated peak power of 0.775 mW and increase the operating bandwidth by 10%. Experimental setup was also fabricated to further validate the observation at different polarities and varying distances with permanent magnets. It is observed that while the peak power achieved in the attractive mode is smaller as compared to its counterpart, however, its bandwidth is larger. PubDate: 2021-12-02 Issue No:Vol. 13, No. 2 (2021)
Authors:Wahidah Mohd Zain, Sufy Rabea Adawiya Idris, Mohd Faizal Mohd Ramsi, Siti Khairiyah Nordin Pages: 25 - 37 Abstract: After 20 years of establishment, the number of Universiti Teknologi MARA (UiTM) campuses across Malaysia has reached 35 in number. Although the campuses' development of campuses had somehow made the location widely known as one of the education hubs in Malaysia, there exist doubts about the extent of development of each campus in an area that can benefit the locality. The focus of this paper is assessing the land-use changes due to the development of three campuses of UiTM Negeri Sembilan from 1999 to 2019. This study uses satellite images, GIS technology, and web-based maps applications as data collection tools. Two aspects were assessed, viz; Land-use Land Cover (LULC) and change detection. The result shows an increasing pattern of LULC. Also, the land conversion occurred more in Seremban compared to UiTM Kuala Pilah and Rembau. Change detection analysis in this paper reveals that the green area is declining via a higher percentage of deforestation and urbanization. Land-use change detection technique is confirmed as an effective method for measuring and evaluating urban development operations and their effect. Therefore, this research emphasized that LULC and change detection analysis results beneficial in identifying the development impact and important to facilitate strategize steps and policies in averting the affected areas from pollution and deforestation side effects. This study also suggests that such research extended to more Institutes of Higher Learning in Malaysia and South East Asia. The findings should be valuable to researchers, town planners, university administrators, and local authorities alike and contribute towards sustainable land-use planning and management in Malaysia in the near future. PubDate: 2021-12-02 Issue No:Vol. 13, No. 2 (2021)
Authors:Mohammad Mehdi Khabiri, Zohreh Ghafoori Fard Pages: 38 - 46 Abstract: Mathematical optimization, also called mathematical programming, is the process by which the best answer (according to a set of criteria) is selected from a set of possible answers to a particular problem. Today, optimization problems are used in all quantitative fields such as computer science, engineering, operations research, economics, and more; one of the engineering disciplines in which optimization is very important is road and transportation engineering. Road repair is one of the most important components of pavement management that requires regular road inspection by road specialists. One of the most important measures to prevent failure is maintenance inspection; Assessment of the condition of road surfaces to ensure their performance, while the road still provides maximum safety for existing traffic, should be done to ensure timely and effective repair and reconstruction operations. But exactly when these inspections should take place and when they are effective is an issue that is addressed in this study. The aim of this study is to optimize the frequency of maintenance inspections for a high-traffic suburban road by optimizing the frequency of inspections with a certain degree of reliability; so, the breakage function was considered as a pavement condition index (PCI). The results show that in order to pave the suburban road with high traffic in order to perform the desired pavement with 95% reliability, 218 inspections should be carried out annually (on average once every two days). PubDate: 2021-12-02 Issue No:Vol. 13, No. 2 (2021)
Authors:Zendi Iklima, T M Kadarina Pages: 47 - 53 Abstract: Internet of Robotic Things (IoRT) distributes heterogeneous intelligences among devices and platforms. A distributed control of a three-degree-of-freedom (3-DOF) robot manipulator is integrated with web-based 3D visualization. An asynchronous protocol was utilized to broadcast kinematic data of a 3-DOF robot manipulator between platforms. However, kinematic data computed using inverse kinematic equations directly cannot identify the singularity issue of robot manipulator. Singularity avoidance required to prevent robot component or joint from damage. Therefore, this study proposed a deep neural network approach as a classification-based of manipulator robot path planning to avoid singularity issues. Deep neural network (DNN) was trained in 12 minutes, 52 seconds in 500 iterations. Training accuracy measured with value 96,23 percent, validation accuracy measured with value 96,13 percent, and testing accuracy measured with value 96,48 percent Additionally, 3 DOF manipulator robot web-based 3D visualization was made using Web Graphics Library (WebGL). The distributed platform was tested successfully and can distribute and classify 2352 motions per second. PubDate: 2021-12-02 Issue No:Vol. 13, No. 2 (2021)
Authors:Praphull Chhabra Pages: 54 - 66 Abstract: This article gives a really vital and curiously inequality on Jain-Saraswat’s functional discrimination in terms of the Hellinger discrimination and Bhattacharya discrimination by taking into thought L-Lipschitzian functions. Encourage, we outlined a few vital results by utilizing the inferred inequality with numerical confirmation. PubDate: 2021-12-02 Issue No:Vol. 13, No. 2 (2021)
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