MALAYSIAN CONSTRUCTION RESEARCH JOURNAL (MCRJ)

Volume 1 No. 1 2007

CONTENTS

Editorial

Welcome from the editor

Zuhairi Abd. Hamid

Papers

Codification and Application of Semi-Loof Elements for

Complex Structures
Jamaluddin Noorzaei, Mohd. Saleh Jaafar,
Abdul Waleed Thanoon and Wong Jern Nee

Effect of Butt Joint on PSSDB Wall Panel with Door

Opening under Axial Load
Siti Hawa Hamzah, Yong Chua Bon and
Wan Hamidon Wan Badaruzzaman

Micronised Biomass Silica and Nanoparticles

Synthesis – Recent Development
Lee Yee Loon, Koh Heng Boon, Chee Keong Wong,
Suraya Hani Adnan, Suhaizad Sulaiman and Yung-Tse Hung

Structural Behaviour of Bakun Rockfil Dam in Malaysia

during Construction Stages
Fayda Fadhil Abbas Al Obaidi, Jamaluddin Noorzaei,
Thamer Sabir Younis, Mohd. Saleh Jaafar and
Abdul Waleed Thanoon

Are Knowledgement Level and Efforts in Construction Sufficient?

– The Case of Developing Country
Othman Mohamed, Hamzah Abdul Rahman, , Maznah Othman,
Imran Ariff Yahya andNorhanim Zakaria

Evaluation of the Thermal Performance of Matel Roofing under

Tropical Climatic Conditions
Mohamed Harimi, Djamila Harimi, V. John Kurian and
Bolong Nurmin

Productivity Performance of the Consruction Sector

Shahuren Ismail

Tendering on-line or on-the-line – Does it Matter? A Malaysian

Case Study and Review of the Latest Developments in Technology,
Law and Implementation of Electronic Tendering for
Construction Industry
Syed Alwee Alsagoff
MALAYSIAN CONSTRUCTION RESEARCH JOURNAL (MCRJ)
Volume 1 No.1 2007

Editorial Committee

Zuhairi Abd. Hamid, Ir. Dr., Chief Editor

Contruction Research Institute of Malaysia (CREAM)

Mohamed Mohd. Nuruddin, Ir. – until January 2005

Construction Industry Development Board

Zahari Taha, Prof., Dr.

Universiti Malaya

Joy Jacqueline Pereira, Assoc. Prof., Dr.

LESTARI, Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia

Muhd Fadhil Nuruddin, Assoc. Prof., Ir., Dr.

Universiti Teknologi PETRONAS

Mohd. Saleh Jaafar, Assoc. Prof., Ir., Dr.

Universiti Putra Malaysia

Norwina Mohd. Nawawi, Assoc. Prof., Ar.

International Islamic University Malaysia

Chan Toong Khuan, Assoc. Prof., Ir. Dr.

Malaysia University of Science and Technology

Syed Alwee Alsagoff, Dr.

CIDB E-Construct Services Sdn. Bhd.

Shahuren Ismail
National Productivity Corporation (NPC)

Secretariat

Gerald Sundaraj – until February, 2006

Construction Research Institute of Malaysia (CREAM)

Maria Zura Mohd. Zain

Construction Research Institute of Malaysia (CREAM)

Zulkefli Ismail
Construction Research Institute of Malaysia (CREAM)
MALAYSIAN CONSTRUCTION RESEARCH JOURNAL (MCRJ)
Volume 1 No.1 2007

Editorial

Welcome from the editors

Welcome to the first issue of Malaysian Construction Research Journal (MCRJ).

In this issue, Noorzaei et al examine at present the semi-loof element is probably one of
the most efficient element available for the solution of thin shells of arbitrary geometry. Based on
the semi-loof formulations, three dimensional finite element software are develop and its
application to complex structures such as curved beam, scordis shell roof, roofing system and
cooling tower.
Siti Hawa et al describe experimental and theoretical investigations to determine the
effect of butt joint on the structural behaviour of Profiled Steel Sheet Dry Board (PSSDB) load
bearing wall with door opening. The samples were subjected to axial compressive load and the
results were compared between the two sets of samples and with the theoretical expressions.
Lee et al present some recent development on micronised amorphous biomass silica
and the synthesis of nanoparticles. The objective is to develop an economical and environmental-
friendly material and process for sustainable concrete construction. The synthesis of biomass
silica of particle size ranging 20µm down to 20nm is expected to promote renewed interest in
concrete research related to packing efficiency of particles within the concrete matrix for the
reduction of water permeability.
Fayda et al examine dead, birth and ghost element technique has been adjusted in the
physical phase during construction phase in Bakun dam. Bakun concrete slab rockfill dam which
is currently under construction at Malaysia has been modeled using different types of finite
elements to simulate different zones along with concrete faces.
Othman et al present the knowledge management application in the construction
industry knowledge management application in the construction industry, especially amongst
construction firms in developing economies, still an under-chartered territory. Budgetary control,
contract management, material planning and control, manpower planning and control, and
negotiating with other involved parties were identified as important areas that knowledge
management can be improve.
Mohamed et al provide recommendations for the improvement of roofing design under
Malaysia climate and the thermal performance of metallic roof system with sealed and ventilated
attic. The impact of different thickness of fiberglass and foil-aluminium in reducing ceiling
temperature also carried out on a low cost house mainly built from waste oil palm shell (OPS-
Concrete) with galvanized steel-roof.
Shahuren report the statistical analysis of productivity performance on construction
sector between year 2003 and 2004 using the data from National Productivity Corporation (NPC).
It highlight the percentage of performance growth through five selected (5) indicators representing
residential, non-residential and civil engineering sub-sectors. The report compares the
percentage in 2003 and 2004 and although the statistic shows the decline on overall productivity
th
performance, the paper will examine the area of improvement based on 8 Malaysia Plan (RMK-
8)
Syed Alwee examines the validity of the claim through an analysis of an IT-led
construction tendering initiative soon to be implemented in Malaysia. In many cases of national
scale implementation, the program itself had change fundamentally after strong industry
consensus and participation of professional bodies. By highlighting the need for good
governance, one of the focus areas of the paper is the examination of how legal, business and
process protocol combine and integrate in e- tendering. It examines whether there area any
universal trends in a unified tendering protocol and formal control if projects are tendered
electronically across borders.
 Codification and Application of Semi-Loof Elements for Complex Structures

J. Noorzaei, M.S. Jaafar, W.A. Thanoon, J.N. Wong

Department of Civil Engineering, Faculty of Engineering,

University Putra Malaysia, 43400 UPM, Serdang, Selangor, Malaysia.

Abstract

Finite element analysis of thin shells received considerable attention during recent

years and a number of finite elements for thin shell analyses have been derived.

Among these, the semi-loof element occupies a special place owing to its generality,

type of formulation and performance. At present the semi-loof element is probably

one of the most efficient element available for the solution of thin shells of arbitrary

geometry. Based on the semi-loof formulations, the present study deals with

development of three dimensional finite element software and its application to

complex structures such as curved beam, scordis shell roof, roofing system and

cooling tower.

Keywords: Cooling tower; Finite element code; Folded plate; Idealisation; Scordis

Roof; Semiloof shell; Semiloof beam.

1
1. Introduction

Shell problems are difficult especially when the shell is very thin and in

addition, one of the principal curvatures is positive and the other negative or zero. To

model these types of structures, several shell elements are available in the literature

Zienkiewicz (1993), Bathe (1996) and Cook (2002). Among the shell elements, the

semi-loof shell element is probably one of the most efficient elements. It is

particularly suitable to modal complex civil engineering structures such as cooling

tower including staging columns and ring beams, flooring or roofing systems. The

finite element formulation semi-loof beam, plate and shell are presented by Iron and

Ahmad (1980), Owen and Martin (1981) Martin and Oliveira (1988a & 1988b) but

with limited computer coding and application. A simple hybrid semi-loof plate

bending element where no slave degree of freedom is involved, was presented by Sze

(1994).

In this investigation, based on semi-loof formulations presented by Martin and

Oliveira (1988a & 1988b), an attempt has been made to develop a three dimensional

finite element software (Wong, 2004). The application of the software is shown

extensively in the analysis of several civil engineering structures.

2. Semi-loof Shell Element

Figure 1a shows a quadrilateral semi-loof shell element referred to a system of

global axes (x,y,z). Three types of nodes are shown: corner and midside nodes at

which the displacements u i , v i and w i along respectively the axes x,y and z are taken

2
as parameters: loof nodes at which the parameters are θ XZ
j
(rotation in a plane

perpendicular to the element side) and θ YZj (rotation in a plane tangent to the element

(
side); central node combining two types of parameters, displacements δ ee u 9 , v 9 , w9 )
and rotation θ XZ
9
and θ YZ
9
along the local axes.

The initial 45 degrees of freedom (dof) of the element will be arranged in three

vectors as follows:

{δ e } = {u1 ,v1 ,w1 ,LLL,u 9 ,v9 ,w9 } (1)

{θ XZe }1×9 ={θ 1XZ ,LLL,θ 9XZ }T (2)

{θ YZe }1×9 ={θYZ1 ,LLL,θYZ9 }T (3)

After eliminating all the dof at the center node and all the local rotations along

the element sides, the final dof of the element will be 32 (Figure 1b).

