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Due to the unsatisfactory performance of MS544-5 in estimating the design capacity of bolted timber connections, this present study was initiated to validate the existing predictive equations used by the Malaysian Standard (MS544-5). An evaluation of the European Yield Model (EYM) equation was also done to provide an optimal design equation for the bolted connection design in local hardwood. To verify these two sets of equations, a series of bolted timber connection tests was conducted on Nyatoh hardwood. Nyatoh was chosen as its strength makes it ideal for use as structural timbers, either as roof rafters or floor joists in masonry building constructions. The bolted timber connection tests conducted involved eight types of bolt configurations and the tests on each configuration was done in sets of 10 specimens. The experimental values obtained were then compared with the predictive equations of MS544-5 and EYM to examine their effectiveness. From the comparison, it was found that the prediction values given by MS544-5 were overly conservative with an average effective ratio of 0.34 while the EYM had an average effective ratio of 1.09. Thus, the use of EYM equations was recommended for the sustainable retrofit design development of Malaysian masonry buildings.

The use of reinforced concrete flat slabs in building construction increases the floor-to-floor clearance, expedites site operations, and offers aesthetically rewarding features. However, punching shear failure in a flat slab is brittle in nature and can be potentially catastrophic. Many studies have been conducted to improve the punching shear capacity of flat slabs but some of the proposed punching shear reinforcements were complicated and costly. This research aimed to evaluate the effectiveness of a simple and cost-effective; truss-shaped punching shear reinforcement embedded in a 1200 mm × 1200 mm × 175 mm thick flat slab specimen. Three types of truss-shaped punching shear reinforcements were prepared. All specimens were supported at the edges and subjected to gravity load tests. The results showed that the introduction of truss-shaped punching shear reinforcement increased the punching shear capacity in the range of 7.71% to 21.47%. The maximum deflection of these specimens exhibited an insignificant increase compared to the control specimen, suggesting that punching failure governed the ultimate behavior. The additional strength offered by truss-shaped punching shear reinforcement makes flat slabs as a construction material more appealing because they allow them to withstand higher design loads.

Previous studies on coconut fibre reinforced concrete, and coconut shell concrete showed the potential of these wastes to be used as alternative materials in building construction. Presence of coconut fibre and coconut shell gives beneficial to concrete in increasing concrete toughness and produced lightweight concrete. In this experimental study, a combination of these coconut components (fibre and shell) was used as concrete composite to investigate its physical properties and compressive strength. Three types of concrete were cast, i.e. normal concrete, coconut shell concrete and coconut fibre reinforced coconut shell concrete. The amount of coconut fibre added in coconut shell concrete was 0.5% of mass volume. The results showed that replacing aggregate with coconut shell reduced the concrete density and compressive strength. Additional coconut fibre aided in holding the coconut shell concrete material and improve the slump value.

Population growth in Malaysia is expected to increase rapidly. Every sector of industry is expected to have a revolution including in agriculture sector. The utilization of organic fertilizer in agriculture as a green movement is to replace the chemical fertilizer subsequently, reduce the municipal sludge waste. Hence enhancing the growth and supply of nutrient to plant. However, the pathogenic growth in the final product is the greatest concerns. Thus, this study aims to evaluate the pathogen population in the compost of municipal sludge mixed with landscape waste for 90 days. The pathogen dynamic and its correlation with organic matter in 3 different ratios were analysed and recorded. The result showed that the pathogenic trends was uniformly increased at the early stage of composting and decreased gradually after reached the peak. R4 which comprises of equal ratio between municipal sludge and seed compost showed positive correlation with organic matter. R3 and R4 showed better removal of pathogen at maturity stage. Pseudomonas aeruginosa and Salmonella were failed to comply with the standard for R3 and only Salmonella failed for R4. This study supports the achievement of the Sustainability Development Goal (SDG) as an alternative way to combat the environmental issue by leveraging the usage of the waste produced for the purpose of the waste reduction and sustain the environment.

