Work at fossil-fuelled power plant is physically strenuous and could expose workers to Work-related Musculoskeletal Disorder (WMSD) such as Carpal Tunnel Syndrome (CTS), low-back pain (LBP), or shoulder tendonitis. WMSDs are considered as a leading factor in disabilities and absenteeism, reduced production, and increased costs. WMSDs in the workplace have been studied extensively and it is a common notion that the work itself is a major cause of MSDs. Work environment contributed to these types of disorders and are made worse by the working conditions or workplace risk factors. All those mentioned common occupational injuries are related with the ergonomic field of study. By implementing appropriate ergonomic interventions, the above-mentioned work-related injuries and resulting disability is potentially preventable. The major workforce in these plants are either associated with handling of machineries or serving as control room operators. Hence, this category of manpower is subjected to physical stress and workplace injuries if there is no form of ergonomic interventions. Previous studies have shown that common tasks performed by workers in the electric power industry often involve the use of a manual tool and revealed that less than 1% of the general population has sufficient strength to manually perform the task resulting in decreased productivity and worker injury. Departing from the aforementioned need, this study embarks to assess exposure to risk factors for WMSDs and to provide a basis for ergonomic intervention at the workplace. Therefore, by focusing on health and safety matter of workers at our power plants, we are actually applying a form of business risk management (BRM) to consider possible impacts of related foreseeable significant risks on any electricity utilities performance. It is envisaged that this study could identify the ergonomics interventions which will reduce staff medical bills, compensation, and lost time injury from MSDs.

This paper presents the experimental work on typical Malaysian silty residual soils in order to evaluate fundamental soil properties in particular its stiffness under low frequency cyclic loading. There has been very little information on local silty residual soils which is very important for local geotechnical design purposes. Lack of such information contributes to the dependency of foreign soil data which might not be representative of local silty residual soils. This study departs from the basis of there have been verified evidences that we are not spared from seismic activity in Malaysia. Hence, it would be misleading if we were to exclude soil properties under cyclic loading for design purposes in Malaysia. This research revolves around the development of simplified device to evaluate the stress-strain behaviour of soils under simple shear strain conditions. The cyclic loading test results on Malaysian sedimentary residual soil sample exhibit increase of drained shear stiffness, GSTIF and gained strength after 30 cycles indicating cyclic hardening behaviour. It is evident that magnitudes of cyclic load and cyclic displacement influences the rate of soil volume change. Nevertheless, the densification of soil samples due to increment of cycles caused reduction in volume change. It is foreseen that the obtained parameters could assist in the practical geotechnical engineering problems related to cyclic conditions.

Residents living downstream of Kenyir dam (Stesen Janaelektrik Sultan Mahmud) are at risk of being flooded due to overflow through spillway, or worst, dam breaks. The nearest community to Kenyir dam is Kampung Jenagor (Kampung Jenagor) residents. A disaster preparedness action plan was proposed to equip the residents with essential knowledge on how to respond to such disaster and how to safely evacuate to designated safe havens. This paper presents one key element of the mentioned action plan, which is to develop and install a flood disaster early warning system. The system is aimed to effectively disseminate warning to Kampung Jenagor residents and ensure that there is a constant state of preparedness. The paper discusses the fundamentals of effective warning dissemination and basic design of Kampung Jenagor's early warning system.

One of the most highlighted issues in the developing world of the 21st century is the hydrometeorological disasters. Developed and developing nations are all affected by the more prominent climate change. There has been a rise in disaster occurrences over the past decade that this has caused more attention to be given to the topic of disaster management especially to floods. The scale of these disaster events has also intensified and have broken past records with more destructive disasters. This paper intends to review the activities related to hydrometeorological disaster. Key activities are broken down into three different phases, namely pre-disaster, during disaster and post-disaster. Understanding the activities involved is pertinent to not only the lead agencies and non-governmental organizations but plays a bigger role for the vulnerable communities. In the past, communities were the last group to be participative in disaster risk reduction efforts. Today, communities are being engaged from early stage to empower them to be resilient towards the possibility of facing future flood disaster. Evacuation planning and logistics arrangement are key activities prior to the occurrence of any disaster which will ease the implementation of search and rescue operations. However during disaster, it is important for the early warning system to be functioning to alert the affected communities. People also need to be aware of the outbreak of diseases during flood disaster. Finally, post-disaster efforts focuses more on the restoration of damaged infrastructure as well as the mental state of the affected victims. Understanding these key activities will increase the awareness of stakeholders in reducing loss of life and minimizing damages towards properties.