The coordinates of a point P( x, y, z ) on the element midsurface are

interpolated using shape functions. The shape functions for defining the variation of

displacements at the corner and the mid-side nodes are given by:

N1 =
1
4
(− 1 + ξ 2
+ ξη + η 2 − ξη 2 − ξ 2η )
N2 =
1
2
(1 − η − ξ 2
+ ξ 2η )
N3 =
1
4
(− 1 + ξ 2
− ξη + η 2 + ξη 2 − ξ 2η )
N4 =
1
2
( 1+ ξ −η 2
− ξη 2 )
N5 =
1
4
(− 1 + ξ 2
+ ξη + η 2 + ξη 2 + ξ 2η )
N6 =
1
2
(1 + η − ξ 2
− ξ 2η )
N7 =
1
4
(− 1 + ξ 2
− ξη + η 2 − ξη 2 + ξ 2η )

3
 1
N8 =
2
(
1 − ξ − η 2 + ξη 2 ) (4)
The shape function for defining the variation of displacements at the central node is

given by:

N 9 = (1 − ξ 2 )(1 − η 2 ) (5)

The shape functions for the interpolation of rotations at the loof nodes are given by:

1 
L1 =
8
3 2
4
9 2
 3ξ − 3η − ξ + 3ξη + η − 3 3ξη + 3ξ η −
4
2 2 3 3 3
2
(
ξ η − ξη 3  )

1
L2
8
3
4
9
=  − 3ξ − 3η − ξ 2 − 3ξη + η 2 + 3 3ξη 2 + 3ξ 2η +
4
3 3 3
2
(
ξ η − ξη 3 )

1 
L3
8
9
4
3
= 3ξ + 3η + ξ 2 − 3ξη − η 2 − 3ξη 2 − 3 3ξ 2η −
4
3 3 3
2
(
ξ η − ξη 3  )

1 
L4
8
9
4
3
= 3ξ − 3η + ξ 2 + 3ξη − η 2 − 3ξη 2 + 3 3ξ 2η +
4
3 3 3
2
(
ξ η − ξη 3  )

1
L5
8
3
4
9
= − 3ξ + 3η − ξ 2 + 3ξη + η 2 + 3 3ξη 2 − 3ξ 2η −
4
3 3 3
2
(
ξ η − ξη 3 )

1 
L6
8
3
4
9
=  3ξ + 3η − ξ 2 − 3ξη + η 2 − 3 3ξη 2 − 3ξ 2η +
4
3 3 3
2
(
ξ η − ξη 3  )

1
L7
8
9
4
3
=  − 3ξ − 3η + ξ 2 − 3ξη − η 2 + 3ξη 2 + 3 3ξ 2η −
4
3 3 3
2
(
ξ η − ξη 3 )

1 
L8
8
9
4
3
= − 3ξ + 3η + ξ 2 + 3ξη − η 2 + 3ξη 2 − 3 3ξ 2η +
4
3 3 3
2
(
ξ η − ξη 3 ) (6)


The shape function for the interpolation of rotation at the central node is given by:

L9 = 1 −
3 2
4
(
ξ +η2 ) (7)

Now, a relationship between the Cartesian coordinates of any of the shell elements

and the curvilinear coordinates is written as:

8 8 8
x = ∑ N i xi ; y= ∑ N i yi ; z= ∑ N i zi (8)
i =1 i =1 i =1

4
The displacements along the local axes Xˆ , Yˆ and Ẑ will be denoted respectively by

U ,V and W and can be obtained as projections of u, v and w , i.e.:

U ={X }T {d } (9)

where {d }=[ N ] {δ e} (10)

V ={Y }T {d} (11)

W ={Z }T {d } (12)

Considering Equation (10) these displacements are obtained in terms of shape

functions and nodal parameters as:

T
U = {X } [ N ] {δ e}

V ={Y }T [ N ] δ e { }
W ={Z }T [ N ] δ e { } (13)

At each point of the element the rotations θ XZ and θ YZ are interpolated by

means of loof and central node shape functions L j ( j = 1,9) and the corresponding

nodal values θ XZ
j
and θ YZj .

The stiffness matrix is formed by the usual finite element procedure, i.e.:

[K ] = ∫ [B] [D] [B] dV

e T
(14)
V

where

D p M 0 
[D ] =  K M L 

(15)
 0 M D b 


5
and

1 υ 0  1 υ 0 
 
[D ] [ ]
2 3
Et Et
P
= υ 1 0  or D b = υ 1 0  (16)
1 −υ 
2
1−υ  12(1 − υ 2 )  1−υ 
0 0  0 0 
 2   2 

The element strain matrix [B] is composed of two parts, one corresponding to

the plane (membrane) behaviour and the other to the bending behaviour. Defining the

strains by:

{ε } {
= ε p Mε b }
T

{
= ε Xp ε Yp γ XY
p
M ε Xb ε Yb γ XY
b
}
T

T
 ∂U ∂V  ∂U ∂V  ∂ 2U ∂ 2V  ∂ 2U ∂ 2V 
=  , , +  M − ,− , −  +  (17)
 ∂X ∂Y  ∂Y ∂X  ∂X ∂Z ∂Y ∂ Z  ∂Y ∂Z ∂ X ∂Z 

Kirchoff’s shear constrains are applied by stipulating the transverse shear at

loof nodes to be zero so as to eliminate rotation parallel to the side of the nodes. The

variables at the central nodes are also eliminated and constrained version has only 32

degrees of freedom per element including 24 translational degrees of freedom at the

corner and the midside nodes and 8 rotations at the loof node (Figure 1b).

3. Semi-loof beam element

The beam element (Figure 2a) possess, before constraining, the following degrees of

freedom:

(i) displacement (ui, vi, wi) along the global axes (x, y, z) at node 1, 2 and 3

(ii) rotation (θ xi ,θ yi ,θ zi ) along the axes at nodes 1 and 3

6
 (iii)rotations (θ Xi ,θ Yi ,θ Zi ) along the local axes at loof nodes 4 and 5

Of these 21 dof, the local rotations θ Y and θ Z along the axes Yˆ and Ẑ at node

4 and 5 are conveniently constrained, the final configuration of the element having

therefore 17 dof (Figure 2b). For later reference the following vectors of parameters

are defined:

{δ e }= {u1 v1 w1 M u 2 v2 w2 M u3 v3 w3 }T (18)

{θ e}={θ1X θY1 θ 1Z M θ 4X θY4 θ Z4 M θ 5X θY5 θ Z5 M θ 3X θY3 θ

3 T
Z
} (19)

Note that nodes and variables are defined in order to match the configuration

of the shell element, and that each beam conforms with the neighbouring beams in

both slope and deflection.

The coordinates of a generic point P( x, y, z ) belonging to the element axis are

interpolated using coordinates of the edge and midside nodes 1, 2 and 3 and shape

functions N i as follow:

3 3 3
x = ∑ N i xi ; y = ∑ N i yi ; z = ∑ N i z i (20)
i =1 i =1 i =1

where the shape function Ni are obtained through the following polynomial basis

(1, ξ , ξ ) 2
(21)

The displacement along the global axes of a generic point P(x, y,z)

{d } = {u, v, w}T (22)

are interpolated using the corresponding displacements of nodes (1,2,3) and shape

functions, Ni defined by Equation (23).

7
These shape functions are given by:

1 2
N1 =
2
ξ −ξ { }
(
N 2 = 1− ξ 2 )
1
N 3= ξ 2 + ξ
2
( ) (23)
Therefore,

{d } = [N ]{δ e } (24)

N 1 0 0 N2 0 0 N3 0 0 
[N ] =  0 N 1
0 0 N2
0 0 N3
0 

(25)
0 0 N1 0 0 N2 0 0 N 3 


The rotations at a generic point, P (x,y,z)

{θ } = {θ x , θ y , θ z }T (26)

are obtained using the global rotations at nodes (1,4,5,3) and shape functions Lj (j =

1,4,5,3), i.e

{θ } = [L]{θ e } (27)

The shape functions Lj are defined using the following polynomial basis:

{1, ξ , ξ 2
, ξ 3} (28)

These shape functions are presented in Equation (29). The matrix [L] is defined in a

same way as Equation (25).

L1 =
1
4
(− 1 + ξ + 3ξ 2
− 3ξ 3 )
L3 =
1
4
(− 1 − ξ + 3ξ 2
− 3ξ 3 )
L4 =
3
4
(1 − 3ξ − ξ 2 + 3ξ 3 )
L5 =
3
4
(1 + 3ξ − ξ 2 − 3ξ 3 ) (29)

8
The stiffness matrix is segmented in usual way:

∫ [B ] [D][B] dv
T
[K] = (30)

The strain displacement matrix [B] is defined as:

T
 ∂U ∂V ∂U ∂θ Y ∂θ Z ∂θ X 
[B] =  , −θZ , + θY , , ,  (31)
 ∂X ∂X ∂X ∂X ∂X ∂X 

The elasticity matrix [D], is:

 EA 0 0 M 0 0 0 
 0 GA 0 M 0 0 0 

0 0 GA M 0 0 0 
 
[D ] =  L L L M L L L  (32)
0 0 0 M EI YY 0 0 
 
0 0 0 M 0 EI ZZ 0 
0 0 0 M 0 0 GI XX 


The two local rotations, θy and θz at loof nodes were eliminated by imposing

the shear constrains, i.e γx = 0.0 and γyz = 0.0 at nodes 4 and 5.

4. Computer Programming

At initial stage of this study, the subroutines SLSTIF and BMSTIF published

by earlier investigator such as Iron et al. (1980) and Martin et al. (1988a &1988b) are

implemented under Fortran environment. These subroutines are concerned with

generation of stiffness, mass and load matrices. Then pre-processor (Noorzaei, 1991),

solution routine (modified frontal technique) developed by Godbole et al. (1991) and

post-processor (Noorzaei, 1991) are added under a master main. The flowchart of the

complete program is shown in Figure 3.

9
 The calibration of this upgraded semi-loof computer code has been well

established by analysing some benchmark problems, for which the analytical

solutions are available in the literature. These benchmark problems include curved

beam, clamped circular plate and scordis roof. Furthermore an attempt has been to

analyse some structures such as roofing system and cooling tower using semi-loof

elements and the three dimensional finite element software packages is compatible

with Fortran 90 power station computer.

