Design in Maritime Engineering

Various researches need to be done to create fully reliable autonomous vehicles. Autonomous vehicles (AVs) focus on upgrading cars into automatic functions such as driving without human intervention. During the conventional days, cars were powered by steam, but in present times, vehicles are powered by either gasoline and electricity or by both. Car industries and engineers are now finding ways how to create a fully reliable AVs without human intervention. Even though they already invented one, the research and experiments are still ongoing so that society can put their trust on it. This paper focuses on the consumers’ acceptance and perception of AVs in the developing countries.

The world is making its transition to sustainable renewable energy. Researchers have studied the behavior of tidal current turbines (TCT) under various conditions as well as numerous approaches for application. Using Betz limit theory, many studies were conducted to analyze the usage of TCT and modification of TCT for all the living things without affecting the environment. With regards to the design development of TCT, the various technological trends such as yaw drive mechanism and horizontal axis turbine have been discussed. The paper has reviewed the latest update on various TCT energy generation capacities by different companies at differing locations.

This paper reviews the elements involved in the contingency plan regarding the oil spill response activities in Malaysia. The effective elements in the contingency plan cover the definition of terms, effects of the oil spill, tier levels, stockpiles equipment, the roles of the main related government agencies, response times, response techniques, emergency response life cycle, and the influencing factors in the preparedness and response toward the oil spill incidents. The review of the oil spill contingency plan in the oil spill in Malaysia has also highlighted the number of response team members based on The National Oil Spill Contingency Plan (NOSCP) 2014, occupied in responding toward the oil spill incidents in the economic exclusive zone (EEZ) of Malaysia and including Malaysian territorial water (MTW).

In marine industry, the usage of sandwich composite structures has been increased due to these structure can provide strong properties that the manufacturer desires. The useful properties of these structure are not only useful in marine industry but also in other industries such as aviation, automotive and aerospace industries. The main propose of this study is to provide useful simulation testing results for the future references by comparing the results of three-point bending tests through experimental and finite element analyses of sandwich composite structures. This research is conducted with fiberglass and a core material which is carbon from pine wood with different weight percentage (10, 20,30, 40 and 50 wt%). It was found that the sandwich panel with higher content of pine wood carbon 50 wt% has achieved the maximum stress 25.268 kPa and strain of 3.184 × 10−7 mm/mm. When the percentage of the pine wood-activated carbon increased or the core’s diameter increased, all the values of maximum stress, maximum strain and maximum displacement also have been increased. This has also shown that specimens with higher percentage of the pine wood-activated carbon or the core’s diameter can withstand more stress before the specimen rupture.

In our modern world, the application of small unmanned aerial vehicles (UAV) for monitoring work or slope mapping expanded and is widely used by people in the construction field and researchers. Slope mapping can be considered challenging when using traditional surveying methods since most slopes especially in forest regions are high and considered risky if monitored by human themselves. Other than that, mapping by using UAV need a lower number of manpower to operate the device itself which is more than enough to be conducted by a single person only. This paper discusses the applications of unmanned aerial vehicles for mapping and also its important parameters including perimeter, area and also volume of certain selected area. With the development of modern technology, the utilization of UAV to gather data for geological mapping is becoming easier as it is quick, reliable, precise, cost-effective and also easy to operate. High imagery quality and high-resolution images are essential for the effectiveness and nature of normal mapping output such as digital elevation model (DEM) and also orthoimages. With the help of established software, the parameters of three selected study areas (stockpile, slope A and slope B) can be determined easily which can be considered as one of the main interest in this study. In addition to that, the horizontal and vertical cross section of every selected area can be obtained which help to determine the highest and lowest point of each area. From this cross section, the slope path profile can be determined. Other than that, from this path profile, the potential slope hazard will be determined based on the slope angle (slope classes) as suggested by the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA). Overall, the application of unmanned aerial vehicles for photogrammetry together with slope mapping and slope hazard monitoring can be considered as a reliable modern technology which ease the work with proper assurance of analysis due to its advancement and powerful technology. This modern surveying device helps workers and researchers to simplify and fasten their work.