Cement was a binder material that used in concrete industry. The cost production was very expensive due to the high global demand. Therefore, as a new alternative to replace the used of cement in concrete, which was bottom ash. The objectives of this study were to investigate properties of cement matric of concrete containing bottom ash, and to observe the ability of bottom ash as a binder. Based on the result on XRF, Ordinary Portland Cement and bottom ash had nearly similar compounds of Calcium and Silica. Results of slump test indicate that concrete contains of 10 %- 30% bottom ash cause the true slump. Determination of the capability and strength of concrete obtained from water absorption test. Percentage of water absorbed increases with increasingly of proportion bottom ash. The strength of concrete for compression test was 27.5 MPa for 10 % of bottom ash that achieved the targeted. Higher percentage of bottom ash replacement affected matrix C-S-H (calcium silicate-hydrate) bond. Interfacial transition zone surface and scanning electron microscope observations confirm these findings. Therefore, municipal solid waste incinerator bottom ash can act partly replace cement in concrete but would not exceed 30% of usage.

Each year, a large amount of quarry dust (QD) waste is disposed into landfills. This waste material was obtained as a by-product during the production of aggregates through the crushing process of rocks at the quarry site. The increasing value of waste will have a significant impact on health and the environment. Reusing such wastes by including them into building materials is a practical answer for the pollution problem. Therefore, this research was to observe the possibility of quarry dust to be included in a concrete mix. The quarry dust has been used as a partial replacement for cement proportion at different levels of replacement (25%, 30% and 35%). Quarry dust was used as the main material in this project to measure the effectiveness of concrete performance. In this research, the quarry dust composition was determined by using X-Ray Fluorescence Spectrometer (XRF). From the x-ray fluorescent spectrometry test result, the quarry dust displays some similar characteristics with the Ordinary Portland Cement (OPC) where it comprises a high composition of Calcium Oxide (CaO). Research were done to determine the optimum percentage of quarry dust in concrete. The result shows that 25% of quarry dust and 75% of cement is the best percentage that can be used in concrete mixture to reach the standard strength. From an economic point of view, the proposed optimum concrete mix was found to be the most economical with the reducing of RM 33 per 1 m3 of the concrete mixture. The results indicated that the quarry dust waste could be utilised as cement replacement to produce durable and resilient concrete. These materials could be an alternative low-cost material for concrete and at the same time provide a new disposal method for the waste.

This study focusses on the development of new lightweight aggregate (LWA) that eventually will have comparable properties with existing natural aggregate which is granite. The main objectives of this study is to examine potential use of recycled municipal solid waste incineration (MSWI) ash as raw material in LWA production with a method of cold-bonded palletization process. The ashes are collected from Cameron Highland Incineration Plant, Malaysia that can be divided into bottom ash (BA) and fly ash (FA). This study uses FA as partial raw material to substitute the Ordinary Portland Cement (OPC). The properties FA are studied by means of X-Ray Fluorescence (XRF). The LWA is fly ash lightweight aggregate (FALA). The production of LWA is based on cold-bonded palletization technique. FALA have experienced two different curing process for 28 days namely room-room (RR) and room-water (RW) curing conditions. The percentage of FA used in this study is 10%, 20%, 30%, 40% and 50% of cement replacement and the size is fixed between 10 mm to 20 mm with circular shape. The properties of FALA produced in this study is examined including loose bulk density, and aggregate impact value (AIV). Other physical properties including colour and texture are also being investigated. From the results of LWA it is clearly seen that 20% FA were the best percentage of ash used to produce good quality LWA. Loose bulk density of FALA selected is 716.72 kg/m3 and AIV 13.80%.

The research carried out to study on the performance of the flat slab under the design load. The design loads consist of service load, 14.68 kN/m2 and the ultimate load, 21.31 kN/m2. The justification on the design load was from the car park. The Three-Dimensional (3D) Finite Element Analysis (FEA) were conducted to investigate their failures modes with the appropriate modelling of element, mesh and concrete parameter. The size of flat slab was 1200 mm x 1200 mm x 175 mm while the material parameters were the Grade 25 for concrete and S275 for steel. It is found that the improvements more than 20% to the strength of model flat slab with shear reinforcement. Another outcome of the study indicated that the punching shear location using the FEA was less than 250 mm from column perimeter which is within the two times the depth (2d) from column face as proposed by the Eurocode 2: Design of Concrete Structures.