The program further strengthens by adding few standard elements such as

brick elements and infinite elements. The program is multi-element in nature and can

deal with concentrated, pressure and gravity loadings (i.e only static loading). Besides

that, there is compatibility between the shell element and beam element. At present

the software application is limited to linear analysis.

5. Calibration and Application

In order to explore the capabilities of the semi-loof elements some benchmark

structures such as beams, plates and shells have been selected for the purpose of

verification, calibration and application of the finite element code developed in the

present investigation.

Numerical example 1: Behaviour of curved beam

In order to ascertain the generality of the semi-loof beam element the curved beam

shown in Figure 4 is considered. The finite element idealisation of the beam is

10
presented in this figure. The solution obtained via the present idealisation is very close

to the solution reported by Robinson (1973) (Table 1). As it should be, the value of

displacement at node 3 and 7 are the same in magnitude but opposite in direction.

Numerical example 2: Clamp circular plate under uniform loading

As an illustration for modeling of curved boundary this type of problem has been

chosen. The finite element mesh of the plate including the material and loading are

shown in Figure 5. It is clear from Figure 6 that there is a good agreement between the

result evaluated by present modeling and the other investigators.

Numerical Example 3: Analysis of Scordis roof with semi-loof shell element

This is a cylindrical shell roof under self weight and has been modeled using semi-

loof shell element. The geometry and property of roof problem and the finite element

mesh is shown in Figure 7. This example was also solved by many investigators such

as Zienkiewicz (1979) and Krishnamoorthy (1988).

The comparison of vertical and axial displacement at different sections of the

shell roof is shown in Figures 8 and 9 respectively which shows a good agreement

between the results. The comparison of force Ny and moment Mx along the midspan

are shown in Figures 10 to 11 respectively. It is clear from these plots that variation of

the moment and force for the present study and all other investigators are almost

identical.

Numerical Example 4: Umbrella-Shaped Folded Plate Roof

11
The idea of an umbrella-shaped roof for pavilions is based on the article presented by

Li (1991). The V-section precast panels are assembled into umbrella shape with joints

formed and cast-in-place to fully integrate the structure. Umbrella-shaped folded plate

roofs are supported by beams and columns. Figure 12 shows the roof plan and

elevation along with material and geometrical properties. Figure 13 shows a plan and

section of a tapered V-plate.

Here the roof are represented by means of the semi-loof shell elements while

the beam and column is idealised using the semi-loof beam elements. The structure is

subjected to gravity type of loading. Figure 14 shows the finite element mesh of the

structure.

The variation of displacement at section A-A, B-B and C-C (Figure 15) are

shown in Figure 16. Since the section line is symmetrical only half of the section is

plotted. As can be seen from Figure 16, variation of vertical displacement reduces as

it goes along the length of Section A-A because the location of column situated at

length 5.25 m from the ring beam. Similar trend of behaviour is observed for both

Sections B-B and C-C which they have maximum displacement at free end and

minimum near the ring beam.

The variation of membrane forces Nx, Ny and Nxy for all the sections are

exhibited in Figure 17 (a,b,c). While the profiles of moments Mx, My and Mxy are

illustrated in Figure 18 (a,b,c). The forces Nx and Ny are increasing at the location of

near to the column while moments Mx and My is decrease near the upper ring beam.

Numerical example 5: Analysing a hyperbolic cooling tower

The modeling of a cooling tower including ring beam at the staging level and also

12
without ring beam has been shown using semi-loof beam and shell elements. The

geometry is shown in Figure 19 and finite element idealisation of the cooling tower is

presented in Figure 20. The material properties of the cooling tower and ring beam at

level (Z=-232.1275) are shown in Tables 2 and 3 respectively (Karisiddappa et al.,

1995).

Meshing:

Due to symmetric of tower only half of it was considered and boundary

condition applied on nodes along symmetric axis. Total number of semi-loof shell

element was 72 and 9 beam elements (Noorzaei et al., 2003).

Behaviour of Tower

a) Vertical Deflection

The variation of vertical displacement along the height of the cooling tower

for θ = 90° is shown in Figure 21. It is clear from this plot that vertical displacements

decrease toward zero at bottom of tower and has a maximum displacement about

0.0175 ft at the top of tower. Similar behaviour has been noted in the tower when the

ring beam is included in the model. This indicates that the ring beam has no effect on

the vertical displacement, as expected.

b) Radial Displacement

Radial displacement along height of the cooling tower at θ = 90° shown in

Figure 22. It is seen from this figure that the ring beam has a significant influence on

the radial displacements and lead to inward displacements of the tower near the mid-

13
height of the tower.

6. Conclusion

Based on this investigation, the following conclusions can be drawn:

i) Based on the semi-loof formulation presented by earlier investigators, a three

dimensional finite element software package has been written.

ii) The validity of the finite element software has been well established.

iii) The complex structures as roofing and cooling tower has been analysed by using

semi-loof shell elements which show the application of this element in predicting

perfect behaviour of theses structures.

iv) Semi-loof beam element is suitable for representing the straight curved and its

combination with semi-loof shell element has been clearly worked out.

Acknowledgement

The authors would like to thank Prof. Oliveira for his help during the development of
computer code for semi-loof elements. The work reported in this paper is part of the
graduate research of civil engineering department, UPM and was supported by project
grant IRPA No. 54039. We wish to thank the Ministry of Science for financial
support.

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14
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Roof for Pavilions. PCI Journal 1999;44(1):14-20.
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elements-new computer versions: Part 1. Element Formulation. Engineering
Computation; 5:15-25.
Martin, R.A.F. and Oliveira, C.A.M. (1988b). Semi-loof shell, plate and beam
elements-new computer versions: Part 2. Elements programming. Engineering
Computation; 5:26-38.
Noorzaei, J. (1991). Non-linear soil structure interaction in framed structure. Ph.D
thesis Department of Civil Engineering I.I.T, Roorkee India.
Noorzaei, J., Thanoon, W.A., Jaafar, M.S. and Emamzadeh (2003). Analysis of
cooling tower using semi-loof elements. In: Proceedings of the 5th Asia-Pacific
Structural Engineering and Construction Conference, Malaysia :347-355.
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thin shell analysis by semiloof element. International Journal of Computers and
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Precast Flooring/Roofing System Using Semi-Loof Elements. In: Proceedings of
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(CONCET 2004), Malaysia.
Zienkiewicz, O.C. (1979).The Finite Element Method. New Dehli: Tata McGraw-Hill
Publishing Ltd.

15
EFFECT OF BUTT JOINT ON PSSDB WALL PANEL WITH DOOR OPENING UNDER
AXIAL LOAD

Siti Hawa Hamzah 1

Yong Chua Bon 1
Wan Hamidon Wan Badaruzzaman 2
1Faculty of Civil Engineering, UiTM 40450 Shah Alam
2Dept of Civil & Structural Engineering, UKM 43600 Bangi

ABSTRACT

Profiled Steel Sheet Dry Board (PSSDB) system as a load bearing wall is structurally efficient
and economical in transferring loads to the foundation. This paper describes experimental and
theoretical investigations to determine the effect of butt joint on the structural behaviour of
PSSDB load bearing wall with door opening. PSSDB wall panels formed from proprietary
profiled steel sheet, Bondek II (0.75 mm thick), sandwiched by two skins of Cemboards (12 mm
thick), via self-drilling, self-tapping screws, were used for the tests. The samples tested were three
(3) PSSDB walls with door opening and butt joint between the Cemboards, and three (3) PSSDB
walls with door opening but without butt joint on the Cemboard. The samples were subjected to
axial compressive load and the results were compared between the two sets of samples and with
the theoretical expressions. The average value of the ultimate load capacity for PSSDB load
bearing door panels with butt joint was found to be 328 kN, while that for the samples without
butt joint was 322 kN. The average maximum lateral deflections at first cracks for both types of
PSSDB panels were 4.1 mm and 5.0 mm respectively. The final failure mode was a combined
crushing and lateral buckling.

1. INTRODUCTION

Profiled Steel Sheet Dry Board or PSSDB system is a new and innovative composite
construction system with a potential to be extended in application as an alternative to flooring,
wall unit and roofing system. The idea was originally conceived by Wright and Evans (1986) in
the United Kingdom. At present, further research works are being conducted extensively at
Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia. The panel system consists of profiled steel sheeting compositely
connected to dry boards (plywood, Cement boards or particle boards) by mechanical or selftapping
screws to form panel that has far better features and attributes in comparison to the
materials in their original forms separately (Wan Hamidon, et. al, 1996).
The research done previously were concerned with PSSDB system as flooring, roofing
units and wall without opening. The present study focused on the effect of butt joint in the dry
boards on the behaviour of PSSDB system as walling. Therefore, the PSSDB system can be said
to have an unlimited potential. It is also very light and therefore easily transportable, and can be
erected quickly. PSSDB serves as an alternative and a more practical solution to existing
traditional forms of construction.

PSSDB system gives superior bending stiffness, higher load bearing and higher resistance
to buckling failure compared to using profiled steel sheet (PSS) alone (Ehsan et al 2000).
Furthermore, the depth of floor or wall can be designed much lesser than the traditional design to
carry the same loading, thus a saving in cost and space. Various tests were carried out on the
system including fire resistance, sound proofing, water resistance and others. In exploiting its
usage further so as not to concentrate purely as a flooring structure, various studies were carried
out as to its ability and behaviour as wall and roof structures (Mengesha 1992, Benayoune 1998,
Ehsan et al. 2000, Suzaimy 2000, Mohd. Zahri 2000, Benayoune & Wan Hamidon 2000, Ehsan et
al. 2002, Yong C.B. et al. 2002, Siti Hawa et al. 2003a, Siti Hawa et al. 2003b, Wan Hamidon et
al. 2003a, Wan Hamidon et al. 2003b, Siti Hawa et al. 2004a, Siti Hawa et al. 2004b).
2. Theoretical Analysis

The theoretical investigation of the load bearing capacity of the PSSDB wall panels using
a different PSS called PEVA 45 was proposed by Benayoune and Wan Hamidon (2000). The
ultimate load capacity of the panel is the ultimate load in which the composite panel would fail
under applied axial load. It is based on the concept that the capacity is derived from individual
components, namely the PSS and the Cemboard, and the interaction between them. They have
proposed a semi-empirical equation to evaluate the crushing load for short wall panel. This
equation takes into account of the effective width and the local buckling (BS5950 Part 6) by
introducing a reduction factor k:

As the height of the wall increases the failure may be due to overall buckling. Euler formula is
used to evaluate the PSSDB panel elastic buckling load.