Humanitarian logistics which is precisely known as humanitarian supply chain (HSC) plays a major role in reducing the impact of disaster on human life and livelihood by providing humanitarian aid in the forms of food, water, medicine, shelter and other supplies. Unfortunately, anecdotal evidences indicated that relief chain tends to be unstable, unpredictable and unresponsive to the needs of disaster victims. The 2004 Asian tsunami highlighted the lack of coordination between the relief chain linkages that hampered effective supply of aid. This phenomenon was further evident in our own context during the 2014 flood devastation in Peninsular Malaysia. Floodwaters and subsequent landslides blocked major roads, limiting access to evacuation centres and impeding the delivery of emergency relief supplies. Hence, an effective humanitarian supply chain management (HSCM) should be able to be deployed rapidly enabling provision of aid to beneficiaries. Notwithstanding the frequency and impact of disasters, humanitarian organizations today are under continuous pressure of improving their logistics performance. Departing from this need, this study aims to examine the criteria that influence the humanitarian aid actors in their decision making while increasing transparency and accountability of relief operations. Therefore, it is imperative for humanitarian sector to quantify the efficiency and effectiveness of a particular relief operation using set of performance metrics. A mixed methods approach comprising qualitative and quantitative survey will be used. The study intended to identify and define the metrics that would determine successful operational performance of disaster relief. This research will contribute mainly in the development of a HSCM performance model that (i) informs decision makers at the strategic, tactical and operational level in tracking progress, (ii) facilitate a more open and transparent communication and cooperation between humanitarian actors, and (iii) improve the logistics of disaster management both at the government and at non-governmental level.

Evaluating the performance of beam-like structures in terms of their current boundary conditions, stiffness and modal properties can be challenging as the structures behave differently from their designed conditions due to aging. The purpose of the current study is to determine the flexural rigidity of beam-like structures when their support conditions are not fully understood. A novel optimization scheme is proposed for estimation of the flexural stiffness and the capacity of the beam-like structures under moving loads. The proposed method is applied to various profiles of the beams made of different materials with unknown boundary conditions, and the effects of damage, excitation and optimization algorithm are rigorously investigated. The results of the numerical and experimental studies showed that the proposed substructural bending rigidity identification (SBI) method can correctly assess the in-service flexural stiffness, fixity of the boundary condition and the load-carrying capacity. This technique can be considered as a cost-effective method for periodic monitoring, load rating and model updating of the beam-like structures.

Development of output-only modal testing and monitoring systems of real civil engineering structures albeit very appealing have been very challenging to engineers of any progression. This paper analyses some of the most critical issues that are needed for the success of implementing this approach to civil engineering structures. Illustrations are made based mainly on the applications developed by the present authors when conducting their research at the Queensland University of Technology (QUT). For illustration purposes, two representative test structures are selected to reflect different characteristics of structures. This paper then focuses in detail on instrumentation aspects since these are amongst the most confusing issues. All necessary components of complete instrumentation systems are analysed with different scenarios and structures. Last shared are some key notes on the test management process which is especially relevant to long-term modal-based monitoring applications.

Excessive rain pattern has been the major cause contributing to flooding of low land due to excess water release from affected dams. This deliberate measure has to be taken to prevent the catastrophic effect of a dam break scenario. Therefore, this kind of disaster is considered as a local phenomenon. The local communities are the vulnerable population to face the immediate impact of such disaster. Needless to mention that they are also first emergency responders which is crucial for saving lives. It is therefore imperative for the involved stakeholders to improve local communities’ resilience to dam related disasters. This resonates well with the Hyogo Framework for Action, which identify local communities as integral cornerstone for saving lives and livelihoods. In the case of communities living near main hydropower dams owned by Tenaga Nasional Berhad, an initiative known as Integrated Community Based Disaster Management (ICBDM) has been launched in May 2015. This initiative adopts the concept of 3Es; embrace, educate and empower. The priority is to ensure the vulnerable communities embrace the reality, being educated to face any upcoming situation as well as being empowered to take charge of immediate live saving efforts in the future. The initiative involves five key scopes encompassing technical and non-technical areas and promotes the strategic partnerships between dam owner, authority and the community. It is anticipated that this initiative will build the resilience of communities to dam related disaster.