Concrete technology is life-long research, that strives to discover the best additives or admixtures that are able to produce good concrete in terms of physical, chemical and mechanical properties in a more economical, sustainable, environmental friendly and obtainable. This study focuses the effect of different percentages of EM toward strength of concrete. The compressive strength test was carried out to analyse these properties by using the concrete cubes with size 100 mm x 100 mm x 100 mm. These concrete mixes were tested at different ages which are 7, 14 and 28 days. Effective microorganism (EM) replacement percentages are 5%, 10% and 15% and the strength of concrete with EM replacement will be compared with the control sample. All the cubes were cured by immersed in the water for curing process before the compressive strength tests were conducted. The finding shows that the workability degree of EM mixture is similar with the conventional mixture. The compressive strength increase with the increment of EM content. The results shows that 10% of EM could be the optimum value of water replacement in concrete production to improve strength and durability.

This paper discusses about the production and characteristic of lightweight bubble aggregate and foamed concrete. Lightweight aggregates (LWA) are produced by mixing an appropriate amount of foam and ordinary Portland cement and pelletized into assigned size and shape. Then, the characteristics of LWA are identified to ensure that aggregate produced can be categorized into LWA with acceptable qualities. For the foamed concrete, its performances are tested and studied by selecting five different percentages for partial substitution of LWA as coarse aggregate. Main aim of the research is to identify the characteristic of lightweight foamed concrete such as density, water absorption, aggregate impact value (AIV), compressive strength after using LWA as an alternative material for construction industry. This aim also in parallel to main idea of reducing the usage of natural coarse aggregate which is granite that is facing serious depletion. Three different percentages of concrete mixtures using LWA have been prepared that consist of 25% and 50% of LWA together with control sample that contained 100% natural coarse aggregate. These three different mixes are produced manually where the mortars, foam, granite and LWA were mixed together in mixer. The samples have undergone several testing including density test, water absorption test and compression test. Microstructure of the samples also was examined using SEM. From the results obtained, foamed concrete that were produced with 25% substitution of LWA showed the highest compressive strength of 10.74 MPa with density of 1735 kg/m3. In conclusion, LWA have shown promising potential to be used in the foamed concrete production.

Concrete is the most consumed material, with three tonnes per year used for every person in the world. Twice as much concrete is used in construction as all other building materials combined. Concrete has excellent characteristic in compressive strength, but low in tensile strength. Steel commonly used in reinforcing material because of high tensile strength. The usage of steel as reinforcing material is limited because it is costly and also has an effect on air pollution during its manufacturing process. As an alternative to overcome this problem, bamboo material has been used as a replacement of reinforcement in concrete. Bamboo is a suitable material because it is a natural material, cheap and also available material. In this research, the performance of bamboos as an alternative material in reinforced concrete has been evaluated. Tensile strength test of bamboos has been performed to identify the yields stress of bamboos. From the test, result has shown that bamboo has a similar characteristic with steel and bamboo can be used as an alternative material for reinforcing concrete. However, the characteristic of bamboos showed high water absorption and low bonding strength between bamboo’s surface and concrete. In this research, a waterproofing agent has been used to minimize water absorption and increase the bonding strength. Flexural strength test of the bamboo singly reinforced beam with the size of 150 mm x 150 mm x 750 mm has been undertaken to determine the performance of bamboo as reinforcement. From the test, it has resulted that bamboo give good potential as an alternative material in concrete reinforcement for low-cost housing industry.

Compressive strength of concrete is the major mechanical properties of concrete that need to be focused on. Poor compressive strength will lead to low susceptibility of concrete structure towards designated actions. Many researches have been conducted to enhance the compressive strength of concrete by incorporating new materials in the concrete mixture. The dependencies towards natural resources can be reduced. Therefore, this paper presents the results of an experimental study concerning the incorporation of artificial lightweight bubbles aggregate (LBA) into cementations mixture in order to produce comparable compressive strength but at a lower densities. Three concrete mixtures containing various percentages of LBA, (10% - 50% of LBA) and one mixture used normal aggregate (NA) were prepared and characterized. The compressive strength of LBA in concrete was identified to be ranged between 39 MPa and 54 MPa. Meanwhile, the densities vary between 2000 kg/m3 to 2300 kg/m3.