3. EXPERIMENTAL STUDY ON PSSDB WITH DOOR OPENING

In this section, the experimental study on the PSSDB is described. The aims of the
experimental work are to gain an understanding of the behaviour of PSSDB as load bearing wall
panels with door opening, and to study the effect of the butt joint in dry board on the structural
capacity of the PSSDB panel due to compressive axial load.

3.1 PSSDB Wall Panel

The PSSDB load bearing wall system consists of two skins of dry boards (Cemboards)
attached to PSS (Bondek II) as the main core of the panel, using mechanical connectors (selfdrilling
and self-tapping screws). Bondek II of 0.75 mm thick (the dimensions of Bondek II may
be obtained from the web site listed in the reference) and Cemboard of 12 mm thick were adopted
in this study. The size of each sample is 1000 mm high x 1320 mm wide x 78 mm thick with door
opening of size 700 mm x 300 mm x 78 mm. These dimensions represent 1/3 the actual size of a
wall. The thickness of the panel however is not reduced. The connectors were fixed at a 100 mm
and 200 mm centre to centre in the longitudinal and transverse directions respectively. There
were 46 screws on the front panel and 63 screws on the back panel. Butt joint is formed by
putting two pieces of Cemboard side by side without adhesive being applied. Butt joint is
necessary for a full size wall because a standard size Cemboard has 1220 mm width. A typical
cut-out for the opening in PSSDB and the screw positions are as shown in Figure 1.
3.2 Experimental Set-up

The test rig consisted of a support beam at the lower end, and a movable loading frame
on the upper end. In addition, to allow for equal distribution of the load, the upper C-channel was
put on rollers. PSSDB wall sample was placed vertically on C-channel, which was clamped to the
bottom beam. The samples were tested under in plane axial load delivered by means of hydraulic
jack connected to a load cell having a capacity of 1000 kN placed at the upper end of the sample.
Displacement transducers to measure deflections perpendicular (lateral) to the height of
the wall panels were placed at various locations as shown in Figure 2. Transducers T1 – T4 were
located in a vertical line so that the deflection profile can be obtained. Transducer T5 was placed

above the door opening. The load cell and transducers were connected to a portable digital
electronic data logger. The initial values for deflection and load were zeroed on the measuring
device once the sample, the loading system and the transducers had been assembled in position on
the supporting and specimen frames. This condition was considered to represent the initial
unloaded state of the panel.

Loads were then applied incrementally. The loads at initiation and propagation of cracks
in different locations were observed and noted. The loading and the corresponding deflection
were also recorded. Readings were recorded at interval of 0.2 kN. After the loading had peak and
then decreased significantly the test was stopped. The load and the corresponding deflection
measurements taken from the experiment were then used to investigate the crack patterns and the
behaviour of the PSSDB wall panels. The experimental set-up is shown in Figure 3.

4. RESULTS AND DISCUSSION

4.1 Load-Deflection Response and Ultimate Load Capacity

All the six samples showed quite similar characteristics in load-deflection. The loadlateral
deflection responses of the samples exhibited approximately linear relationships. The linear
relationship persisted until the maximum load of each sample. After the maximum load was
exceeded, the deflection increased significantly as the load decreased rapidly. This is an indication
of the beginning of lateral buckling before failure. A typical load-deflection is as shown in Figure
4.

The deformation profiles of samples with butt joint (ODB 1, ODB 2 and ODB 3) obtained
from transducers T1-T4 showed that maximum lateral deflection occurred at about the same
position, located at a height of about 700 mm. Stress concentration occurred at this location due to
the fact that the cross–sectional area is reduced. The deformation profiles for the samples are as
shown in Figure 5. ODB 1 had the lowest lateral deflection and showed slightly double curvature.
On the other hand, ODB 2 and ODB 3 exhibited single curvature. The maximum lateral
displacements at ultimate load were 16.1 mm, 7.2 mm and 11.6 mm respectively (see Table 1).
Similarly, maximum lateral displacement of samples without butt joint (OD 1, OD 2 and OD 3)
also occurred at about the same height as shown in Figure 6. The corresponding maximum lateral
displacements were 20.1 mm, 6.7 mm and 11.1 mm respectively.
The ultimate load is the maximum load achieved before the load decreased when the wall
panel started to undergo an overall buckling. The ultimate loads recorded for ODB samples
ranged from 279 kN to 393 kN and for OD samples, they ranged from 286 kN to 370 kN. The
scattering results may due to the difficulty in obtaining a perfectly level surface at the ends of the
panel. This was expected when the cutting was done by hand. The results showed that the PSSDB
wall with butt joint has similar average strength compared to PSSDB wall without butt joint. The

theoretical ultimate load calculated using equation (1) gave Pu = 375 kN, based on a coefficient of
reduction = 0.6 and the cross-sectional area of the two ‘legs’ of the panel. The reduction takes
account on the reduction of strength due to effective width. From Table 1, the average
experimental ultimate load is about 13% less than that based on equation (1). This might be due to
the present of eccentricity of axial load and in-plane bending.
The elastic buckling load using equation (2) against the wall height is as shown in Figure
7. It can be seen that up to about 1.7 m, the buckling load is higher than the theoretical crushing
load. It can be said that the buckling load is not likely to happen for domestic loading (Benayoune
and Wan Hamidon 2000)
It was observed that the loads at which first crack appeared on the samples were
only about 40% to 55% of the ultimate loads as shown in Table 2. Therefore, it is
significant to determine the lateral deflections at that loads. The maximum lateral
deflections at 40% ultimate load are also given in Table 2. The transducer where the
deflection was obtained is given in the parenthesis. The average deflection value for ODB
samples was 4.1 mm whilst that for OD samples was 5.0 mm. This showed that the two
samples have no significant difference in stiffness. As it can be seen, the two sets of
samples had only 30 % of the height differed in its configuration, which is the butt joint in
the ODB samples. However it is worth to note that the butt joint exhibits hinge reaction
at the upper section of the opening. This contributes to flexural stress release at this joint
for samples with butt joint.

4.2 Crack and Failure Mode

Similar crack patterns were observed for all ODB samples. A typical crack pattern of
PSSDB ODB samples is as shown in Figure 8. The crack started on the sides of the door opening
at the upper corners that were considered as high stress areas because of the sudden decreased in
the cross-sectional area. Similar crack patterns are also exhibited on OD samples. A typical crack
pattern of OD samples is shown in Figure 9. The difference between the two crack patterns was
that there was a crack under flexural at upper middle portion of opening in the OD samples. The
butt joints in the Cemboard act as predetermined cracks in ODB. Some cracks were observed to
pass through screw positions. The final failure mode for both type of PSSDB was a combined
crushing and lateral buckling on the sides of the samples at a height of about 700 mm (Figure 10).
5. CONCLUSION
The experimental study dealt with the behaviour of PSSDB wall under compressive axial
load. It can be concluded that the ultimate load capacity for PSSDB walls with butt joint (ODB)
was about the same as that without butt joint (OD). The average loads were 328 kN and 322 kN
respectively. The proposed theoretical crushing load was compared to the experimental results. It
was found that the average load was 13% less than that obtained from the proposed expression.
The average deflection value obtained at 40% ultimate load for ODB was 4.1 mm whilst
that for OD was 5.0 mm. The lateral displacements for the samples were small and the ultimate
load capacity were high indicating that the PSSDB wall panels could be recommended for load
bearing wall in domestic building construction. Nevertheless, a full-size investigation is
recommended.

6. ACKNOWLEDGEMENT

The authors wish to express their sincere thanks to Universiti Teknologi MARA,
Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia, Bluescope Steel Sdn Bhd, Hume Cemboard Sdn Bhd, Mohd
Rashid Ya’acob and Muhammad Zihan Kisson for making this study possible.

7. REFERENCES

Benayoune, A.G., 1998, Behaviour of profiled steel sheeting dry board panel as wall units. MSc
Thesis. Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia.

Benayoune, A.G. & Wan Hamidon W.B., 2000, Limit state behaviour of profiled steel sheeting /
dry board wall panel. Proceeding of the 4th Asia-Pacific Structural Engineering & Construction
Conference, APSEC 2000, Malaysia.

BS 5950 Part 6, Structural Use of Steel Work in Building: Code of practice for design of light
gauge profiled steel sheeting, British Standard Institution, 1995

Ehsan A., Wan Hamidon W.B. & Wright H.D, 2000, Experimental and finite element study of
profiled steel sheet dry board folded plate structures. Journal of Thin-Walled Structures, Vol. 38,
pp 125-143

Ehsan A., Wan Hamidon W.B. & Wright H.D, 2002, Two-way bending behaviour of profiled
steel sheet dry board composite panel system. Journal of Thin-Walled Structures, Vol. 40, pp 971-
990 http://www1.bluescopesteelasia.com/BlueScopeSteel/country/singapore/lysaght/en/index.cfm

Mengesha, W.J., 1992, Composite profiled steel sheeting / dry board panels. MSc Thesis.
University of Strathclyde, United Kingdom.

Mohd Zahri S., 2000, Kajian ujikaji kelakuan dinding keluli berprofil/papan kering. B. Eng
(Hons) Final Year Project Report, Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia.