The present work intends to analyze the tensile strength testing of +45° of isotropic fiberglass-reinforced polymer (FRP) laminates on the different universal testing machines. The tensile strength test used two different universal testing machines. The tensile test has one type of specimen which is under +45° angle. The FRP material that had effects on the angle orientation was a woven roving mat. The laminated specimen has used a polymer (resin) which is an unsaturated polyester, and the catalyst was methyl ethyl ketone peroxide (MEKP). The stacking sequence resulted in quasi-isotropic properties. The specimen had nine layers with the same size, i.e., 250 mm × 25 mm × 8 mm which was a flat bar, balanced, and symmetric according to ASTM D3039. This research revealed that the use of the universal testing machine “MFL system, UPD-20” resulted in the highest tensile strength and the highest force.

This study explores the instruments of short sea shipping (SSS) that has been utilized through an inclusive review of papers published in well-known journals over the 2002–2021 period. Systematic exploration shows that maritime policy and management plays a dominant role in publishing short sea shipping research. At the same time, classification and identification of important determinants and barriers for successful SSS has been found as the main research area, followed by attractiveness and competitiveness of SSS; policy and subsidisations in SSS and multimodal transportation network; energy efficiency, emission and environmental issue and protection; ports and transport system efficiency; cargo operations, inventory management, competitive SSS technology and ICT; potential demand, opportunity and competitive advantage; sustainable development and influence of meteorological and weather conditions on SSS operations as popular topics. Since 2002, the use of quantitative and qualitative analysis techniques has progressively increased in SSS in order to help researchers make decisions through selected scientific methods. With this work, present and prospective researchers can understand the contemporary development and popular research topics in SSS. By presenting a review on the common research instruments and techniques used in SSS research, this study is expected to fill the gap in the present literature through the collation of information on the research approaches in contemporary SSS studies.

Issues connected with the discharge of high-viscosity and persistent floating products from tankers and cargo ships have been reported by countries affected by the discharge. This concern prompted the International Maritime Organization (IMO) to amend Annex II of the International Convention for the Prevention of Pollution from Ships (MARPOL 73/78), which came into force on 1st January 2021. This new amendment, however, has a negative impact on the shipping business particularly in the transport of palm oil. The aim of this study is to underline the weaknesses in the policy process of MARPOL Annex II amendment as well as to examine articles and journals about issues involving palm oil, which ended in a misleading view of palm oil among public. The study has involved literature review of published and unpublished materials relating to MARPOL Annex II and vegetable oils, particularly palm oil. The findings revealed flaws in the policy framework of the MARPOL Annex II revision and the perception issues that are working against palm oil are linked with the lack of scientific research, which may serve as proof to indicate that palm oil is not harmful to marine life and living things. The public perception of palm oil and its products has also been proven to be influenced by media.

Without proper planning, a ship may deviate from the desired course line while changing its course. This is frequently the case when a late course change is made. To ensure the ship stays on the route while changing course, the wheel over point must be indicated on the charted courses to identify the location of the course alteration. The purpose of this research is to conduct a review of the advance transfer technique that is often used to determine and identify the wheel over point. Although this method is regularly used by seafarers aboard, there is a shortage of evidence in the scientific literature to support its efficacy. The cross-track distance data for a ship’s movement in different navigation areas was obtained in this research via simulations utilising a ship simulator. After that, the findings were compared to the cross-track limit. As a result, this study discovered the strength and weakness of the technique, which can be used as a foundation for developing an improved mathematical model.

