Advanced Maritime Technologies and Applications

The rapid development of modern social economy, the acceleration of industrialization, and the increasingly serious environmental problems have severely restricted the sustainable development of social ecology. At present, the public’s awareness of environmental protection has been greatly improved, and the development and application of green materials have received more and more attention. In order to improve the utilization efficiency and quality of green composite materials, the first step is to clarify the concepts and characteristics of green materials, then grasp the value and development trend of green materials, and finally analyze their applications in-depth to make green composite materials possible. Green material is a new material concept, so its advantages and value must be clarified in the application process in order to fully develop and use green materials, so as to better serve social development. Natural fiber is a diverse and renewable resource. Its availability and satisfactory mechanical properties make it a potential substitute for man-made fibers and can be widely used in various fields. However, natural fibers still have some inherent deficiencies such as hydrophilicity and variability. Physical and chemical treatments are used to improve the mechanical properties of natural fibers, thereby improving the properties of natural fiber composites. This study gives a detailed overview of these sustainable and renewable natural fiber composite materials. The general characteristics of natural fibers used in green composites will be reviewed, including types, sources, properties, as well as improved methods. Furthermore, the application of natural fibers composites in various fields is studied.

Relevance issues for graduate employability, sustainability management, and development in maritime research and education are determined by the needs for an integrated approach to assessing the impact of sustainability on the subject offer and impact on the socio-economic progress. The purpose of this study is to explore the main area through research in maritime studies, identify the related subjects that need to be included in the syllabus of maritime management in order to provide significant impact to the quality of the graduates as well as suggestions to enhance the quality of graduates in maritime management. A qualitative approach has been employed through a semi-structured interview session to obtain informative observations from 15 participants who are from various maritime industries background. The observation shows different outcome from different experience, profession, and capability. Based on the interview session, their feedback generates potential guidelines for the graduates to choose their career pathway that suits with their qualification, level of competency, and passion. These fundamental elements should develop with continuous improvement, which are important for the maritime players in order to maintain in their career. The survey will benefit the maritime practitioners and educators to analyze the stability and efficiency of subject offers in the syllabus study for the education development.

The Covid-19 pandemic has disrupted global maritime business especially maritime transportation. It has disrupted the services of transportation of cargoes using ocean vessels and directly the performance of the many businesses. The Malaysian maritime business performance has also been affected from such condition. Many of these maritime shipping companies are struggling to maintain their business financial and operations during the pandemic period. The research is intended to evaluate the financial performance of Malaysian maritime business companies during the pandemic period and rank these Malaysian maritime business companies performance during the same period. The financial report from three Malaysian maritime business companies listed in the Bursa Malaysia involved in ocean transportation has been selected for evaluation of ratios. The study was conducted by using five financial ratios to evaluate these business financial performances consisting of liquidity, profitability, activity, leverage, and return on investment. The technique for order preference by similarity to ideal solution (TOPSIS) method was being utilized to rank the performance of these maritime business. Such evaluation is able to identify which maritime businesses company is able to perform especially during a global shock period such as the Covid-19 pandemic, and the approach is able to evaluate if these maritime businesses are able to survive. The result found indicates that MISC is the shipping company which is the best performer, while Maybulk is the lowest performer during the Covid-19 pandemic. This research is able to provide insights in Malaysian maritime and how they are managing their operations and finances in ensuring their survival during a challenging period.

The presence of active pirates in high-risk waters has led to a major impact in various industries involving shipping. According to the International Maritime Bureau, 2010 was the peak year for the world in this millennial with 445 total attacks, the highest number of pirate attacks on merchant ships in a year. As this problem affects almost the entire safety and economy of the shipping industry that passes through this area, various parties are beginning to take seriously the importance of having an armed guard onboard. However, when it comes to the use of weapons onboard of ships or vessels crossing waters of various countries, various legislative issues begin to arise. The main purpose of this study is to emphasize the importance of the presence of armed guards onboard ships passing through high-risk waters, which include their duties and responsibilities. This study also attempts to identify the legal guidelines involved as well as the issues that arise in the implementation of the related laws.