For assessment of existing bridges, load rating is usually performed to assess the capacity against vehicular loading. Codified load rating can be conservative if the rating is not coupled with the field data or if simplifications are incorporated into assessment. Recent changes made to the Australian Bridge assessment code (AS 5100.7) distinguish the difference between design and assessment requirements, and include addition of structural health monitoring for bridge assessment. However, very limited guidelines are provided regarding higher order assessment levels, where more refined approaches are required to optimize the accuracy of the assessment procedure. This article proposes a multi-tier assessment procedure for capacity estimation of existing bridges using a combination of structural health monitoring techniques, advanced nonlinear analysis, and probabilistic approaches to effectively address the safety issues on aging bridges. Assessment of a Box Girder bridge was carried out according to the proposed multi-tier assessment, using data obtained from modal and destructive testing. Results of analysis at different assessment tiers showed that both load-carrying capacity and safety index of the bridge vary significantly if current bridge information is used instead of as-designed bridge information. Findings emerged from this study demonstrated that accuracy of bridge assessment is significantly improved when structural health monitoring techniques along with reliability approaches and nonlinear finite element analysis are incorporated, which will have important implications that are relevant to both practitioners and asset managers.

Load assessment of existing bridges in Australia is evaluated mainly using beam line model and the grillage analogy to examine the structural integrity of bridge components due to live loadings. With the majority of existing bridge networks designed for superseded design vehicular loading, the necessity to utilise more rigorous analysis methods to assess the load effects of bridges is indispensable. In this paper, various vehicular loading cases on a grillage model of a box girder bridge and its equivalent finite element model (FE) are considered, and their applicability for bridge assessment using structural health monitoring (SHM) as defined in the new revision of AS 5100.7 is studied. Based on numerical analyses, it was observed that component-level load effects in the two models have notable differences, irrespective of vehicle speed, position and loading. However, when global-level load responses are compared, the discrepancy in analysis outputs drops dramatically. The modelling ratios developed in this paper are practical and will be applicable with any modelling techniques for bridge assessment under vehicular loading on both a global and component-response basis. It was also observed that FE is more efficient in terms of model updating and damage simulation, and hence more appropriate for implementation of SHM techniques. The proposed flowchart suggested for heavy load assessment incorporates detailed and simple modelling approaches aligned with experimental data obtained by SHM techniques, which can be used for periodic and long-term monitoring of bridges. It can enhance the proper determination of bridge condition states, as any conservative estimation of bridge capacity may result in unnecessary load limitations.

Grillage analogy is a popular method for analyzing various types of highway bridges in design offices. For load assessment of existing bridges in Australia, mainly beam line model and grillage analogy are employed to evaluate the structural integrity of bridge components due to live loadings. With majority of existing bridge networks designed per superseded design vehicles, the necessity to utilize more rigorous analysis methods to assess the load effects of bridges is indispensable. In this paper, various vehicular loading cases on grillage model of a box girder bridge with its equivalent finite element model were made. Based on the numerical analysis, it was observed that component-level load effects of two models have notable differences irrespective of vehicle speed, position and loading. However, when global-level load responses are compared, the discrepancy in outputs drops dramatically. Developed modelling ratios are practical and found to be applicable to any modelling techniques for assessment of vehicular loading both in global and component-response basis. Proposed flowchart suggested for heavy load assessment incorporates detailed and simple modelling approaches aligned with experimental data which can be used for periodic and long term monitoring of bridges. It can enhance the proper determination of bridge condition states, as any conservative estimation of bridge capacity may result in unnecessary load limitations.

Shear strengthening of RC beam with adhesively bonded carbon fiber reinforced-polymer (CFRP) laminates is becoming both environmentally and economically more preferable than replacement. However, the early separation of these plated stripes was the most critical failure which leads to prevent reaching the full capacity required from the strengthening. This study aims to present a new method to prevent debonding failure of CFRP laminates adhesively glued to concrete surface using embedded connectors to enhance the interfacial bond strength. Therefore, steel bar and adhesive connectors were fabricated and used at the interface of the bonded CFRP laminates. Five beam specimens including one control beam were tested to investigate the effects of the connectors to prevent or delay the premature debonding of the EB CFRP laminates. The experimental results showed that both steel and adhesive connectors completely prevented premature debonding failure of CFRP shear strip and allowed the beams to fail by flexure with full ductility and strength. Steel and adhesive connectors would enhance 33% and 38% failure loads respectively as compared to strengthened beam without connectors.