Usage of waste materials as concrete mixture can reduce the waste management crisis in the world. Used tyres were widely researched as an alternative source of aggregates replacement in concrete mixture. This research is to study the behaviour of concrete incorporating rubber tyre crumb as fine aggregate replacement. The workability, compression strength and water absorption of this concrete will be determined and then compared to normal concrete. Motorcycle inner tube will be used as rubber source and it will be shredded to crumbs. Three samples of concrete with rubber as fine aggregates were prepared. Rubber crumbs will be used to replace fine aggregates in 2.5, 5.0 and 7.5% in mass. Normal concrete were prepared separately as control for comparison. Concrete mixture of 1:2:4 and 0.5 of water cement ratio were used. Slump test were done to test the workability of each mix. Twelve sample cubes from (150mm x 150mm x 150mm) each mix were prepared and cured for 7, 14 and 28 days. Compression tests were performed for each mix cube at age 7, 14 and 28 days. Water absorption test were done at age 28 days. Results revealed that rubberized concrete has better workability than normal concrete. They also have smaller compressive value and higher water absorption compared to normal concrete.

The use of pozzolanic material from waste product as partial cement replacement in concrete contribute to reduce the environmental, economic problem through their waste and as well enhance the strength and properties of concrete. Rice husk ash (RHA) is one of the industrial waste that suitably used as a cement replacement due to its pozzolanic properties which can enhance the properties of concrete. In this study, the workability, compressive strength and water absorption of the concrete containg RHA is investigating. The chemical content of RHA also investigated by using X-ray Fluorescence Test (XRF). The different RHA percentage of 5%, 15% and 25% were used in this study with burning temperature 650°C. The concrete cube of size 100 mm x 100 mm x 100 mm were prepared and cured for 7, 14 and 28 days. Based on result, it was concluded that the optimum RHA replacement for cement in this report was 5 %, which provided the highest compressive strength at 28 days.

The depletion of natural resources in the production of coarse aggregate are very crucial. Construction materials are solely depends on natural granite in the making of cement composite. Therefore , there is an urgency need to develop new alternatives material that can replace the usage of granite in concrete production. In this study, LBA have been produced to cater this problem. It is made from a mixture of bubbles from foam and ordinary portland cement. The ratio of the raw materials used is 1 part of bubbles and 2 part of ordinary Portland cement. Its manufacturing process does not involving any sintering process so it will part help to reduce energy comsuption at about 30%. The properties and characteristics of the LBA such as density, specific gravity, water absorption, strength were investigated. Results shown that the specific gravity of LBA was 1.00, water absorption was 19.44%, dry bulk density was between 730 – 800 kg/m3 and dry loose bulk density was ranged from 700 to 730 kg/m3 and the strength of aggregates is 14.00 MPa. It is found that the LBA can be used as a partial replacement of granite in the production of concrete. Keywords: LBA, concrete, density

Glass dust waste creates chronic environmental problems, mainly due to the inconsistency of waste glass streams. Glass is widely used in our lives through manufactured products such as sheet glass, bottles, glassware, and vacuum tubing. Glass is an ideal material for recycling. The use of recycled glass helps in energy saving. The increasing awareness of glass recycling speeds up inspections on the use of waste glass with different forms in various fields. One of its significant contributions is to the construction field where the waste glass was reused for concrete production. The properties of concretes containing glass dust waste as fine aggregate were investigated in this study. Glass dust waste was used as a partial replacement for sand at 10%, 20% and 50% of concrete mixes. Compression strength for 7, 14 and 28 days concrete of age were compared with those of concrete made with natural fine aggregates. The results proved that highest strength activity given by glass dust waste after 28 days. The compressive strength of specimens with 10% glass dust waste content were 32.9373 MPa, higher than the concrete control specimen at 28 days. Using glass dust waste in concrete is an interesting possibility for economy on waste disposal sites and conservation of natural resources.