The analysis of a company’s strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats (SWOT) is the focus of this research. The Northport Port Klang Ro-Ro service was chosen as the focus of this project’s research. The main objective of this research is to examine the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats of Northport Port Klang’s Ro-Ro services. Based on an appropriate criterion, there were 10 expert respondents that have been selected for the interview purpose. The mean, standard deviation and frequency have been carried out by using the SPSS. This research demonstrates how to use the SWOT methodologies for strategic planning in the corporate world. In order to identify the qualities and shortcomings of the Northport Port Klang Ro-Ro operation, a SWOT analysis is used in this research. For the purpose of this research, the understanding of the TOWS matrix analysis helps to determine the company’s proper business plan, and a variety of approaches and guidelines have been developed.

The transportation of about 4.5 billion tons of dry bulk cargo represents the biggest volume as compared to other types of cargo by ships worldwide annually. The goods can be categorized into three main cargo groups: container, liquid bulk cargo and dry or solid bulk cargo such as coal, iron ore, grains, sugar and fertilizers. Therefore, port traffic continues to expand, and the question of how to secure long-term sustainability of the port sector turns out to be a critical concern at global level. The aim of this study is to review the previous literature on green ports and to identify the indicators or determinants for the achievement of a green port status for dry bulk terminals. Research was done by using search engines such as Google scholar, ResearchGate, and Mendeley using the keywords “green port,” “sustainable port” and “green port indicator” to determine the relevant literature. Subsequently, a qualitative content analysis technique was used on the 15 identified articles in order to group various indicators or determinants into suitable categories.

A project timeline is a visual list of tasks or activities organized by date that allows project managers to see the entire project in one place usually shown by a horizontal bar chart, with each task assigned a name and a start and end date. A project timeline gives the researchers a detailed perspective of the entire project from beginning to end, while buyout refers to the period of transition between the pre-construction phase and the project's construction. Purchase orders and subcontracts are issued during the purchasing process. The aims of this research are to examine the development of project management timeline and material buyout application to ship construction planning. Besides that, the researcher also identifies the problems encountered such as delaying the completion of a project, the time taken for the completion of a project, and costs can be increased. This research is to assist in speeding up a project that is carried out on a timely basis due to most of the projects are carried out over a specified period. Therefore, this project is implemented to facilitate project managers in the shipbuilding industry. Furthermore, the methods used in this study are checklist and comparison matrix which can be used to review the result when using the comparison matrix after reading. The findings of this study characterize the effective methods that must exist fast, guaranteed quality and cost savings to complete a project. Thus, overall, it is shown in this study that the more effective and appropriate the CPM method is used in shipbuilding, especially in the management of shipbuilding projects, a significant impact on the project manager is achieved. From the investigation of this research, the CPM method is more effective to use in shipbuilding compared with others. This is because this method efficiently assists the project managers to save costs when running a project.

This paper attempts to explore the traditional boat in Kelantan in terms of design, material, and technique. Kelantan which is in the area of the east coast of the Malaysian peninsular had a unique traditional boat, the so-called Perahu Kolek, and it can only be found in this state. Thus, it is important to identify the design, materials used, and involving equipment to build the Perahu Kolek in Kelantan. The qualitative methodology has been used to gather all important information related to the Perahu Kolek. Purposive sampling has been chosen to identify the respondents involved like the Perahu Kolek boatbuilders, academic researchers, government agencies, and fishermen of Pantai Sabak area in Kelantan. As result, the Perahu Kolek boatbuilder do not draw the boat design, instead the design comes from their mind and the existing Perahu Kolek as additional guidance. The main material to build the Perahu Kolek is from wooden base, the so-called Cengal (balanocarpus heimii) due to its durability and endurance. The boatbuilding process is similar compared to the other Malay traditional boats, in Malaysia; however, the uniqueness of the Perahu Kolek is about decorative components. The variety of ornaments carved and specially painted on this boat has a unique carving and looks attractive. This decorating work requires meticulousness and has expertise in certain motifs on the boat. The choice of color depends on the taste of the owner of the Perahu Kolek. As conclusion, Perahu Kolek not only has been used for fishing activity, but it also has a potential in the tourism sector as cruising boat due to its attractive decoration and colorful.