Siti Hawa H., Yong C.B., & Wan Hamidon W. B., 2003a, Structural behaviour of profiled steel
sheet dry board system wall panel with door opening. Proceedings of the Fifth Asia Pacific
Structural Engineering and Construction Conference (APSEC 2003), J. Bharu, 26-28 Aug, pp
421-431

Siti Hawa H., Yong C.B., & Wan Hamidon W. B., 2003b, Crack patterns in profiled steel sheet
dry board, Proceedings of the 2nd International Conference on Construction Technology
(CONTEC 2003), Sabah, 13-15 Oct, pp 135-142
Siti Hawa H., Yong C.B, Nadiah S. & Mat Som M., 2004a, The effect of butt joint on the
structural behaviour of PSSDB wall panel, Proceedings of Conference on Scientific and Social
Research (CSSR 2004), Sarawak, 19-21 May

Siti Hawa H., Yong C.B, & Wan Hamidon W. B., 2004b, Butt Joint In Dry Board As Crack
Arrester, Proceedings of 22nd Conference of Asean Federation of Engineering
Organisation (CAFEO 22), 18 – 19 Dec, Myanmar

Suzaimy M. S., 2000, Kajian teori kelakuan dinding keluli berprofil/papan kering. B. Eng (Hons)
Final Year Project Report, Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia.

Wan Hamidon W.B., Zain, M.F.M, Akhand, A.M., & Ehsan A., 2003a, Dryboards as load bearing
element in the profiled steel sheet dry board floor panel system – Structural performance and
applications, Journal of Construction and Building Materials, Vol. 17, pp 289 – 297

Wan Hamidon W.B., Zain, M.F.M, Sodiq, H.M., Akhand, A.M., & Sahari, J., 2003b, Fire
resistance performance of profiled steel sheet dry board (PSSDB) flooring panel system, Journal
of Building and Environment, Vol. 38, pp 907-912

Wan Hamidon W.B., et. al, 1996, Lightweight composite wood / profiled steel sheeting system.
Ministry of Science, Technology and Environment Malaysia Research Grant: 09-02-02-009.

Wright H.D. & Evans H.R., 1986, Profiled steel sheeting for the replacement of timber flooring in
building renovation. SERC Grant GR/D/76875.

Yong C.B., Siti Hawa H., & Wan Hamidon W. B., 2002, Structural behaviour of profiled steel
sheet dry board system wall panel with window opening. 20th Conference of Asean Federation of
Engineering Organisation (CAFEO 20), Cambodia, 2-4 Sept, pp 76-80
 MICRONIZED BIOMASS SILICA AND NANOPARTICLES SYNTHESIS –
RECENT DEVELOPMENT

YL Lee ahloon@kuittho.edu.my
HB Koh koh@kuittho.edu.my
CK Wong ckwong82@gmail.com
Suraya Hani Adnan suraya@kuittho.edu.my

Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering

Kolej Universiti Teknologi Tun Hussein Onn
Beg Berkunci 101
86400 Parit Raja, Batu Pahat
Johor, Malaysia

Suhaizad bin Sulaiman suhaizad@jkr.gov.my

Public Works Department Malaysia

Yung-Tse Hung, Professor

Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering
Cleveland State University
Cleveland, Ohio 44115-2214 USA
Email: y.hung@csuohio.edu

ABSTRACT

This paper reports some recent development on micronised amorphous biomass silica
and the synthesis of nanoparticles. The objective is to develop an economical and
environmental-friendly material and process for sustainable concrete construction. The
experimentation focused on the synthesis of off-white biomass silica. Rice husk experimented
in a controlled incineration temperature regime of 500oC within an hour has produced
encouraging findings. The biomass silica thus produced was amorphous when examined with
XRD. Particle size reduction was conducted with jar mill, Los Angeles abrasion equipment
and the opposed jet mill. The smallest average particle size produced was 5.25µm in the form
of dry powder. Research into nanoparticles synthesis with ultrasonic technique revealed the
potential of producing particle size of around 90nm in the form of colloidal silica. The
synthesis of biomass silica of particle size ranging from 20µm down to 20 nm is expected to
promote renewed interest in concrete research related to packing efficiency of particles within
the concrete matrix for the reduction of water permeability.

Keywords: Micronised silica, nanoparticles, colloidal silica, opposed jet mill, water
permeability
 INTRODUCTION

The natural process of materials synthesis has inspired the human race to learn and
explore beyond the frontiers of knowledge. Huang et al (1997) reviewed the assessment of
chloride diffusion in high strength concrete using the accelerated ionic migration test. To
improve the quality of clinker, Singh et al. (1997) studied the addition of 3% boiler-fired rice
husk ash to the black meal of a vertical shaft kiln. Amer et al. (1997) studied blended
cements made from rice husk ash fired at 450 °C and portland cement. Water demand was
increased with the increase of rice husk ash content. Lin and Hwang (1997) described the
hydration mechanism of rice husk ash with calcium hydroxide which starts by the release of
the water absorbed in the porous silica structure of the ash. This enables the quick reaction of
silica with calcium hydroxide to form growing calcium silicate hydrate (CSH gel). Sugita et
al. (1997) designed a semi-industrial prototype furnace to produce a highly reactive and
homogeneous rice husk ash. By controlling the burning temperature and grinding, the
concrete strength, resistance to acid attack, chloride penetration and carbonation have been
improved.

The pozzolanic properties of palm oil fuel ash (POFA), a waste material obtained on
burning of palm oil husk and shell, was studied by Hussin et al. (1997). Compressive strength
test with Portland cement substitution levels between 10-60% indicate the possibility of
replacing 40% ash without affecting concrete strength. A maximum strength gain at the 30%
level was achieved. Awal et al. (1997) utilized POFA to reduce the expansion of mortar bars
containing tuff as a reactive aggregate. According to the results, POFA has a good potential
in suppressing alkali-silica reaction expansions. El-Hosiny et al (1997) used Nitrogen
adsorption to measure the surface properties portland cement/rice husk ash pastes. The rice
husk ash was obtained at three firing temperatures of 450, 700 and 1000 °C. Higher surface
areas were obtained for pastes made from rice husks fired at 450 and 700 °C. The surface
area and pore volume results were related to the pore structure of the silica produced in the
rice husk ash. A controlled incineration method at temperature between 450 to 550 °C is
being experimented to produce highly reactive amorphous rice husk ash with a high pozzolan
activity and a low unburnt carbon content. Kearsley, E.P. and Wainwright (2000 & 2002)
reported various factors affecting the engineering performance of foamed concrete containing
fly ash.

Research into nano-structured building materials is progressing at an astonishing

speed (Qing et al. 2005). If the nanoparticles are integrated with cement-based building
materials the new materials could lead us to the development of materials with increased
durability. Extended or improved performance materials are suitable for the construction of
super high-rise, long-span or intelligent civil infrastructure systems (Hui, et al. 2004 & Tio,
2005). Nanoparticle synthesis has attracted considerable scientific interest recently due to the
new potential uses of particles in nanometer (10-9m) scale. Nanoparticles has good potential
to be utilized in Portland cement composite (Balaguru, 2005). Novel exploitation of the
properties and phenomena at nano-scale could lead to new business opportunities. The use of
nanoparticles can result in dramatic improved properties from conventional grain-size
materials of the same chemical composition (Jo et al. 2006).

However the present applications are limited to produce antigen, antiseptic, purified
air composite paint or other ecological building materials using nano-TiO2, nano-SiO2 or
nano-FeO3 (Hui, et al. 2004). It is important to have strong fundamental understanding of
cement chemistry and the resulting hydration products is necessary before any attempt to
improve cement and concrete in nano-scale (Corr & Shah, 2005). Nanosilica particles with an
average size of 10nm helps to improve the porosity of the hydrated cement paste by filling
the voids left in the spaces between larger particles. Nanosilica could also reduce the cement
requirement for concrete, thus reducing the heat generation and shrinkage problems
associated with high cement contents (Corr & Shah, 2005). Attempt is made to develop
suitable methods to produce micronised and nanoparticles of biomass silica to promote
advanced materials research.

Rice Husk

Rice husk constitutes one-fifth by weight of paddy harvested. Its average density is
3
around 100 kg/m . The rice milling process in Malaysia generates about 3.41 million cubic
meter of rice husk annually (Lee et al. 2002). Although rice husk has its traditional uses, it is
mostly causing disposal problem in most countries. Due to growing environmental concerns
and the need to conserve energy and resources, alternatives have been developed to dispose
this biomass. Innovative application is crucial to avoid environmental pollution and the waste
of energy.

MICRONISED BIOMASS SILICA AND NANOPARTICLES

Micronised Biomass Silica

It is known that amorphous silica (SiO2) will react with calcium hydroxide to form
calcium silicate hydrate (CSH). CSH crystal contributes to compressive strength and will
grow with time resulting in pore refinement in the microstructure. The water permeability in
cementitious composition is thus reduced. Therefore biomass silica ash with high content of
SiO2 is suitable for use in cementitius composition. Reactivity of SiO2 depends on the
morphology and particle size. Amorphous (non-crystalline) silica is found to be highly
reactive if micronised to the region of 5µm. Thus, the off-white biomass silica ash have to be
produced in such a way that it is amorphous, low impurity with less that 15% by weight of
carbon content.