Lightweight foamed concrete is a concrete made by cement slurry mixed with foam so that foamed concrete that is much lighter than conventional concrete can be produced. The objectives of this study is to develop optimal pre-foamed lightweight foamed concrete and to achieve desired density of lightweight concrete that is below 2400 kg/m3. Three samples of concrete were batching with 0%, 25% and 50% of foam respectively under mixing ratio of 1:1:2 and foam dilution ratio 1:5 to obtain optimum result. Based on the result attained, the samples achieved the bulk density ranged from 1943 kg/m3 to 2305 kg/m3. In addition, other physical characteristics of this mixture of materials show that its water absorption for all the samples was increased from 6.508% to 11.889%. This trend of results was obtained if the volume of foam presented in the concrete were increased. Furthermore, the samples achieved compression strength ranged from 22.418 MPa to 32.229 MPa with presence of foam. In summary, with additional of fly ash and concrete sludge as aggregate it can help to produce comparable concrete composites with lighter density.

Development activities in construction sector have caused serious problems throughout the world as the natural resource depletion and produce large amounts of waste. In Malaysia, the main problem appeared when most of the waste was abandoned and not recycling. Such conditions can cause serious problem such as environmental pollution. This research utilizes aluminum waste as sand replacement in concrete. The use of these materials not only helps in the natural resources such as sand, aggregate, cement and other building. However, it also helps in reducing the manufacturing cost of the concrete. In addition, the reduction in the cost of waste disposal, saving manpower and protect the environment from the effects of pollution are the benefits derived from the use of waste materials. A study was conducted on the use of recyclable aluminum materials, as sand replacement material in concrete mix with replacement of 1%, 2% and 5%. Lab tests, including slump tests, compressive strength and water absorption were conducted in this study. As a result, samples containing 1% aluminum waste has better performance in terms of strength and containing 5% aluminum waste has good resistance to water absorption. Using aluminum waste in concrete is an interesting way in recycling waste thus can reduce waste disposal on sites and also can conserve the natural resources.

Rapid industrial development causes serious problem all over the world such as depletion of natural aggregates and creates enormous amount of waste material from construction and demolition activities. Quantities of polymer wastes also have been increased these recent years due to the boost in industrialization and the rapid improvement in the standard of living. In Malaysia, most of polymer wastes is abandoned and not recycled. This situation causes serious problems such as wastage of natural resources and environmental pollution. Polymer products such as synthetic fibers, plastics and rubber belong to petrochemical compound and not easily biodegradable even after a long period. One of the ways to reduce this problem is to utilize waste materials in the production of concrete. Use of these materials not only helps in getting them utilize in cement, sand, aggregate, concrete and other construction materials, it helps in reducing the cost of concrete manufacturing, but also has numerous indirect benefits such as reduction in land-fill cost, saving in energy and protecting the environment from possible pollution effects. An experimental research is made on the utilization of plastic waste, High Density Polyethylene (HDPE) as coarse aggregates in concrete with a percentage replacement of 10 %, 20 % and 30 %. The laboratory tests include slump test, compressive strength and water absorption were conducted in this research. The samples content 10 % of HDPE has better performance in term of strength.

The use of waste materials in construction industry is very essential in order to reduce the depletion of natural sources. Thus, this study is focused to determine the performance of lightweight foamed concrete made with concrete sludge aggregate (CSA) and to determine the optimum proportion of CSA that can gives optimum compressive strength. Strength is one of the most important properties of concrete since the first consideration in structural design is that the structural elements must be capable of carrying necessary loads. CSA has been use as partial substitution to normal coarse aggregate to manufacture structural lightweight foamed concrete. Two different sets of CSA proportion have been prepared with foamed injected through mixing processes. 25% and 50% of CSA for production of lightweight concrete were designed according to proper mix design. It is found that maximum percentage of CSA that contribute to the highest compressive strength of 25MPa is 50% of CSA replacement. Its density is 1837 kg/m3 with water adsorption of 16.35%. The usage of concrete sludge aggregate as construction material can be further promoted in order to solve major environmental issues.