Manufacturing or production, shipping, ship repair, servicing, and ship recycling are all distinct industrial processes of shipbuilding. These operations will result in significant pollution, contamination, and emissions into the environment. This paper discusses the green shipbuilding technology for the company Boustead Naval Shipyard Sdn Bhd (BNS) towards sustainable shipbuilding development as a way to minimize the impact that shipbuilding has on the environment over their life cycle. This includes green ship design, green shipyard, green material selection, marine systems optimization, and marine equipment selection and then shipbuilding technique improvement where green shipbuilding can be applied. In addition, the green initiatives can also assist to determine the effectiveness of industry 4.0 [the fourth industrial revolution (IR 4.0)], lean manufacturing, shipbuilding 4.0 and government involvement in GrSCM to understand how much this can support BNS in developing green technology or industry. This paper is based on a detailed study of the literature on environmental shipbuilding issues. The study covered a variety of facets of green shipbuilding technologies, with the aim of greening the industry by reducing emissions in shipbuilding. Green shipbuilding technology helps to reduce threats to human health, environmental hazards, and property risks by reducing emissions to air, water, and land, saving energy, and improving economic and social benefits.

The main purpose of this research is to investigate and improve the method of solution by the final root method on ship wave resistance due to variation of block coefficient and angle of entrance of different ship hulls. The method of solution and the calculated results are validated by comparing against the experimental results. The results obtained by the proposed hypothesis would be used in predicting the ship wave resistance and the overall powering estimation of any ship. This was done by developing functions of block coefficient and angle of entrance versus Froude number. Standard series-60 experimental data were used in the study to develop the relationships between the ship wave resistance versus block coefficient and angle of entrance. Corrections to the calculated ship wave resistance coefficient were achieved by using a structured regression method applied to the ships under study. A significant improvement of more than 1% on the ship wave resistance was achieved.

Nowadays, there are various ship design software packages that make use of special understanding or theories on ship hydrodynamics to cope with the demand by the shipbuilding industry. This paper focuses on comparing the accuracy of various (selected) software or program packages in calculating the ship wave resistance by relevant theories solved by various methods of solution and comparing the results with experimental model test results. A comparison was made between Maxsurf resistance software utilizing the relevant theories and methods of solution by Holtrop and Mennen and the Slender Body theories, Ship Flow CFD software, and the final root method with the MSK-ESolver software. The embedded algorithm inside each software program was tested for their accuracy by using the same hull forms (wigley and offshore patrol vessel hull forms). The selection of each hull form was based on their practicality in this study. The Wigley hull form represents the mathematical parts of the research as the hull form itself was generated by a generally known formula. The offshore patrol vessel (OPV) hull form on the other hand represents the actual ship shape hull form (currently in service) for research practicality and relevancy for the shipbuilding industry. Series of calculations were computed based on Holtrop & Mennen, Slender Body theories, Ship Flow CFD, and final root method of solutions. The baseline of each finding was referred to the model test (towing tank experiment) results for comparing the accuracy of the results. Sets of graphs of wave resistance Rw against Froude number proved the accuracy of the results for each calculation method. The trendlines that mimic or closest to the results of the model tests are considered as the most accurate methods of solution. Research discussion and conclusion are presented explicitly based on these findings. The final root method of solution with the MSK-ESolver software shown by the cross-plotted graphs are the closest to that of the graph of the experimental data. The percentage differences for final root method with MSK-ESolver software are also very small within 2.5–4.7% as compared to the experimental data from the model tests.

Metal additive manufacturing owns a huge potential in meeting the demand for low and medium production volume with high flexibility of product shape complexity. The current technique to obtain net shape is limited due to strength and lead time issues. In this work, a 3D profile was constructed using manual TIG welding and a new strategy was proposed, where a cold forging process is introduced to obtain the net shape. The main aim of this project is to evaluate the tensile properties and hardness of AA4043 wire arc additive manufacturing (WAAM) at two conditions, i.e., forged and unforged. The profiles were constructed at different welding orientations and directions. The result revealed that unforged specimen; the UTS and yield strength were reduced at approximately 34% to 188 MPa and 177 MPa from 285 and 270 MPa, respectively. However, for the forged specimen, the strength increased. Similarly, on the Vickers hardness reduced up to 45% for the unforged specimen but increased after forging at approximately 60% from 45 to 72 HV. In conclusion, strain hardening via forging improves the strength and hardness of AA4043 wire arc additive manufacturing.