Colloidal Silica

Colloidal silica is a watery dispersoid of silicon dioxide. Its molecular formula can
be mSiO2 - nH2O. It has many industrial productions, such as investment casting, vacuum-
formed fibrous shapes, refractory materials, inorganic coatings, stool and mould coatings,
textile industry, paper and film making, hot-top insulating boards, catalyst binders and
supports, treatment of carbon products, and the production of enhanced foamed rubber. It has
also been used as water-purifying agent, clarification agent, polishes, reinforcing agent and
molecular sieves. The potential of developing high purity colloidal silica in concentration
from 15% to 40%, with or without alkali, and particle size varying from 5nm to 120nm is
being explored.
 PROCESS DEVELOPMENT

A rotary reactor furnace is designed to be equipped with controlled opening for

introduction of air aiding complete combustion to produce a low carbon content, off-white
amorphous biomass silica ash. The first step of production is to put in the raw materials in the
furnace (Figure 1). The off-white amorphous biomass silica ash (Figure 2) is falling through
the perforated trays into a collecting funnel at the bottom by gravity. The process takes an
hour for the raw material to become off-white biomass silica. Different temperature ranging
from 300°C to 600°C has been experimented to determine the optimum temperature to
produce amorphous biomass silica with low carbon content (Figure 3). The biomass silica ash
obtained from the furnace is then subjected to the particle size reduction process. Four
methods have been experimented, namely: Los Angeles abrasion equipment, jar mill,
opposed jet mill and ultrasonic method. The mean diameter of the particle size were
measured and tabulated in Table 1.

Figure 1: Rotary Reactor Furnace to produce Biomass Silica

 Figure 2: Unprocessed Biomass Silica

TEST RESULTS

Table 1 shows the colour of ash at different incineration temperature for an hour in
the rotary reactor furnace. It shows that organic constituents of the biomass are not
decomposed to an adequate extent if the temperature is below 450 °C. Above 550°C, heating-
up is spontaneous and the ash is grey. If the temperature is increased beyond 600°C, there is
no improvement in the purity of the end product, compared with incineration temperature of
450°C to 550°C. The greatest loss of weight occurs during spontaneous heating at
approximately 500°C. Therefore, the test results indicated that the quality of the ash
progressively decreases above and below 500°C. The off-white biomass silica is found to be
amorphous as shown in the XRD test result in Figure 3.
 Table 1: Loss of weight and colour of biomass silica

Temperature Weight loss Colour of ash

300 °C 29.8% Black
400 °C 66.8% Grey
500 °C 77.1% Off-White
600 °C 74.7% Grey

Figure 3: XRD for Biomass Silica produced at 500°C

Table 2 shows the particle size distributions of biomass silica with different methods
of processing. Figure 4 shows the SEM micrograph of micronized biomass silica. The mean
diameter of the unprocessed biomass silica was around 142.08µm. The methods used to
reduce the particles sizes were the Los Angeles Abrasion Machine using steel rod and steel
ball, jar mill, opposed jet mill and ultrasonic. The jar mil process was experimented for every
3, 6, 12, 24, 48, 60 minutes. The particle sizes reduction experiment showed that the mean
particle size for Los Angeles Abrasion with steel ball was two times smaller than using steel
rod with 1000 rotation. The smallest particle size achieved was using the ultrasonic method
with mean diameter of 92 nm. The test report is included as Appendix A.
 Table 2: Particle size reduction with different processing methods

Time Mean Diameter,

Methods Rotation
Minute µm
Control - - 142.08
Los Angeles Abrasion
1000 18 64.77
Machine (Steel Rod)
Los Angeles Abrasion
1000 18 35.12
Machine (Steel Ball)
- 3 55.50
- 6 36.78
- 12 30.18
Jar Mill
- 24 24.35
- 48 19.12
- 60 17.61
Opposed Jet Mill - 15 5.25
Ultrasonic Method - - 0.93

Figure 4: SEM Micrograph of Micronized Biomass Silica

CONCLUSION

The optimum temperature to produce off-white amorphous biomass silica with the
rotary reactor furnace is 500°C. Particle size reduction with the opposed jet mill produced
micronised silica of particle size around 5µm in the shortest time compared with the other
methods. The synthesis of nanoparticles from biomass silica is possible in the form of
colloidal silica with the ultrasonic method.
 Controlled permeability cementitious composites and protective coatings have been
experimented with encouraging findings. Specification for controlled density foamed
concrete products has been prepared for the ready-mix concrete industry in Malaysia.
Cementitious composites derived from the innovative exploitation of micronised biomass
silica have been identified for use in the experimental construction of wall for low-cost
housing. The synthesis of off-white amorphous silica from controlled incineration of biomass
particularly rice ask has attracted much research interest in undergraduate and postgraduate
studies.

A method of soft soil stabilisation with micronised silica is therefore proposed for a
postgraduate programme. The material is proposed to be experimented with innovative
formulation for rural and plantation road system. Precast lightweight concrete pile containing
micronised silica is also proposed to provide cost-effective geotechnical solutions for
construction on soft soil.

The development of blended cement for waterproofing applications and specialty

coatings will be expedited with the support of industrial collaborators. The opposed jet mill
available in the Civil Engineering Materials Laboratory of KUiTTHO is for consistent
particle size reduction of biomass silica. It is envisaged that successful pre-commercialisation
could lead to the establishment of research centres focused on renewable energy, advanced
materials, construction and manufacturing. It has potential to expedite the physical
development of the university and the surrounding industries.

ACKOWLEDGEMENT

The authors wish to acknowledge the fundamental research grants (Vot No. 84211,
84220 and 0178) awarded by the Ministry of Education Malaysia, and further funding by
Construction Industry Development Board Malaysia (CIDB) (Vot. No. 8006) managed by the
Research Management and Innovation Centre (http://ppb.kuittho.edu.my). Special
appreciation to Supracoat (S) Sdn Bhd for the financial support for pre-commercialisation
activities, Evergreen Fibreboard Berhad, Petro-Pipe Concrete Piles Sdn. Bhd., Gobel Industry
Sdn. Bhd., Kimberly Clark and Ban Heng Bee Rice Mill (1952) Sdn. Bhd.
(www.malaysiarice.com) for the contribution of raw materials, TCK eSolutions Sdn. Bhd.
and (www.ewarns.com.my) for technical support related to remote monitoring of the rotary
reactor furnace and Your Website Solution Sdn. Bhd. (www.1.com.my ) for the maintenance
of the research portals (www.1.edu.my) and (www.ashmann.com).

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Appendix A
 Structural Behaviour of Bakun Concrete Faced Rockfill Dam During Construction

Fayda A. Al-Obaidi, J. Noorzaei, Thamir S. Younis, M.S. Jaafar, W.A. Thanoon

Department of Civil Engineering
Universiti Putra Malaysia, Malaysia

ABSTRACT: This study covers the development and application of two dimensional finite element
software, to account for the structural modeling of concrete face rockfill dams (CFRD), during construction
phase. Dead, Birth and Ghost element technique has been adjusted in the physical modeling. Bakun
concrete slab rockfill dam which is currently under construction at Malaysia has been modeled using
different types of finite elements to simulate different dam zones along with concrete faces. The study
focuses on the effect of construction sequence on the structural response of the dam with and without
concrete slab. The structural responses in terms of deformations characteristic, stress distributions have
been highlighted. The results indicate that concrete slab has an effect that reduces the displacements and
stresses on the body of dam.

method was adopted in the analysis of 36m high

INTRODUCTION Wilmot rockfill dam using triangular elements.

Concrete-faced compacted rockfill dams become
popular for the last three decades as a result of their
good performance and low cost compared to other
types of dams. They show high level of safety, and
the stability compared to other type of dams, due to
the large mass of the rockfill embankment. How-
ever, the concrete face is the critical part in this type
of dam due to the possibility of cracking and leakage
of water. Cracking are occurred due to differential
settlement of the underlying rock stratums.
Recently the analyses for rockfill dams are carried
out using finite element method to identify the
various factors affecting the distribution of stresses
and strains in the face slab and the body of the dam.
Furthermore, most embankments are constructed by
incremental process and the loading is accumulated
gradually during the construction stages. For
realistic assessment of the dam, the analysis should
provide the effect of the load being applied in
incremental rather than being applied in one stage.
The application of finite element method was
demonstrated by Clough et al. (1967) for the
analysis of earth dam. Boughton (1970) noted that
the design of concrete face is largely empirical;
modification to design practice was made in the light
of the performance of new dams. Finite element
Modeling of slippage between the concrete slab and
body of the dam was ignored in the analysis; Khalid
et.al (1990) used finite element method to simulate
the prototype behavior of various component of a
rock fill dam. The analysis includes the effects of
sequential construction and the nonlinearity behavior
of the materials.
This study is a continuation of author previous
work Noorzaei et..al. (1999) and Fayda et al.
(2003) where Birth, Dead, and Ghost element
technique was used to study the effect of
construction sequence in the concrete faced rockfill
dams. Moreover, this study focuses on the effect of
the concrete slab on the displacements and the
distribution of the stresses developed due to gravity
load.
In this study the paper focuses on the effect of
construction sequences on the structural response
of the dam with and without concrete slab for
Bakun dam, using 2-D finite element program in
the analysis.
ALGORTHIMS FOR SIMULATION SEQUEN-
CE OF CONSTRUCTION
In order to simulate the sequences of dam
construction in this study, the Death-Birth-Ghost
element technique was implemented. The finite
element discrimination of the dam body is same as
to that used under single shot loading. In this
algorithm the physical discretization of the dam
body is defined completely, while the mechanical
properties of the dam body will depends on whether
the layer is previously loaded or currently loaded or
yet to be loaded.. Sequence of construction schedule
and accordingly three cases of loading is defined
namely:
i- (Dead layer). Previously loaded layers
ii- (Birth layer). Current loading layer
iii- (Ghost layer) is the layer not yet exist
Figure-1 showing the layers of the dam in each step
of analysis the Birth elements are assigned with the
material properties of the dam while, the Dead
elements are assigned with the material properties of
the dame with zero density. The Ghost layers are
Ghost
Birth
(a)-Stage 1 loaded
Ghost
Birth
Dead
(b)-Stage 2 Loaded
Ghost
Birth
Dead
( c) Stage 3 loaded
Figure 1. Sequence of construction
assigned very small young modulus and passion
ratio
FINITE ELEMENT MODELLING
The following elements are used to idealize the cross
section of the Bakun dam.
(i)- Eight noded isoparametric elements to
represent the dam body.
(ii)- Six nodded isoparametric element to model the
concrete slab.
(iii)- Interface element to model the contact
behavior between the concrete face slab and
dam body
The finite element formulations of elements in (i)
and (ii) are well established and are available in
finite element text book, Cook et al. (2002),
Zeinkiewics, O.C. (1979). However, a brief
description is presented here for the formulation of
interface element.
A typical curved parabolic interface element which
is sandwiched between two continuums are as
shown in Fig-2, the pair of nodes 1-1, 2-2, 3-3 and
the middle line nodes a, b, c are defined by the
same coordinates respectively. Brief descriptions on
the formulation of interface element are presented
herein:
x = ∑ N i xi , y = ∑ N i yi (1)
u = ∑ Niui , v = ∑ N iν i (2)
1 1
N a = ξ (ξ − 1) , N b = (1 − ξ 2 ) , N c = (ξ + 1) (3)
2 2
Where Na ,Nb ,Nc are the shape function at nodes
and
Figure 2. Parabolic interface element
∆ u a = u 1T − u 1B , and ∆v a = v1T − v 1B
∆ u b = u 2T − u 2B and ∆v b = v 2T − v 2B (4)
∆ u c = u 3T − u 3B and ∆ v c = v 3T − v 3B
u1T , u1B , v1T , v1B , u 2T L etc , are the nodal displacements
in x and y directions, and the indices T and B
indicates top & bottom continuum respectively. The
above relationship can be expressed as.
 [Di ] is the elasticity matrix for the joint, and
u T
 ds is a small length of the joint and
1
 