Recently, researchers proved that the evaporation time during the membrane fabrication process has a significant effect on the characteristics and performance of membranes. In this study, flat sheet asymmetric polysulfone/cellulose acetate phthalate/polyvinylpyrrolidone (PSf/CAP/PVP) blend membranes were fabricated at different evaporation time in the range of 0–20 s to investigate the effect of the evaporation time on characteristics of the blend membranes. The PSf/CAP/PVP blend membranes were characterized in terms of water content, porosity, pure water flux and permeability coefficient. The results showed that an increase of evaporation time from 0 to 20 s has resulted in decreasing of water content and porosity of the PSf/CAP/PVP blend membranes. The permeation water flux of the blend membrane was decreased with the increment of evaporation time. This indicated that an increase of evaporation time would lead to a decrease of the membrane permeability coefficient and hence increased the membrane resistance to permeation of water through the membranes.

Stability assessment is one of the important criteria for small crafts. Its relationship with safety and seaworthiness has made it an essential guideline to be examined from the early stage of the design process. This paper will focus on the transverse dynamic instability of small crafts that have been performed by the authors for a custom boat with three different deadrise angles. The effects of longitudinal center of gravity, LCG positions, and deadrise angles on the dynamics and hydrodynamics of the vessel in different trims are done. The major parameters taken into accounts in this investigation were the projected area of the planing bottom between the transom and chine, volume displaced, chine length, maximum breadth over chines, centroid of projected area, longitudinal center of gravity, loading coefficient, and length-to-beam ratio in a tabular form for each design. The probability of dynamic instability after reaching planing speed was compared with the guidelines from Blount and Codega. The conditions in which the deadrise angles failed to meet the guidelines were identified.

Orders for mega vessels with a capacity of more than 20,000 TEUs have bolstered the sector since 2014. Despite the fact that these mega vessels serve to reduce sea transportation costs and increase global trade, they, on the other hand, also need some port infrastructure and container handling equipment adjustments. This will likely produce higher peaks in port container traffic, which will have far-reaching consequences. A number of seaport and terminal industry players have taken the initiative to establish a floating terminal to cater for the demand, since the development of seaport terminals to meet the call of mega vessels has become such a pressing issue for the sector. The container floating terminal (CFT) is a floating infrastructure that has been developed with facilities to transport containers from larger container ships or load other cargoes on a short-stay platform and then transport them to smaller ships for shipment to end-users. Thus, the purpose of this research is to look into the impact of the CFT on the efficiency of Port Klang’s terminal operations and the local freight forwarding business. Using a questionnaire survey that was distributed among Port Klang’s employees and local freight forwarding companies, this study found that there is a relationship between the development of the CFT and the improvement of Port Klang’s terminal operations efficiency and the local freight forwarding industry.

Partially phosphorylated polyvinyl alcohol–aluminum phosphate (PPVA-AlPO4) nanocomposites were synthesized through continuous stirring and condensation at 80 ℃. The optical properties of all samples were examined using UV–visible and photoluminescence (PL) spectroscopy. The absorption peaks are blue-shifted with the addition of phosphate groups. The addition of phosphate produced a broad peak and increased the optical band gap to 5.75 eV in PPVA; however, the optical band gap was reduced after combination in PPVA-AlPO4 nanocomposite. The PPVA-AlPO4 nanocomposites produced a strong single peak at 208 nm with a 5.5 eV optical bandgap. The excitation at 250 nm of PL spectra shows the presence of characteristic peaks syndiotactic and isotactic configuration of the PPVA-AlPO4 nanocomposite. An intense broad PL band observed at 306–370 nm shows i-PPVA-AlPO4 configuration proves strong interaction of phosphate groups in the PPVA-AlPO4 nanocomposite.

MXenes are a relatively new and interesting class of two-dimensional materials with diverse compositions and outstanding characteristics such as dispersibility and metallic conductivity. MXenes appear to be promising fillers for polymer nanocomposites, and data from several studies suggest that this promising material could significantly improve the tensile strength and modulus by 314% and 89%, respectively, when incorporated into a polymer matrix. Corrosion, on the other hand, is a significant issue in numerous industries worldwide, including automotive, defence, aerospace and biomedical. There is a growing body of the literature that recognises MXenes as high-performance corrosion inhibitors. In this review, recent research on the corrosion resistance properties of MXenes-reinforced polymeric composites is also discussed.