This paper investigates the mesh size effect on the results of computer modeling of fiber reinforced plastic (FRP) confined concrete. Infinite element analysis, mesh sensitivity or density is a critical issue that relates to the accuracy of the finite element models while directly determining their level of complexity. FRP confined concrete has found increasingly wide application in construction industry due to its high strength to weight ratio and high corrosion resistance factor. In marine industry, current practice shows that composite materials are already being used in a number of marine structures such as high and low-pressure tubing, bridge and jetty as well as accommodation modules for offshore structures. In this study, a finite element analysis (FEA) of circular reinforced concrete (RC) columns fully wrapped with FRP with a size of 300 mm in length and diameter of 150 mm is generated using the ABAQUS software. The thickness of 2 mm FRP layer has been constructed as confinement to the solid concrete body. Concrete damaged plasticity (CDP) and concrete smeared cracking (CSC) approaches had been applied to analyze and predict the non-linear behavior of FRP confined concrete models. During the simulation process, three mesh setups have been used (5, 3, and 2 mm) in order to get the accurate FEA result for the model. Normally, the FE model provides fair accurate numerical results and is close to the experimental data. The results from the analysis are compared with available experimental data to validate the model. The result will be presented in terms of stress-strain relationships. Finally, the differences of the result between mesh of 2, 3, and 5 mm will be determined and discussed.

This research is focused on the formulation, analysis, and implementation of a new direct solver based on the block backward differentiation formula with off-step points for directly solving second order stiff differential equations. The lower triangular form of the matrix transformation provided fewer differential coefficients, caused the algorithm’s implementation at ease since less execution time is needed. The proposed method is tested with the standard second order stiff problems used in the literature. The numerical output upholds the algorithm as an alternative solver for the stiff second order differential equation.

The effect of bulbous bow shapes by varying its protruding length and breadth of the bulb and the height of the bulb nose from the baseline on the resistance components and wave profiles of small ships were investigated using computational fluid dynamics (CFD) simulations. A 28.3 m purse seiner and a 35 m research vessel were chosen to be the reference hulls. Different sizes of additive bulbs were added to the purse seiner, and the research vessel stems and all these variations were simulated using the Reynolds-averaged Navier–Stokes (RANS) numerical simulations with the volume of fluid (VOF) method in modelling the free surface in full scale. The resistance results of the purse seiner and the research vessel without bulbous bow were validated with experimental test results at corresponding speeds of 10 knots and 11 knots, respectively. A grid independence study was conducted, and all the CFD simulations were simulated using 3.6 and 4.9 million grid cells for the purse seiner and the research vessel, respectively. The purse seiner and the research vessel were added with eight different bulbs sizes varying its protruding length, breadth of the bulb and the height of the bulb nose and were labelled B1, B2, B3, B4, B5, B6, B7 and B8. From the CFD results, the addition of bulbs seems not to be effective when the volumetric coefficient of the bulb is less than 0.005 for both cases. The bulbs were effective when the volumetric coefficient is in between from 0.01 to 0.09 for both cases. The bulbs seem to gain in resistance beyond the volumetric coefficient of 0.14 and 0.06 for the purse seiner and the research vessel case, respectively. From the wave profile evaluation, it can be seen that the nose of the bulb induced a high-pressure region upstream, corresponding to the first trough of the original bow wave causing a phase shift to the bow wave system, cancelling the wave system from the front shoulder, hence reducing the wave resistance of the purse seiner and the research vessel.

Unmanned underwater vehicles (UUV) are any vehicles that are able to operate underwater without a human occupant. Smaller and cheaper autonomous underwater vehicles (AUV) are today very capable and gaining users. The underwater drone is commonly used in oceanic research, for purposes such as current and temperature measurement, ocean floor mapping, and hydrothermal vent detection. AUVs are the most complex as they have to rely on autonomous functions since water does not allow radio-frequency transmission, and acoustic transmission does not allow sufficient bandwidth for direct control at a distance. AUVs have gradually evolved, notably with increasing computing power and growing energy density stored on-board. This article studies will study the model-scale design of underwater drones which used the onyx as material selection. Based on the mechanical properties of onyx is able to withstand the underwater pressure by the yield strength. Besides, drones provide an opportunity to bridge the current gap between field observations and remote sensing in a cost-effective way by providing high spatial information over relatively large areas. In this project, five conceptual designs were developed and simulated through Solidwork for the analysis of the strength of the material. Nevertheless, in developing countries such as Malaysia, the use of drones is still in the early stage of production. In conclusion, based on the strength analysis, a suitable structure for the hull was determined.