∆ua  1 0 −1 0 v T

{∆a} =  =   =[T]{δa} τ 
[σ ] = 
1
 (5)
∆va  0 1 0 −1u
B
  = [Di ]{ε } (12)
σ n 
1
v B
1

[D] = 
Kss 0 
(13)
Similar expression can be written for ∆b , ∆c  0 Knn

{∆} = {∆ a ∆ c } = [T ]6 * 12 {δ }12 *1 (6) Where Kss, and Knn are the shear and normal
T
∆b
stiffness respectively.
here again [T ] is transfer matrix.

As in the case of isoparametric elements, the BAKUN DAM MODELLING

relative displacement
∆u Na 0 Nb 0 Nc 0 ∆ub 
 =
∆v  0 Na 0 Nb 0 Nc ∆vb 
∆u 
  = [N ]2*6 {∆}6*1
∆v 
By substituting equation (6) into Equation (8) to
get the following equation:
Bakun dam is a hydropower projects is located in
∆ua  BAULI river of Sarawak in Malaysia, 37 km
∆v  downstream from the nearest Town of Belaga and
 a
180km away from the seaport city called Mindulu in
  (7) the east of Malaysia.
∆uc  The project is mainly composed of three parts:
  concrete rockfill dam, power generating system and
∆vc  water release system. The project has a maximum
dam height of 205m with total installed capacity of
(8) 2400MW (the first stage installed capacity of
900MW) and concrete consumption for the main
project of 1,100,000 m³. The dam consists of differ-

∆u 
  = [N ][T ]{δ } = [N ]δ {δ } (9)
 ∆v 

The strain at any point in the joint defined by

local coordinate system
205 m
ε t  1 ∆u  1
' 3A

  =  '  = [R][Nδ ]{δ} = [Bi ]{δ} (10) Figure 3. Cross

2B section showing zones of dam
ε n  t ∆v  t 1B Concrete
slab
where ∆u’, and ∆v’ are the displacement in local co- ent
3B 3C
zones1Aas shown in Figure 3. The details of these
2A
ordinate ξ and η directions respectively. zones are summarized below:
ε t and ε n are the tangential and normal strains • Concrete slab3B with variable thickness 3 reduced
respectively at the point, [R] is a rotation matrix with the height.
and transfers global strains to local strains, (t) is the • Zones (1A, 1B) at the upstream zone, over the
Grout blanket

thickness of the element and [B] is the strain –
displacement matrix of the joint
The stiffness matrix of the interface element can be
written as:
[K ] = ∫ [Bi ]T [Di ][Bi ] ds
lower deck of perimeter joint.
• Zone 2A, a well compacted of processed fine
filter having low.
• Zone 2B, well graded processed filter, this zone
be immediately behind the face slab.
• Zone 3A, transition zone placed adjacent to zone
(11) 2B with maximum size of 0.3 meters.

Where [Bj ] is the strain displacement matrix

• Zone 3B, the upstream zone forming
approximately 50-60% of the embankment
including the integrated cofferdam.
• Zone 3C, a zone within the downstream placed
and compacted in layers about 1 meter thick.
• Zone 3D, placed and compacted in layers up to 2
meters thick and dozed to downstream face of
the dam to serve as slope protection, also used
within the valley bottom to serve a high-capacity
under drain.
PHASE OF DAM EMBANKMENT
The construction of Bakun dam is planned to be in
four different phases as follows:
Phase I- Cofferdam ending at July 2004
Phase II- Consist of four layers expected time to
finish at Nov.2004
Phase III- Consist of six layers and expected to
finish at Jan. 2006
Phase IV- Consist of One layer, finish at Mar.2007
FINITE ELEMENT MESH
The finite element idealization of the whole dam
8 nodded -No of layers= 28
-No. of nodes= 2756
(b) Mesh without slab, without interface
isoparametric
element for -No. of elements= 879
dam body Figure 4 Finite element mesh
In this paper only the loading due to the sequence of
construction has been taken into the consideration.
RESULTS AND DISUSSION
The structural behavior of the dam has been studied
with respect to displacement and stress developed in
the body of the dam.
Figures 5, 6, 7, and 8 indicate the vertical
displacements across the width of dam at elevation
9.4, 52.5, 110.16, and 170 respectively. Each figure
shows the displacements for both finite element
models; with and without slab. It is clear from these
plots that the concrete slabs reduces the
deformations in the body of the dam and increase the
displacements nearby the region of the concrete slab.
vertical displacements at level 9.4 due to different
sequance of construction [w ith slab]
0
Vertical displacements (m)

-0.02 0 200 400 600

section is illustrated in figure 4 along with total No. -0.04
of elements, total number of nodes, total numbers -0.06
No. of layers and different types elements. This -0.08
finite element mesh illustrates two models namely: -0.1
(a)- With slab (shown in Fig. 4a). -0.12
-0.14
(b)- Without slab (shown in Fig. 4b). 9.4
-0.16
-0.18

Distance along w idth of dam(m)

St-1 St-4 St-6 St-13 St-16
St-18 St-21 St-25 St-28

Vertical displacements at level 9.4m due diff erent

sequance of construction [Without slab]
0
-0.02 0 200 400 600
Vertical displacements

-0.04
-0.06
8 nodded and 6 -0.08
(m)

isoparametric
(a) Mesh - No of layers= 28
with Concrete slab + Interface -0.1
elements for concrete
- No. of nodes=2870 -0.12
and dam body El.9.4
The proposed finite element model, - No of elements
take 935
into
-0.14
-0.16
consideration different material properties at -0.18
different zones of the dam, and the sequence of Distance along w idth of dam (m)

construction described above. ST-1 st-4 st-6 st-13 st-16

st-18 st-21 st-25 st-28

Figure 5 Vertical displacements at level 9.

vertical displacements at 52.5 due to different sequance

of construction [w ithslab]
0
0 100 200 300 400 500 600
al displacements

-0.2

-0.4
(m)

-0.6
 Vertical displacements at level 170.0 due to sequance of
construction [without slab]

Vertical displacementat El. 52.7 due to different sequance 0

of construction[w ithout slab] 200 250 300 350 400

0
-0.1
-0.1 0 100 200 300 400 500 600
displacements (m)

-0.2
-0.3
Vertical

-0.2 170
-0.4
-0.5
-0.6 -0.3
El.52.
-0.7
-0.8 st-25
Distance along w idth of dam (m) -0.4 Distance along width o f dam(m) st-28

St-6 st-11 st-13 st-16 Figure 8 Vertical displacements at level 170

Figure 6st-18 st-21 st-25at
Vertical displacements levelst-28
52.5
Vertical displacements at Cl along height of dam for
different sequance of construction [with slab]
Vertical displacements at level 110.16 due to sequance
of construction [w ith slab] cL 1.2

Vertical displacements(m)
50 150 250 350 450 550 1

0 0.8
dis plac ements (m )

-0.2 0.6
0.4
-0.4
Vertic al

0.2
-0.6
El.110 0
-0.8 -1.2 -1 -0.8 -0.6 -0.4 -0.2 0
h/H
-1
Distance along w idth of dam (m) st-4 st-13 st-21 st-28

st-13 St-16 St-18 Vertical displacements at Cl of dam along the height for
St-21 St-25 St-28 different sequence of construction [w ithoutslab]
1
cL
Vertical displacements ( m)

Vertical displacements at El.110 due to sequance of 0.9

0.8
construction[w ithout s lab]
0.7
50 150 250 350 450 550 0.6
0.5
0
0.4
Vertical displacements

-0.2 0.3
0.2
-0.4 El.110 0.1
(m)

0
-0.6
-1.2 -1 -0.8 -0.6 -0.4 -0.2 0
-0.8 h/H

-1 st-4 st-13 st-21 st-28

distance along width of dam(m)
st-13 st-16 st-18 Figure 9 Vertical displacements at the centre line of the dam
st-21 st-25 st-28

Figure 7 Vertical displacements at level 52.5

The maximum vertical displacement occurred at
elevation 110.16 as shown in Figure 7, and their Normal stresses at level 52.5 due to sequance of
values are, 91.1 and 100 cm, (for the dam with and construction [w ith slab]
-50 50 150 250 350 450 550
without concrete slab respectively). This elevation
represents approximately the mid height of the
where the maximum displacements occur as shown -250

in Figure-9

KN/m²
-850

When analysing the dam in single shot (ignoring the -1450

effect of construction sequence), the maximum -2050 52.5

displacement calculated found to be larger at the top
-2650
and lower in the middle part of the dam. The
contours of the vertical displacements are shown in -3250
Distance along w idth of dam (m)
figure 10 and 11 for the two models with and
St-6 St-13 St-16 St-18 St-21 St-28
without slab respectively.
Normal stresses at level 52.5due to sequance of
Results obtained considering the gradual lifting of construction [w ithout slab]
the dam reflects that the construction sequences are 0 100 200 300 400 500
important and have to be considered in the analysis. 300

0
KN/m²
-300

-600
52.5
-900

-1200
Distance along w idth of dam (m)

St-6 St-13 St-16 St-18 St-21 St-28

Figure 10 Vertical displacements due to single shot

load ing [with slab] Fig. 12 Normal stresses σx at level 52.5 for different stage
of construction.