In this research, various types of nanofillers were prepared to investigate the impact of nanofillers on the mechanical properties of the epoxy matrix. Tensile testing, dynamic mechanical analysis (DMA) and scanning electron microscopy (SEM) have been used to compare the efficacy of four distinct nanofillers: MXene, graphene (GNP), carbon nanotubes (CNTs) and halloysite nanotubes (HNTs). Final results indicate that MXene/epoxy nanocomposite lead to a significantly improved tensile strength and elastic modulus of up to 66.57% and 22.65%, respectively, compared to neat epoxy. The homogenous dispersion, size and shape of nanoparticles are the major elements that contribute to the final properties of the nanocomposites.

The paper presents the effect of short-term acetone chemical treatment on PLA-carbon fibre composite mechanical properties, manufactured using the fused deposition modelling (FDM) technique. In this research, PLA-carbon fibre’s tensile and dynamic mechanical properties were studied for six different treatment time (0, 60, 100, 120, 180, 220 s). The results suggested that retained acetone significantly reduced the mechanical properties of the PLA-carbon fibre as the treatment time increased. The maximum decrease in tensile strength was observed for the sample treated in acetone for 220 s. The tensile strength decreases about 62% compared to the untreated PLA-carbon fibre composite sample in acetone. SEM images revealed that acetone caused a plasticization effect and caused porosity that acts as a stress concentrator to the composites hence lowering mechanical properties.

The use of natural plant fibres, especially palm trees, benefits from reinforcement with polymer composites to enhance material properties that can be widely used in various applications. Considering awareness in many areas likely safety, environmental impact, health issues and saving for composite structures, the tensile properties of untreated oil palm trunk (OPT) and oil palm trunk reinforced with epoxy (OPTE) composites have been investigated. The untreated OPT and OPTE were varied with angle fibre orientation 0° zone I, 0° zone II, 0° zone III, 30°, 45°, 60° and 90°, respectively. The OPTE composites were fabricated using the vacuum-assisted resin transfer moulding (VARTM) technique. The mechanical properties were analysed by ASTM D3039. The scanning electron microscopy (SEM) analysis results show the different failure modes of tensile specimens. The VARTM technique shows promising tensile strength results when compared to the available data. The results show the increase of tensile strength in OPTE. The 0° of OPTE composite exhibited the highest tensile strength.

Seaport container throughputs are utmost essential indicator for a successful container terminal as it could impact the utilization of resources for terminal operation. The accuracy of throughput forecasting would enable for potential of terminal growth in future. The paper aims to achieve efficient forecasting models by incorporating data throughputs from 2007 to 2015 from the Marine Department of Malaysia. This research focuses on the original ARIMA and the modified model SARIMA for a better model. The forecast results of container throughputs achieved from 2016 to 2018 are then compared with actual figures and then discussed.

An investigation has been made of the diffusional bonded couples of gray cast iron and low carbon steel that has been subjected to heat treatment. The objective is to establish the post bond heat treatment’s parameters influence on the mechanical and structural properties of the diffusional bonded couples. The tensile strength of the diffusion bonded joints was found to be increased with increased heat treatment’s temperature and time. The microstructural examination has also shown that at higher heat treatment temperature and time also had resulted in microvoids and interface lines to be disappeared, and the bond/weld at the interfaces of the diffusional welded couples seemed to be more complete. Correspondently, these resulted in the increased of the tensile strength. The microhardness value at the interface lines of the joints was found to be increased, while the charpy impact strength value was on the opposite way with the increased heat treatment temperature. The microstructural analysis has also shown that much thicker diffusion layers of spherodization zone and carbon rich zone were formed at higher temperature at the interfaces of the joints. These are also correlated with the microhardness and the charpy impact values obtained at higher temperature. These results were in consistent with the principle and theory of diffusion bonding whereby at higher temperatures, more activation energy is available for atoms inter-diffusion to take place, while with longer time, it allows higher volume of diffusion of atoms, and hence it changes the behavior of the joints. Thus, heat treatment’s temperature and time were found to have a strong influence on the mechanical and microstructural characteristics of the diffusion bonded gray cast iron and low carbon steel.