Objectives: To investigate the post-tensioning behavior of the soil-cement interlocking bricks used in masonry wall subjected to out-of-plane loads. Methods/Statistical Analysis: Three types of wall specimen were tested with post-tensioned forces of 50% and 65% of maximum post-tension force. The wall specimens were tested horizontally after applying the post-tensioning force by applying two vertical point loads distributed equally along the wall. Findings: Results showed that service load and ultimate load for W1 are 6.2 KN and 9.5 KN respectively. The mentioned loads for W2 were 7 KN and 11.8 KN respectively. The maximum deflection occurred in W1 and W2 was 69 mm and 32 mm respectively. On the other hand, the service load and ultimate load for the post-tensioned wall with two tendons were found to be 14 KN and 20 KN respectively. The deflection in both cases was approximately same which it reaches up to 59mm. It can be concluded that post-tensioning level of interlocking bricks should be always from 60% to 65% in order to get optimum results for service ability and ultimate limit states. Application/Improvements: The post-tensioned wall developed using soil-cement interlocking blocks can be used in reinforced and post-tensioned masonry applications instead of conventional brick masonry. The post tensioning enhances the performance of brick masonry. Keywords: Deflection, Masonry Wall, Post-Tensioning, Soil-Cement Interlocking Bricks, Ultimate Load

The evaluation philosophy of an existing structure must differ from the design philosophy of a new structure. Many parameters are related to the structural properties and among them, stiffness and boundary conditions are governing factors affecting the resistance of the structure to external loading. However, due to the aging and deterioration of structures, effects of boundary conditions change over time and it becomes intricate to understand their current condition for structural assessment. This study was set out to assess the feasibility of estimating flexural stiffness in beam-like structures using substructural bending rigidity identification (SBI) method when no information about 'as-is’ fixity of boundary conditions is available. The results of numerical and experimental analyses showed that the SBI method accurately estimates the flexural stiffness of various beam profiles having unknown boundary conditions. It was found that using estimated stiffness, analytical model can be tuned with updated support fixities and structural and modal characteristics, which are then used for detection of the critical member, worst load effect and evaluation of serviceable load carrying capacity. Findings from this study provided evidence that SBI can be efficiently implemented as a short-term monitoring tool with easy testing setup for in-operation structural integrity assessment of beam-type elements.

Cold formed steel differ from hot rolled steel by its lesser thickness and weight. The cold formed steel applicable in roof purlin, pipe racks and wall panels etc. Due its lesser wall thickness the cold formed steel member subjected to buckling. The enhancement of load carrying capacity of the cold formed steel member can be achieved by external strengthening of CFRP. In this study cold formed channel members connected back to back to form I shaped cross section using screws. These built up beam members were 300mm, 400mm and 500mm in length with 100mm screw spacing and edge distance of 50mm were chosen for testing. CFRP fabric cut according to length, width of built up beams and wrapped outer surface of beam using epoxy resin. Experiments were carried out in two sets firstly plain built up beams and secondly CFRP wrapped beams. The test results shows that increased load carrying capacity and reduction in deflection due to CFRP strengthening. Experimental results were compared with AISI standards which are in good agreement. Experimental results shows that CFRP strengthening is economic and reliable.

This paper investigate the effect of the mesh distribution on the impact performance of steel fibre reinforced concrete (SFRC) for the concrete slab of 300mm × 300mm size reinforced with varied thickness and fraction volume subjected to low impact projectile test. A self-fabricated drop-weight impact test rig with a steel ball weight of 1.236 kg drop at 0.57 m height has been used in this research work. The objective of this research is to study the effect of the mesh distribution on the impact resistance SFRC for various slab thickness and fraction volume. Random fibre distribution is the more effective than the top and bottom fibre distribution in terms of absorption of impact energy, crack resistance, the ability to control crack formation and propagation against impact energy.

This paper investigate the effect of the thickness and fibre volume fraction (VF) on the impact performance of steel fibre reinforced concrete (SFRC) for the concrete slab of 300mm x 300mm size reinforced subjected to low impact projectile test. A self-fabricated drop-weight impact test rig with a steel ball weight of 1.236 kg drop at 0.57 m height has been used in this research work. The objective of this research is to study the relationship of impact resistance SFRC against slab thickness and volume fraction. There is a good linear correlation between impact resistances of SFRC against slab thickness. However the impact resistance of SFRC against percentage of volume fraction exhibit a non-linear relationship.