Activated carbons were prepared from rambutan seed with impregnation of zinc chloride as dehydrating agent. In order to find its characteristics, different zinc chloride to rambutan seed ratio (0.5 and 2) and activation temperature (450 and 650 °C) was employed. The carbonization occurred in a tube furnace with flow of nitrogen gas at 0.5 L/min. The results showed that at higher impregnation ratio and carbonization temperature produced a wider BET surface area of activated carbon that was 9.8761 m2/g. Total pore volume also increased with increases of these two factors. However activation yield was decreased with increasing of carbonization temperature.

Geotextile is one of material in engineering field. In this research, nonwoven geotextile is used at road shoulder to flow clean water to the drainage system since it can act as a filter. The purpose of this research are to determine the ability of nonwoven geotextile as filter media and identify the quality of the filtered water before and after placing the nonwoven geotextile. Therefore, the road shoulder is designed to show the filtering process. Based on the JKR Manual On Pavement Design, a minimum thickness for soil and aggregate is 100 mm and each layer is compacted. However, the actual thickness is not being used because it is only to show the ability of nonwoven geotextile in filtering process and its consequence of using it. Two small scale models are created, first is with nonwoven geotextile and another one is without geotextile which aims to show the difference. Tank size 350 x 200 x 240 mm is used for placing material same as road shoulder such as nonwoven geotextile, sand, soil, and aggregates which form in three layers. Water was poured in the road shoulder model. Then the water sample flow out from the tank was tested in terms of level of turbidity and suspended solids contained in the water. Base on the results, it shows that the use of nonwoven geotextile can reduce almost 100% of suspended solid and turbidity of the water from flow into drainage system. As conclusion, the use of nonwoven geotextile at road shoulder can contribute positive impact to reduce the level of water pollution.

This study was to develop fire-resistant panels with a high biomass ash ratio from the combustion of EFB at an industrial scale to be used in different fire-resistant internal partitions in buildings and industrial constructions. This study develop new products made of by biomass ash from industry waste for the internal partitions panel. Modifying the internal partition panel of wall with addition of biomass ash (EFB) and clay soils in producing new products that can resist and retain durability and resilience of the panel products to the fire. ASTM C1396 Standard Specification for Gypsum Board defines Gypsum wallboard as designed wallboard use for on walls, ceilings, or partitions and that affords a surface suitable to receive decoration tested in accordance with ASTM E1 19 Standard Test Methods for Fire Tests of Building Construction and Materials. For this study, fire resistance, thermal and mechanical parameters were measured. The panels which are 100 mm × 100 mm by 15 mm thick were prepared following ASTM standard. The product here studied in the form of low-density panels (800 kg/m) has a great potential for an industrial use, showing similar properties to those found in commercial gypsum plasterboard, a material of generalized use for this type of application. Consequently, from the test, biomass ash (EFB) panel board can retain more than 2 hours fire resistance in standard conditions of room temperature by fire laboratory and panels showing a compressive strength of 3.535 MPa.

Performances of lightweight foamed concretes that are made from partial substitution of waste clay brick as coarse aggregate has been investigated in this study. The research aims were to identify the properties and characteristic of lightweight foamed concrete using waste clay brick as alternative materials to reduce the depletion of normal coarse aggregate from granite. Four different percentages of concrete mixtures using new coarse aggregate have been prepared that consist of 25%, 50%, 75%, and 100% waste clay brick. Foamed were injected into concrete mixture to produce lightweight concrete with appropriate proportions. The samples have undergone several testing including compression test, water absorption test, workability test and density test. From the results obtained, lightweight concrete that were produced with 25% substitution of waste clay brick showed the highest compressive strength of 25MPa with density of 1647kg/m3.

This research has been conducted as an initiative to determine Plasticity Index (PI) and Compression Index (Cc) of soil samples taken at several locations around Perlis. For each location, the disturbed soils samples are taken at three different points and are indicated by P1, P2 and P3. In addition, Particle Size Distribution, Specific Gravity and pH test is also conducted to obtain more detailed information for the soil samples. Preparation of soil sample and the experimental procedure is based on BS1377 (1990). The results of this study have shown that, when the value of Plasticity Index (PI) increases, the Compression Index (Cc) will also be increased. From this research, relationship between Plasticity Index (PI) and Compression Index (Cc) is established. The Compression Index (Cc) of soil sample can be identified by executing the Plasticity Index (PI).