The examination table is one of the common health facilities. The current examination table condition is a static model which has an overall width of 750 mm, an overall length of 2059 mm, a base height of 650 mm, a weight of 60 kg, and a safe working load (SWL) of 210 kg (2058 N). The thickness of the mat examination table base L 1.900 × W 910 × Th 100–150 (mm). The current use of static examination tables has caused complaints, both from patients and health workers. Health workers stated that it was difficult to help patients to get up from a lying position. The purpose of this research is to innovate the static examination table to become a dynamic table which can be adjusted so that it affects the perception of medical personnel about the quality of care provided to patients. The formulation of the concept of innovation from a static examination table into an ergonomic dynamic using an anthropometric approach and rational methods. Starting from product planning, identifying the needs of patients and health workers, examination table specifications, drafting concepts, concept screening to concept testing, and the use of user anthropometric data as the basis for the dimensions of the examination table. Product innovation uses adjustable hi-lo to meet height-related needs. The use of an adjustable back section to meet the needs related to the process of getting up from a lying position. The innovative dynamic examination table has an overall width of 750 mm, the overall length of 2084 mm, base height 550–870 mm, weight 126 kg, back raise angle 0°–90°, hi-lo adjustment by hi-lo handeland safe working load (SWL) of 210 kg (2058 N).

Due to the high demand for the life extension of offshore structures, it is important to reassess the sustainability of aging offshore structures. Nowadays, many offshore structures in Malaysian waters are now operating beyond their intended design life. Due to the corrosive marine environment, the conditions of the offshore structures deteriorate with time, resulting in corrosion damage, and thus affecting the structural liability and function of the offshore structures. In this study, the four-legged offshore jacket platform was used to determine the effect of the corrosion depth on the ultimate strength of an aging offshore structure. The reserve strength ratio (RSR) was analyzed through pushover analysis by considering the effect of corrosion on global ultimate strength of the structure. The 100-year metocean data condition was applied to two different time-dependent corrosion models. The splash zone was considered as the critical area being corroded among the other areas of the platform. Safety evaluation was considered by the guidance of the PETRONAS Technical Standard guidelines for manned and unmanned conditions. The results from this study show that the platform is safe to operate up to 50 years with average corrosion rate, and it is unlikely unsafe to operate beyond 35 years with a severe corrosion rate.

Concrete is made of cement, sand, gravel and water to produce an applicable paste, which is continuously hardened over time. There was a lot of problems that occurred in concrete when the strength lost its integrity subjected to load and also a dirty concrete surface due to aggressive air pollution in crowded cities, industrial areas and/or marine structured buildings. Self-cleaning concrete using rutile titanium dioxide (TiO2) as an additive known as nanomaterial was proposed for this study. The utilisation of photocatalytic materials in concrete was able to solve the problem and also assisted to reduce and degrade air pollution under ultraviolet radiation. The main objective of this study was to determine the mechanical properties of self-cleaning concrete using rutile TiO2. TiO2 with percentages of 0.50, 1.00, 1.50, 2.00, 2.50, 3.00 and 3.50% of the total weight of the cement was used. There were two parts in the experimental activity, which included the physical and chemical of the TiO2 and the mechanical properties of the self-cleaning concrete. From the results, the self-cleaning concrete with 0.50 and 1.00% was reported to have a compressive strength value more than the control mix, approximately 0, 1.16 and 6.0%.

