BFC 32202 Engineers - Society Chapter 5 (Student Copy) PDF

BFC 32202 – ENGINEERS & SOCIETY
RESEARCH AND
DEVELOPMENT IN
ENGINEERING
CHAPTER FIVE
BDD/FKAAS/UTHM
RESEARCH AND DEVELOPMENT
Development
• Systematic investigative process
employed to increase or revise • Systematic use of knowledge
current knowledge by directed towards the
discovering new facts. production of materials,
devices, systems or methods.
Research
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• Research and development

(R&D) refers to innovative
activities undertaken by
corporations or governments in
developing new services or
products, or improving existing
services or products.
• R&D constitutes the first stage
of development of a potential
new service or product.
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• R&D activities in organisations are different from each other, with two primary
models of an R&D department that is either:
• staffed by engineers and tasked with directly developing new products, or
• staffed with industrial scientists and tasked with applied research in scientific or
technological fields, which may facilitate future product development.
• R&D activities are conducted by specialised units or centers belonging to a company,
or can be out-sourced to a contract research organisation, university, or state
agency.
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• The innovations that result in new

products and new processes usually
have their roots in research.
• Innovations have followed a path from
laboratory idea to full-scale
production and market introduction.
• The foundation of any innovation is an
invention. Inventions come from
research – involving careful, focused,
and sustained inquiry, and frequent
trial and error.
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Research and Development vs. Product Development

• Research and development is the conception phase in the product life cycle.
• Product development is the entire process of designing, creating, and marketing new
products or existing products with new features.
• Research and development is essentially the first step in developing a new product,
but product development is not exclusively research and development. It is the
entire product life cycle, from conception to sale.
• Existing products can go through product development to revamp old features or
add new features so the product sells better or adds greater value to consumers.
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Benefits of Research and Development
Gain advantage Build or enhance

over a unique selling Increase income Reduce costs
competitors point
Build, sustain Develop unique

or enhance products and
Become more
competitive services that Generate new
cost-efficient
advantage over may be new, or or enhanced
by optimising
competitors innovations of income
existing
and become existing streams.
processes.
the leader in products or
your market. services.
BDD/FKAAS/UTHM
Benefits of Research and Development
Build and Generate IP

Attract investors enhance your (Intellectual Get tax credit
brand Property)
Obtain
intellectual Reduce
Successful R&D Successful R&D
property (i.e. your tax bill or
activity can activity can also
patents, claim payable
attract strengthen
copyrights, cash credits as
potential your company’s
trademarks), a proportion of
investors to brand and
which could their R&D
your business. reputation.
benefit you expenditure
financially.
BDD/FKAAS/UTHM
Types of Research
Research Fundamental Applied
• Fundamental research is defined as the • Applied research carries the

work of those who pursue their findings of fundamental research to a
investigations without conscious goals, point where they can be exploited to
other than the desire to unravel the meet a specific need.
secrets of nature.
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Fundamental Research Applied Research

Research that is designed to solve practical
Research that is driven by curiosity or interest problems of the modern world, rather
with the motivation to expand knowledge. than to acquire knowledge for knowledge's
sake.
Concerned with using available methods,
Concerned with the development, examination
procedures and tools, that has immediate
and refinement of research methods,
application and would be useful in making
procedures and tools.
decisions and formulating policies.
It is inductive in nature, meaning it comes with It is deductive in nature, meaning it keeps some
new theory discoveries. theories as its base while conducting research.
Results are applicable to people in general and Results are applicable to only a specific group
a broad range of situations. of people in a particular situation.
Results need not have immediate or even clear Results must have immediate and clear
implications. implications for practice.
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Examples of fundamental and applied research
Protection of the environment Safe operation of nuclear plants
Fundamental: Studying the effects on

Fundamental: Discovering how
soil, microbes and plants after
materials react to ionising radiation,
contamination with radioactive
damage modelling and ageing processes
substances and metals
Applied: Monitoring the reactor vessel

