No abstract

The Taguchi’s method is a statistical tool to design and process optimization for achieving quality of product. Natural fibre composition is a brilliant option for the most widely applied fibre in the composite innovation. The advantages of natural fibre composites are renewable, environmental friendly, low cost, low density, flexibility of usage and tend to decompose (biodegradability). Since there are hundreds fibre that could be utilized in natural fibre composite, optimization in design of experiment is a promising in fabricating natural fiber composite. Taguchi’s method is used within this study whiche it can reduce the time consumed rather than doing all the experiment instead. The point of this project is to understand and study parameters of composite from three options of fibre, volume ratio and matrix against the tensile stress. From these parameters, it can show the optimum level that produces the highest strength against tensile load. The best combination obtained from the result of Taguchi’s method for each parameter are Kenaf fibre, 55:45 fraction of volume ratio, and ‘Bisphenol A epoxy resin’ matrix (Miracast epoxy 1517). This composition gives the highest tensile stress value of 30.5277 MPa.

Wudhu (ablution) ritual is an activity of cleaning physical parts for Muslims to perform their prayer five times per day. During this wudhu ritual process, the water is allowed to run free and drain away. At-times, this has caused some concerns particualrly on water wastage. Many organizations in Malaysia such as AACE Technologies Sdn. Bhd. came out with a solution and steps as "Auto Wudu Washer" in order to overcome this wastage, but the result was not satisfying enough. This study introduces a wudhu system that can reduce the amount of water usage during wudhu ritual consistently by limiting around 1 litre per consumer. Generally, there were seven (7) parts that have been used in this project such as 1 litre of container, magnet, float, valve push button, washer and cap. These designs did not utilize any electronic devices. Using these parts, 2 experiments were conducted namely the current wudhu system and the upgraded wudhu system by 10 (Muslims) respectively. The result of this project confirmed that using the Upgraded Wudhu System with amount of water limited to 1 litre per consumer was better than the current wudhu system by ten times.

Porous silicon carbide with mimicking the original microstructure of wood are prepared by pyrolysis and subsequently impregnated with silicon by silicon melt infiltration. The infiltration process was performed at 1500 C for 3 hours holding times in inert atmosphere. Two types of wood were used as precursor which is Kapur and dark red Meranti.The morphology of resulting porous SiC have been investigated using scanning electron microscope (SEM/EDX) and X-ray diffraction (XRD) analysis. The density of the samples was characterized by Archimedes methods. The excess of silicon was removed by etching with the mixture of hydrofluoric and nitric acid. The flexural strength was tested by the three-point flexural method at room temperature.It has been shown that the final SiC for both precursors have similar density. The existence of SiC was proved by the XRD result, whereas EDX analysis of silicon content revealed that the formation of silicon carbide in dark red Meranti is higher than that of Kapur. The flexural strength and modulus of dark red Meranti samples were much higher than those of the kapur samples because of higher formation of silicon carbide in dark red Meranti.