The rapid development of blockchain technology has gained traction among institutions due to the potential benefits it may have in supply chain management. Many countries and institutions are participating in pilot projects and live projects in hopes that it may one day enhance global supply chains with regards to security, speed, disintermediation, traceability, and cost reduction. As the technology continues to develop, more projects have developed their own blockchain networks with their own network design, governance structure, consensus mechanisms, and protocols, in attempting to address specific issues that are prevalent in existing supply chains. However, the development process is mostly vertical as they work to improve their own blockchain network capabilities. These blockchain silos are unable to communicate with other blockchain networks, which presents a significant problem in the effort towards supply chain mass adoption of blockchain technology. The capability to communicate between blockchain networks is known as blockchain interoperability. Current supply chains have been working towards supply chain integration and collaboration. Supply chain adoption will be highly unlikely if the blockchain interoperability issue is not resolved. This paper will discuss the importance of blockchain interoperability within global supply chains, while identifying the possible use cases of the technology if interoperability solutions are not yet available.

As a maritime and trading nation, shipping operation is imperative to the survival of Malaysia’s economy. Over a 10 year period, only 13,099 inspections were conducted by the Maritime Operations Division (MOD) of the Marine Department as compared to 607,123 foreign ships that visited Malaysian ports over the same period. By clustering ships using the flag of convenience (FOC) likelihood behaviour approach, this study intends to identify the fire safety performance of visiting ships, whilst at the same time, testing the suitability of the new method to this study. The results generally recorded a total of 6774 inspections with deficiencies (ID) and 2021 inspections with fire safety deficiencies (IFD), which are arguably high compared to the number of inspections performed. Although ships have been clustered into the three FOC likelihood categories, it was found that this does not help to differentiate their performance from other clusters. More than 80% of the ships under the flag states that did not belong to any cluster have recorded inspections with deficiencies, whilst flag states clustered as none/low FOC likelihood behaviour performed poorly against flag states in the other categories. Therefore, some improvements have been suggested to make the new method suitable to be used for other similar studies.

High-strength concrete (HSC) has been in high demand as it can offer superior performance, and it is more cost effective over normal strength concrete. Without any addition of admixtures, fillers or supplementary materials, the greatest strength achievable by standard concrete mixes is 80 MPa. Amongst currently available supporting cementitious materials, silica fume offered several benefits. Firstly, its ultrafine particles can fill in the void between the hydrated concrete paste and aggregates. Secondly, as silica fume contains about 97% of silica dioxide, it can prolong the chemical reaction to produce a concrete paste. In other words, the introduction of silica fume in concrete mixes will enhance the structure packing density as the interstitial voids are significantly reduced. Although it is a common practise to have silica fume in concrete mixes, its performance and behaviour have not been accurately analysed. HSC with silica fume is treated as usual HSC or NSC during the analysing process, but studies show that the different is significant (Xiao et al. in J Compos Constr 14:249–259, 2010; Lim and Ozbakkaloglu in Constr Build Mater 63:11–24, 2014). Therefore, a new model that can truly reflect the HSC with silica fume performances needs to be derived and developed. In addition, the HSC column is very brittle, whether it consists silica fume or not. Studies showed that lateral confinement could significantly enhance its axial strength and deformability (Mander et al. in J Struct Eng 114:1804–1826, 1988; Saatcioglu and Razvi in J Struct Eng 125:281–289, 1999; Saatcioglu and Razvi in J Struct Eng 118:1590–1607, 1992). External confinement by steel tubes and fibre reinforced plastic (FRP) tubes provided the best solution as they can act as a formwork hence improving the construction process time. Various studies on these two types of confinement have been carried out, but the model proposed only covers the effectiveness of the confinement material and the behaviour of the confined concrete as a whole composite. The composition of concrete mixes is not clearly discussed hence, the effective contribution of silica fume in term of volume, and improved strength in this system are unknown. Therefore, this project will highlight the differences between HSC with and without silica fume concerning axial stress–strain behaviour, lateral-axial strain performance and peak axial stress. The research also will undertake a study on unconfined HSC with silica fume to determine the pre-axial stress peak performance. Experimental investigation on both unconfined and confined HSC with silica fume will be carried out with steel tube and glass fibre reinforced plastic (GFRP) winding tube will be used as a confining material. Then, a more representative model to denote the behaviour of unconfined and confined HSC with silica fume will be presented.