Applied: Designing specific measures
steel of national and foreign nuclear
for fields and farmland after
power plants to ensure their safe
contamination
operation.
BDD/FKAAS/UTHM
R&D in Engineering
• The aim of R&D in an organisation is
to improve the current technologies
or to develop innovations that
strengthen the organisation’s
position in the marketplace.
• One can find R&D divisions within
many forward-looking, innovative
engineering and technology
organisations.
BDD/FKAAS/UTHM
Role of Engineers in Research & Development

Lead and direct routine
Develop test methods,
compliance functions Manage advanced product
standards and protocols
related to product development programs,
supporting
development and improved materials or
implementation of new
manufacturing of current manufacturing processes.
material designs.
products in R&D Center.
Participate in appropriate Execute broad

Resolve engineering
training programs to engineering knowledge to
problems with
ensure compliance with design and development
engineering expertise at
Good Manufacturing of new products, product
component through
Practices (GMP) and changes and
system level.
company standards. enhancements.
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Key Areas for Research & Development
Information Technology Telecommunications Energy Manufacturing
Construction Transportation Agriculture Mining BDD/FKAAS/UTHM

Duties of an R&D Engineer

• An R&D job allows graduate engineers to use their skills to push the frontiers of
science forward.
• Job description of an R&D Engineer:
• R&D engineers generally work in an office or laboratory analysing processes and
conducting experiments.
• They may use tools ranging from computer-aided design software used to
simulate design performance to sophisticated instruments used to study the
properties and characteristics of materials.
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• They may also be assigned to a specific task, such as ascertaining the structural
requirements, or be responsible for managing an entire project.
• They may take on consulting roles and suggest improvements or provide
recommendations during the R&D process.
• Other duties may include writing summaries of structural tests, presenting
product performances to project managers and preparing process manuals and
guidelines.
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NEW INNOVATIONS IN CIVIL ENGINEERING
Modular Buildings
• Modular buildings (also called volumetric
buildings or prefabricated buildings) are buildings
made up of components manufactured on
assembly lines in factories then assembled on site
in a variety of arrangements.
• Buildings can be constructed using modular parts
such as walls, frames, ceilings, and windows, or a
number of complete prefabricated modular
building units such as bedrooms, bathrooms and
kitchens, or entire apartment units.
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• Modular building became popular after World

War II when there was a need for the rapid
construction of buildings to replace buildings
damaged by bombs and to accommodate
returning troops.
• Recently, there has been a resurgence of
interest in modular buildings, with a
recognition, not only that they can be
aesthetically pleasing, but also they can achieve
a very high build quality and can be both long-
lasting and sustainable.
BDD/FKAAS/UTHM
Benefits of Modular Buildings
• Speed of supply and installation.

• Reduced cost (through supply chain management, reduction of waste
and working in a controlled environment).
• Improved quality control (through repetition, inspection and operating in
a factory-controlled environment).
• Reduce disruption, noise and waste.
• Reduced need for on-site storage, plant and other equipment.
• Extendibility.
• The potential to de-construct for re-location, re-use or re-sale.
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Building-Integrated Photovoltaics
• Building-integrated photovoltaics (BIPV) are
photovoltaic materials that are used to replace
conventional building materials in parts of the
building envelope such as the roof, windows or
facades.
• Photovoltaics is a technology that generates
electricity from sunlight through the use of solar
cells to convert energy from the sun into a flow
of electrons by the photovoltaic effect.
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• BIPV is increasingly being incorporated into the construction of new buildings as a

principal or ancillary source of electricity, although existing buildings may be
retrofitted with similar technology, thus called building-applied photovoltaics (BAPV).
• The advantage of BIPV over more common non-integrated systems is that the initial
cost can be offset by reducing the amount spent on building materials and labour
that would normally be used to construct the part of the building that the BIPV
modules replace.
• There are four main types of BIPV products:
1. Crystalline silicon solar panels for rooftop power plants.
2. Amorphous crystalline silicon thin film solar modules as glass curtain wall and
transparent skylight.
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3. CIGS-based (Copper Indium Gallium Selenide) thin film cells on flexible modules
laminated to the building envelope element or mounted directly onto the building
envelope substrate.
4. Double glass solar panels with solar cells inside.
Solar skylight Solar roof tiles Solar facade Solar windows
BDD/FKAAS/UTHM
Benefits of Building-Integrated Photovoltaics (BIPV)