Compared to other forms of structures and buildings, ports, harbours and any other marine structures suffer from massive physical damage. This is because of the aggressive saltwater environment. Whether the structures are made of concrete, steel, wood, or even a combination of these materials, they have to cope with the aggressive natural environment and also the heavy industry activities conducted around the area. Thus, a constant survey is much needed to ensure that the structure is still able to hold its purpose. There are a lot of methods used to monitor the area around these marine structures and one of them is by using drones. Air drones or also known as UAV have been commercialized for quite a while and have been used by a lot of people. Since the past few years, a lot of researchers have been taken interest in submersible drones as it is proven to be useful in a lot of marine applications including monitoring underwater structures and conditions. This project aimed to develop a submersible drone design and to generate its stability and hydrostatic data. This drone is made to operate under water and on the water surface at the Penang port to survey and monitor the port structure, the depth of water and also the thickness of mud or sediments.

This paper is about four junctions traffic light control systems that are widely used, where monitoring and controlling the flow of vehicles are very critical. The aim is to realize the smooth motion of the car in the transportation routes and the ability to provide a way when there are vehicles such as ambulances, police, and fire trucks that have way priority to pass through in heavy traffic especially at the traffic lights. Several methods are included in the system such as IFTTT application, node MCU ESP32, programming logic control (PLC), and also ADAFRUIT software which is discussed in detail in the project background. Node MCU ESP32 is a method about how the node MCUESP32 to integrated with the PLC using the ADAFRUIT software link with the IFTTT apps.

The common hull used in the maritime sector is not transparent, for example, it is made of aluminium, wood and fibreglass. It was impossible to see a transparent hull boat 10 years ago due to lack of prospects and there was no demand in the market. Now that tourism industry has been growing among the sectors that contribute to a country’s economy, certain improvements have been made to attract tourists from all over the world and one of them is the transparent hull boat which allows passengers to enjoy the view of marine life from above. This article studies and describe will study and describe a model-scale prototype of the transparent hull which used acrylic as the material. Thorough details on acrylic characteristics, properties and reactions have been included inside this project report to support the fabrication of the transparent hull boat. The structure of the boat is based on the flat bottom hull which falls into the planning hull category. This hull form provides more stability and agility compared to other types of hulls. This process is carried out using computer-aided design (CAD) software for a more efficient design. The transparent hull could transmit up to 93% of the light which is better compared to normal glass due to the acrylic mechanical properties. This report has included the hull designs made using CAD software and the result of the simulation. As the hull is made from acrylic, the result of the strength analysis is not as strong as for a steel and wood hull. Hull testing and simulation are done by using a detailed inspection and software simulation to identify defects and flaws.

Transparent boats are widely used in the tourism industry, especially in Malaysia. Applying this project will give a special increase to the economy. The most suitable material that is used to construct the transparent boat is acrylic and polycarbonate. However, polycarbonate is considered to be the best among these two. It is stronger more than acrylic but a bit more expensive. The main intention for this project is to propose an additional asset and adding another branch of equipment of marine tourism in Malaysia. Marine tourism is quite active in Malaysia. Instead of snorkeling, there is a need for a transparent hull to be developed to cater for marine tourism purposes. A complete conceptual design for this leisure craft is proposed. A stability and hydrostatic data with complete general arrangement is developed.