The assessment of graduate employability, sustainability management, and development in maritime research and education requires an integrated approach to anticipate the sustainability of the subjects offered and the impact on the socio-economic progress. Primarily, this study examines the main topics and themes in the syllabi of maritime studies, disciplines, and related subjects, which may require revision to raise the graduates’ quality effectively and recommendations to enhance the research quality in the maritime domain. A qualitative approach has been employed through semi-structured interview sessions to obtain information from 14 participants from various maritime industries to gather their insight and opinion on syllabus enhancement for future graduates and the quality of maritime education. A bibliometric analysis was then conducted on data retrieved from the Scopus database to analyse the research network, current research area, and research collaboration among maritime researchers. These fundamental elements should be developed with continuous improvement as maritime players must stay current and relevant in their profession. The analysis focusses on maritime studies that must be investigated from the ground up to uplift the actual requirements that may be incorporated into the maritime educational syllabus. Through this survey, marine practitioners and educators were able to assess the consistency and efficiency of the syllabus for educational advancement. To ensure the quality standard in the education system, graduates, educators, and researchers should update their education standards regularly to sustain associated scientific investigations, advanced technology, and practical applications.

Diffusion welding is done on specimens of duplex stainless steel and low carbon steel under varied temperature and holding time. The specimens were clamped using jigs and pre-pressed at 10 MPa and heated in a furnace. Impact test were performed on the joined samples. The effect of process temperature and holding time on the impact strength of the diffusion welds were observed. The impact strength of the joints was examined, and the highest value of 0.9 J is obtained at a temperature of 1050 °C and holding time of 240 min.

This paper focuses on designing a floating solar platform for the inland body, consisting of water and/or calm coastal waters mainly near the river mouth and naturally protected channels. In this study, Dinding River in Lumut, Perak has been chosen as a case study location. At present, the use of renewable energy (RE) has been pushed aggressively by policymakers throughout the world to reduce the impact of green gas emission. This paper will focus on the development of a floating solar platform design. The proposed design is developed referring to both basis SPAR type platform and also to the floating instrument platform (FLIP) concept, where the design is able to minimize the vertical movement of the platform/vessel due to vortex-induced vibration (VIV) and vortex-induced motion (VIM). A comparison in the performance of designs is made with the existing design of the floating solar platform. Comparison is made with basic design 1, which consists of an existing design. The vertical movement (heaving) was simulated using a computational fluid Dynamics (CFD) software. Results are presented in the form of heaving for each floating platform design. The numerical results show that at low wave height (0.1 m) the lowest vertical movement is recorded by design 1 with 0.14 m height, while at the highest wave height (0.3 m), the lowest vertical motion is recorded by design 2 with 0.23 m height.

Ketapang with the scientific name Terminalia catappa Linn is known as a shade tree with nutritious fruits, and it has many benefits including medicinal benefits, water treatments for fish farming, natural dyes for textiles, and reinforcing filler in composites. This comprehensive review of the potency of Ketapang, which has chemical constituents such as phenols, flavonoids, carotenoids, and tannins. Many investigations focus on the ability of this plant for traditional medicine that can treat hepatitis, dermatitis and has anti-cancer, antioxidant and anticlastogenic properties. In addition, this plant has antidiabetic, antioxidant, antimicrobial, anti-inflammatory, hepatoprotective, and has anti-cancer properties. Young Ketapang leaf juice is used as a skin medicine in the form of an ointment to relieve scabies, leprosy, and is also used internally for stomach aches and headaches. Partly for water treatment for fisheries, namely Ketapang leaf extract has a positive effect on the quality of culture water for the survival of ornamental fish. In textiles, tannins that produce yellow color can be used as natural dyes textiles. Ketapang fruit has an oil extract in the seeds that can be used as vegetable oil to make biodiesel for industry and has good physicochemical properties.