• Alternative source of energy with great savings in cost of electricity.
• Recyclable energy with no harmful effects to the environment.
• Alternative construction material that not only generates electricity but
can also function as thermal and noise insulation, and ultraviolet rays
protection.
• Space saving – does not require ground space for ground-mount installs,
and can transform building surfaces (previously unfit for solar) into high-
yielding power plants.
• By fulfilling a double function as outer building envelope and power
generator, BIPV saves time during the construction process as well as
money on material and installation costs.
BDD/FKAAS/UTHM
Self-Healing Concrete
• Self-healing concrete biologically
produces limestone to heal cracks in
concrete structures.
• Specially selected types of the bacteria,
along with calcium lactate, nitrogen and
phosphorus, are added to the concrete
mix.
• These self-healing agents can lie dormant
within the concrete for up to 200 years.
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• When a concrete structure is damaged and water starts to seep through the cracks
that appear in the concrete, the spores of the bacteria germinate on contact with the
water and nutrients.
• Having been activated, the bacteria start to feed on the calcium lactate. As the
bacteria feeds, oxygen is consumed and the soluble calcium lactate is converted to
insoluble limestone. The limestone solidifies on the cracked surface, thereby sealing it
up.
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Kinetic Footfall
• Kinetic footfall (or active footfall) converts
kinetic energy produced by pedestrians into
electricity.
• It is best used along footpaths with high
pedestrian activity, such as city sidewalks,
transport stations and malls.
• Electricity is generated from pedestrian
footfall using an electromagnetic induction
process and flywheel energy storage.
BDD/FKAAS/UTHM
Nanotechnology in Civil Engineering

• Nanotechnology is defined as the
engineering of matter with at least one
dimension sized from 1 to 100 nanometers.
• Nanomaterials may be used alongside
conventional materials as additives, used to
form composite materials, or as a
standalone new material.
• Nanotechnology has been widely used in
many applications in civil engineering.
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• In the construction industry, nanomaterials have been widely used to improve

properties of common construction materials such as concrete and steel.
• Pozzolana (a natural siliceous or siliceous and aluminous material) has been used in
concrete mix as a partial cement replacement to reduce the likelihood of alkali-silicate
reaction by reducing the alkalinity of pore fluid.
• Fly ash (air-borne ash produced from burning) has been found to not only improve
concrete durability and strength, but also sustainable factors by reducing the requirement
for cement.
• Carbon nanotubes were found to increase both compressive and flexural strength of
concrete.
• Titanium dioxide has been used in self-cleaning concrete and also applied to building
facades for purification of air.
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• High performance steel that has higher corrosion-resistance and weld ability has
been produced by incorporating copper nanoparticles at the steel grain boundaries.
• Elsewhere, nanotechnology has also been applied in coatings for multiple purposes,
such as:
• protective or anti-corrosion coatings for components
• self-cleaning, thermal control, energy saving, anti-reflection coatings for glass and
windows
• easy-to-clean, antibacterial coatings for work surfaces
• more durable paints and anti-graffiti coating for buildings and structures
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• Nanotechnology is also applied in highway engineering:

• Nano-phosphorous material has been used in road markings to increase visibility
of roads at night.
• Nanoclays have been used as waterproofing agents and to improve permanent
deformation resistance at high temperatures in asphalt pavements.
• Nano-silica has been used to improve pavement surface characteristics.
• In water resource engineering, nanofiber membranes have been used to treat water
due to the membrane’s higher adsorption rate of various trace organics and bacteria,
a higher acid and temperature resistance, longer membrane life span and flexibility of
the membrane.
BDD/FKAAS/UTHM

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BFC 32202 – ENGINEERS & SOCIETY