This study analyzes the quality of the water particularly at Sungai Manjung, Perak at various depth levels. In this research context, the water quality index is used to determine the quality of the water and water parameters are used as determinants. Environment Quality Report for Rivers in 2017 has shown that Sungai Manjung is categorized as a slightly polluted river. This study is conducted near the shipyard water area. The observations around the area are conducted and water samples are collected for 60 days in three different depth levels which include, 0.5, 1 and 1.5 m. The pH, temperature, salinity, dissolved oxygen (DO) and total dissolved solid (TDS) are measured. It is found that the pH for all samples is between the range of 7.4 to 8.4 whereas DO varied from 9.42 to 12.85 mg/L, TDS is 4002–9795 p.p.m, temperature ranged from 30 to 34.6 ℃ and salinity is revealed changeless at values between 23 and 24‰. Thus, the findings of this study have revealed that the water quality status in Sungai Manjung is moderately polluted in various depth levels due to several maritime activities in the surrounding area.

Air pollution is a serious problem across the world owing to its substantial influence on the global environment and human health. Many approaches have been conducted by researchers to measure air quality in their regions. One of the approaches is the application of an Internet of Things (IoT), a system of “smart devices” that can monitor and connect with their surroundings and interact with users and other systems. In this paper, an IoT-enabled air pollution monitoring system was proposed. This system was prepared by using gas sensors (DHT 22 and MQ 135), a microcontroller (Arduino Uno), a Wi-Fi module, a cloud database (Blynk), and a smartphone. The air pollution level, temperature, and humidity measurements are collected by the gas sensors and then the data is transmitted to the microcontroller. The microcontroller transmits the data to the cloud through the Wi-Fi module. The Blynk application allows the users to obtain cloud-based air quality data. This application also notifies the users of the status of the air quality in their area via a pop-up message. The users will be notified when the air quality status is unhealthy or very unhealthy and will be able to respond promptly. This proposed system is simple to set up and can operate at any location as needed. Furthermore, the overall cost of this proposed system is minimal, and it can be used for small towns, large parts of countries, even for the large indoor environment like buildings and companies.

The growing era of e-commerce is great news for the business to generate revenues, but it poses a difficulty for warehouse managers as retailers develop and expand, keeping track of an enormous amount of inventory becomes a difficult core. Upon the empirical findings, the primary indicator to enhance the warehousing by means of information system. In addition to logistics 4.0, this research puts forward a conceptual concept on smart warehouse, named the futuristic warehouse synergy incorporating both internal and external blockchain of the warehouse. Traditionally, the warehouse storage area is filled through business and marketing agreements. The innovative idea proposed in this research is an online smart contract, which will be more reliable, less time consuming, data analytics and end-to-end inventory tracking. Therefore, this proposed solution promotes a single online platform that allows shippers and warehouse operators to participate in warehouse online booking and cargo storage. In addition, the implementation of an integrated warehouse management system (iWMS) will organise and carry out warehouse activities at maximum use of technology. The efficient iWMS manages the storage facilities of the warehouse and integrates the available storage space into the warehouse storage space reservation hub system. Given this, the proposed conceptual futuristic warehouse synergy also has consulted with professional experts on the realizability of this idea to be implemented in the future. As such, these technologies work together to enable cargo owners to reserve warehouse storage space online and warehouse operators can increase the warehouse fill rate through continuous online booking.

Barge collisions with bridge piers are frequent accidents that may result in intensive damage, even the collapse of bridges. Due to the difficulty and high expected cost of model testing, this study will use a finite element simulation tool to perform collision analysis. This study investigates the structural behaviour of an impacting barge against a single square and circular bridge piers. The barge and bridge piers are modelled by using a nonlinear finite element model (FEM). The body of the barge and both the bridge piers are assumed to be rigid. The detailed numerical model of the barge and bridge piers is modelled in the Abaqus software. Impact results were obtained at different collision positions to show the consequences of the bridge piers and barge damage. Thus, the kinetic energy, impact force–time, impact force–deformation relationship of the barge are established based on the model results of the impacted structure.

Supply chain practitioners are constantly searching for optimization methods to improve the effectiveness of the supply chain. The emergence of blockchain technology has promised high hopes for the industries to solve many prevalent issues such as tedious documentation trails, lack of transparency, counterfeit products, and many others. The inherent immutability and decentralized nature of the blockchain technology has allowed developers to come out with ways to potentially improve these issues. One of the major issues faced by blockchain companies is the blockchain trilemma, which dictates that no blockchain can be simultaneously decentralized, secured, and scaled. Blockchains should only be able to achieve two of these elements at a high level and somewhat sacrifice the remaining element. This has been a major criticism toward the technology, hindering mass adoption among users. This paper studies this phenomenon and its effects from the standpoint of supply chain users. This paper also proposes a diagram to plot a supply chain’s position within the blockchain trilemma, which should lead to different course of actions. Ultimately, this paper sheds light into the effects of the blockchain trilemma on the supply chain mass adoption.