DC-AC high-frequency inverter is the most preferred topology for primary side converter for contactless power transfer system because of their simplicity over other topologies. However, two stages energy conversion make the system more expensive, bulky and losses during the power conversion. In addition, the electric vehicle (EV) battery charging system requires a constant current characteristic, which can be relied on the current source converter. Therefore, there are possibilities for alternative topologies and controllers to improve the efficiency and the performance of contactless power transfer. This study reviews the contactless power transfer matrix converter topology for EV charging application.

Road traffic accident in Malaysia is a heavy concern in these days. Among the top factors of traffic accidents, the fatigue and drowsiness of drivers often times contributed to the increasing number of cases and fatality rate of accidents. This research aims to develop a computer vision system to detect such fatigue and drowsiness of the drivers and wake them up from the split-second nap. The implementation of this research is to develop a drowsiness detection system implemented in a compact development board to assist drivers to awaken from microsleep during driving on fatigue due to long driving hours and various other reasons. This research used a Raspberry Pi 4 along with the official Raspberry Pi camera module V2 and an active buzzer module as waking mechanism for the system. The development used and experimented on the Haar cascade classifier and Histogram of Oriented Gradient + linear Support Vector Machine in the effort of determining the best suitable model to be used for drowsiness detection in terms of speed and accuracy. Both models were run and tested to work properly. The implementation of the Haar cascade classifier produced the best performance in terms of speed and response time to detect drowsiness. On the other hand, the HOG + SVM had better accuracy when compared to the Haar cascade classifier even in low illumination. Having said that, the response time is significantly slower than Haar model which caused a problem regarding the reaction time of drivers to react on time. To conclude, the Haar cascaded classifier is decided as the most appropriate model to be applied for the development of a drowsiness detection system.

MOHA and the Malaysian NSC developed a standard operation procedure (SOP) for private maritime security companies (PMSC) in Malaysia for local security companies to follow. However, the SOP they developed was based on local regulations relating to the land-based Private Security Company and Firearms Act. Consequently, these regulations are not compatible with local and international maritime law and practices. This happened because no framework for PMSC had been established to guide the development of a standard operation procedure that is compatible with existing national and international maritime law and practices. A framework is defined as ‘A basic structure underlying a system or a concept’. The objective of this study is to create a conceptual framework for PMSC in Malaysia so that the resulting SOP would be fully compatible with national and international maritime law and practices. The research methodology adopted in this study consists of several activities based on the Delphi method. Surveys were conducted and safety experts were consulted and invited to express their views, either through interviews or workshops. It is concluded that this new framework was developed based on relevant agencies and expert consensus and should be implemented in Malaysia in order to produce a consistent, effective and secure action plan which addresses the main role of PMSC.

The previous researchers had developed an ocean device called a buoy. The buoy acts as a flotation device with its purpose to distinguish ocean characteristics and weather characteristics. The buoy is bright or fluorescent in color generally. The buoy’s different color indicates another buoy function because it is easier for any vessel to detect a buoy in the middle of the ocean. As the newest technology was introduced, buoy’s application became wide, and its purpose was upgraded depending on the researchers. In this paper, we describe the development of a floating buoy and the system integration for it. The construction process uses the modular method, and fiberglass is used as the primary material to install electrical, electronic, and wireless network communication systems. The final weight captured for the buoy is 56.5 kg, and the designs consist of an anemometer, solar panel, camera, antenna, microcontroller, telemetry, solar charge controller, and battery. In conclusion, the complete floating buoy was successfully developed and is ready to be tested and performed a sea-trial for the buoy to serve its purposes.

Friction stir welding consists of three operation stages operation beginning with plunging, pre-heating (dwelling) and welding along the joint. Each stage has its own functionality critically controlled by process parameters with a respective period for a successful welding process. This paper deals with numerical modeling of heat generation during the plunge stage using the fully coupled thermomechanical Abaqus/Explicit package. Rapidly rise temperature is observed once plunging tool shoulder established contact with pipe surface. Frictional dissipation energy is prominent over plastic deformation during plunge phase. Numerical thermal response is correlated with literature experimental data.