This paper proposes an innovative approach of biomimicry of marine animals to produce engineering devices with high efficiency. The biomimicry approach creates an opportunity to improve the hydro/aerodynamic performance of objects moving in fluids. However, the characteristic of each animal is usually made to fulfill its specific task. In contrast, engineering devices may need to achieve more than one objective. Thus, we believed that the biomimicry strategy should not only adopting one feature or process from an animal, but it should combine features from a group of animals. Locomotion and propulsion modes, and hydrodynamic efficiency are briefly discussed in this paper. At the end of this paper, a recommendation of an innovative biomimicry approach is proposed. This approach is expected to facilitate the production of engineering devices with higher efficiency without neglecting other important aspects.

The applications of fused deposition modelling (FDM) based 3D printing have gone beyond merely simple prototypes to where functionalities are expected. One of such functionalities is the water retention properties, especially for fluid handling products, either completely waterproof or deliberately porous. Issues arise especially in determining crucial parameters and their optimization to achieve the desired water retention properties. This study established the relationship among printing parameters (layer thickness and wall thickness) and water temperature with leakage flow rate. A series of 3D printed polylactic acid (PLA) vessels were fabricated at various layer height and wall thickness. Then, the volumetric loss of water at various temperatures was measured, elapsed time was recorded, and the leakage flow rate was calculated for each 3D printed vessel. It has been found that the leakage flow rate decreased when layer height decreased, wall thickness increased, and water temperature decreased. Based on multilinear regression analysis, the magnitude of influence for the layer height was the highest, which could reach at a point where variation in wall thickness and water temperature had no effect. A regression model having 81.27% fitness that provided a quantitative relationship among all parameters had also been obtained. ANOVA analysis revealed that all parameters were statistically significant in optimizing as well as predicting the value of the leakage flow rate.

In this study, Sayong ball clay was used as a main material for the fabrication of low-cost ceramic membranes. A micro-filtration ceramic membrane was fabricated from a mixture of Sayong ball clay and starch. Starch with 30 wt% was added to the ball clay to act as a pore former. The effect of compaction pressures and sintering temperature on the properties of the membrane was studied. Compaction pressures of 50 and 200 MPa and sintering temperatures ranging from 900 to 1100 ℃ were chosen. It was found that the apparent porosity and shrinkage reduced, while the bulk density and strength increased when the compaction pressure increased. On the other hand, the apparent porosity decreased when the sintering temperature increased, while the bulk density, shrinkage, and strength increased when the sintering temperature is increased. The compaction pressure of 200 MPa and sintering temperature of 1000 ℃ were considered as optimum conditions for the membranes with bulk density of 1.51 g/cm3, apparent porosity of 31%, and flexural strength of 2.3 MPa. The results have shown that Sayong ball clay can be a potential material to formulate low-cost membranes at optimum fabrication parameters.

Design improvement on the Sungai Melaka cleaning boat involves many categories, including the technical requirements, environmental conditions and human factors as the operator. The application of systematic design methods becomes essential to ensure none of these categories are left behind and thus affect the operational performance. Adopting house of quality (HOQ) enhanced with the axiomatic design was significantly assisted in blending all these aspects in a more objective-based approach. The operator’s requirements (ORs) as the input parameter were carefully interpreted to function’s requirements (FRs) and followed by design parameters (DPs) using the axiomatic design method. The target value as weightage for each FRs was then analysed using HOQ. The finding shows that performance analysis (21%), types of hull form used (19%), and bow design (18%) are the most critical aspects in this design improvement, followed by boat size (16%) and trash container size (14%). Surprisingly, the trash-collecting mechanism scored only 9% and the material selection 3%. These findings are a significant input for the designer to produce potential design solutions using a morphology chart.

This research is about a simulation of the fatigue life of 316L stainless steel at room temperature via the investigation of the fatigue limit in the Ansys software. This approach is helpful in time and cost savings for testing the material. The finite element method (FEM) has turned out to be generally utilized as a part of the industry to conjecture the aftereffect of real investigation to spare cost, time, and analysis’ errors. This research was performed in the SolidWorks software as the primary method, and the stainless steel specimen was imported to the Ansys software for the fatigue life test. The findings from the simulation were compared with the experimental results from the literature to ensure that the percentage error would be less than 20%. The simulated fatigue life estimation method was validated through analytical calculation with an average error of 2.25% between experimental and simulated data and 10.94% between simulated data and the theoretical Basquin approach. Overall, the fatigue life test through Ansys software was valid and acceptable for the endurance limit and life cycle for room temperature fatigue on steel.

The sector known as the male-dominated industry remains until now the maritime industry. As a heavy industry, strength and capability are a priority. Therefore, women are less likely to choose to work in this industry which is supported by stereotypes especially in Asian countries. However, for women, the priority is personal safety. The chosen career should be able to make this woman feel safe while working. Align with that, this study mainly aims to analyse the factors that affect participation of women as seafarer in in the Malaysian maritime sector focusing on safety. It shows women’s view of their career as a seafarer in the Malaysian maritime sector as well as to come up with the potential solution for the safety issues for women seafarer.

Most of the engine manufacturers are facing the challenge to comply with the stringent NOx emission limits from regulatory bodies. There are many methods to reduce the NOx emission available in the industry. Steam addition is one of the promising methods. The main goal of this experiment is to investigate the effect on the NOx reduction when using single-point steam addition into the combustion chamber through the intake manifold. The experiment is carried out on the Cummins NTA 855M marine diesel engine fueled with pure diesel oil. The engine speed is varied from 800 to 1600 rpm and loads 5, 25, 50, 75, and 100%. The NOx emission and exhaust temperature data were evaluated. The results discovered that the reduction of nitrogen oxides emission was up to 21% and very promising compared to other methods.

The emissions issues have always been a major topic for decades as they contributed to the level of quality of emissions released into the environment. The International Maritime Organization (IMO) is very concerned on the dangerous and detrimental effects due to emissions from ship propulsion engines released to the environment. Several regulations on these emissions have been issued and enforced in stages to control the limits of the release of the gasses to the surrounding. Diesel engines are considered as one of the main contributors to environmental pollution caused by exhaust emissions and are accountable for several health problems. These health problems have been going on for so long due to the gas emissions from diesel engines. Ships cause about a third of the oil pollution in the oceans. It is well said that NOX and SOX and other types of gas emissions from ships affect the air quality of the environment and threaten humans, vegetation and bacterial life. NOX emissions depend on the engine design whereas SOX emissions depend on the sulphur contents of the marine diesel oil. The efforts of the study have been devoted to determining the best way that can be applied to solve the issues towards compliances with IMO Annex VI Regulations 13 and 14 (Čampara et al. in SHS Web Conference 58:01004, 2018) [1] in particular. Other gas emissions of carbon dioxide (CO2) and carbon monoxide (CO) were also investigated in this study. The study made use of a small marine diesel engine at which the exhaust gas is passed through a multi-stage cleansing module to investigate the viability of the typical cleansing module proposed. The results from field measurements were taken, recorded and analyzed and the results found that the multi-stage exhaust cleansing module is viable for implementation in ships of larger size with bigger engines.

This paper puts forward the vital findings and scientific principles for the design and development of a digital material tensile strength analyser by the electrical resistivity per unit area technique for use in future undertakings. The metals used in this study are high tensile steel, low tensile steel and stainless steel of marine grade. The measurements made use of the standard ohm-meter or electrical resistivity meter. The measurement of the resistance per length between the probes of the materials is used to mathematically model the tensile strength, in particular the initial yield stress. The measurements were carried out using a normal resistivity meter or ohm-meter to measure the characteristics of the resistance per unit length (R/L) and will be related to the material strength, in particular the initial yield stress. Essentially, the measurements were performed non-destructively or by a non-destructive method. The results obtained were made to correspond to the actual tensile strength values of the materials being studied and expressed mathematically and graphically.