Normal stresses at level 52.5 due to sequance of

construction [With slab]

0
0 100 200 300 400 500
-500
Figure 11 Vertical displacements due to single shot loading
-1000
[without slab]
KN/m²

-1500
Fig.12, 13 shows normal stresses σx, σy, plotted -2000
across the width of the dam, at elevation of 52.5. It 52.5
can be seen that the maximum vertical stresses -2500
occurred at the mid width of the dam. Moreover, -3000
the presence of concrete slab reduces the stresses
Distance along w idth of dam (m)
on the body of the dam, and increases the stresses
nearby the concrete slab. St-6 St-13 St-16 St-18 St-21 St-28
 Clough, R., W (1967) “ Anaysis of embankment Stresses and
Normal stresses at level 52.5 due to sequance of Deformations JSMFD, ASCE, Vol. 93, No. SM4
construction [Without slab] Cook, R.D., Malkus, D.S, Plesha, M.E. and Witt. R.J. (2002),
0 100 200 300 400 500
Concept and Application of Finite Element Analysis,
0 Fourth Edition, John Wiley & Sons, Inc.
Fayda F. ,Noorzaei,J.(2003),”Structural Response of
-1000 Concrete Faced Rockfill Dam”, prceeding of 5th Asia-
KN/m²

Pacific APSEC
Khalid, Bharat Singh, Nayak G.C.,and Jain O.P
-2000 1990.Nonlinear Analysis of concrete Face rockfill Dam
,Jl.of Geotechnical Engineering, ASCEVol.116,No.5
-3000 52.5
Noorzaei J., Golinavaz Herls and. Pakbas,M.C. (1999),
“Non-linear analysis of Earth and Rockfill Dams
Considering The sequence of construction”
-4000 Computational Mechanics for the Next Millennium
Distance along w idth of dam (m) Solid Mechanics and Fluid Mechanics Vol. 1.
St-6 St-13 St-16 St-18 St-21 St-28 Zeinkiewics, O.C. (1979), The Finite Element Method, Third
Edition, Tata McGraw-Hill Publishing Ltd., New Delhi
Figure 13 Normal stresses σy at level 52.5 for different
stage of construction

CONCLUSION

The paper describes the finite element analysis of

Bakun concrete rock fill dam under gravity load.
The effects of construction stages and the presence
of concrete face slab on the deformations and
stresses distribution in the dam have been covered.
It is concluded that, the Dead-Birth, and Ghost
element technique is very useful as far as the data
preparation for the finite element analysis is
concerned since only one mesh is required to
simulate all the stages of construction. The
concrete slab has a significant effect on the
deformation and stresses distribution. The high
stiffness of the concrete faced slab will alter the
distribution of the stresses leading to lower values
of stresses in the body of the dam and higher
values in the concrete faced slab. Maximum value
of settlement occurs in the mid height of the dam
for both models, with and without slab

AKNOWLEDGMENT

The Authors wish to thank SARAWAK HIDRO

SDN. BHD.,Bhg. Perkhidmatan For their
assistance in providing the data and drawings
concerning Bakun dam.

REFERENCES

Bougton, N. O. (1970),”Elastic analysis for behavior of rock

fill” J. Soil Mech. And found. Div., ASCE, 96(5) 1715-
1733.
 Are Knowledge Management Levels and Efforts in Construction Sufficient? –
The Case of a Developing Economy

O. Mohamed 1, H. Abdul-Rahman2, M. Othman3, , I.A. Yahya4, N. Zakaria.5

1,2,3,4,5
Center for Project and Facility Management (PFM), Faculty of Built Environment,
University of Malaya, 50603 Kuala Lumpur. Tel:03-7967 5320 Fax:03-7967 5713

e-mail: 1othmanmohamed@um.edu.my, 2 arhamzah@um.edu.my,

3
maznah_o@um.edu.my,4 imranariff@um.edu.my, 5norhanim@um.edu.my

Abstract

Knowledge management is increasingly seen as an important asset for organizations and it

has received considerable attention in recent years. Major organizations have recognized the
benefits of knowledge management and have thus invested in it. Knowledge management
application in the construction industry, especially amongst construction firms in developing
economies, is still an under-chartered territory. This paper reports on the findings of a survey,
taking Malaysian contractors as samples, on the level of knowledge management application
in the construction organization and areas of construction management that can be improved
by its application. The survey findings revealed that knowledge management application is at
a below par level and that the level of knowledge among middle and front-line workers
needed improvement especially in the areas of communication and technical skills. The
analysis on the feedback showed that job knowledge and skills are important in making good
and reliable decisions. Budgetary control, contract management, material planning and
control, manpower planning and control, and negotiating with other involved parties were
identified as important areas that KM can help to improve.
Keywords: Knowledge management, construction, projects, questionnaire survey

Introduction

The concept of knowledge in the organization has become increasingly popular in the

literature for many years (Alvesson & Karreman, 2001), and knowledge being recognized as

1
the most important resource of the organization (Spender & Grant, 1996). According to

Stewart (1997) knowledge has been considered the primary source of the competitive

advantage and critical to the long term sustainable and success of organization (Nonaka &

Takeuchi, 1995)

Quintas et al (1997) defined KM as “the process of continually managing knowledge of all

kinds to meet existing and emerging needs, to identify and exploit existing and acquired
knowledge assets and to develop new opportunity”. Saffady (1998) suggested that
“knowledge management is concerned with the systematic, effective management and
utilization of an organization’s knowledge resources.”

In the context of information management, Duffy (2000) explained that “KM is not limited to
tracking existing knowledge but is intended to promote and support the creation of new
knowledge, thus contributing to innovation, an essential ingredient in business success.”
Duffy (2000) further noted that KM should: 1) capitalize on both explicit and tacit
knowledge 2) support business objectives and revenue generation 3) stress on human
interaction as the focal point, and 4) capitalize on lessons learned. To overcome these
principles, it is important to emphasize the relationship between source of information and
knowledge and to ensure that participants in the knowledge management process are able to
move fluidly across these relationships.

Knowledge can be grouped into two types namely, tacit and explicit knowledge. Tacit
knowledge is usually in the domain of subjective and highly developed personal based on
experiential learning making it difficult to communicate. It is also referred to as embedded
knowledge (Madhaven and Grover, 1998), meaning that is usually either localized within
brain of an individual or embedded in the group interaction within organization. Tacit
knowledge typically involves expertise or high skill level workers. Fleck (1996) describes
tacit knowledge as: “a subtle level of understanding often difficult to put into words, a trained
recognition and perception, a good feeling for the technology. This form of knowledge is
wholly embodied in the individual, rooted in practice and experience, expressed through

2
skillful execution, and transmitted by apprenticeship and training through watching and
doing forms of learning.”

Explicit knowledge is characterized with more objectives, rational and technical knowledge
in the form of data, policies, procedures, documents, etc. (Nonaka and Takeuchi, 1995). It is
the knowledge that has been documented in a form that can be distributed to others. For
example, a description of how to process an estimate procedure would be documented in a
firm’s tendering and contract policy manual.

Managing knowledge in organizations

The rapid development on market trend, demand and technology of ICT has changed the
concept of management or business into the knowledge era. The wealth of an organization no
longer depends on its ability to acquire, but on the abilities and intellect of its workers and
the skills with which organizations harness and develop those abilities.

According to Stewards (1997) intellectual capital can be divided in to 4 basic categories:

1) human capital 2) customer capital 3) structure capital and 4) competitor’s capital. These
capitals are identified on the basis of the organizational tacit and explicit knowledge in the
form of idea, skills, experiences, insight, writing reports, minutes of meeting and etc.
available in organization.

To create an environment that an organization firstly, should know what are their strength.
In general organization have four players in the human capital; top management,
professional, leaders, supporting staff. These players are the main source of human capital in
organizational.

According to Skyrme (2004) KM is a process of systematic management of vital knowledge

and its associated processes of creating, gathering, organizing, diffusion, use and
exploitation. It requires turning personal knowledge into corporate knowledge than can be
widely shared throughout an organization and appropriately applied. According to Hariharan
(2002), the success of KM implementation can be measured through participation by
employees in the knowledge sharing, collaboration and re-use to achieve business results and

3
provide people visibility, recognition and credit as "experts" in their respective areas of
specialization - while leveraging their expertise for business success.

Workers with adaptive minds can park their knowledge anywhere and become mobile. A
study by LPCUBE Knowledge Services Pvt. Ltd.(2003) found that when employees leave an
organization, 70% of their knowledge leaves with them and new employees spend 30% to
40% of their time looking for information. The opportunity cost (or loss) caused by the
inability to manage knowledge systematically represents one main reason why construction
related organizations must give due emphasis of this topic.

Knowledge management in the construction sector

The design and construction of a construction product is a complicated process (Howell,
1999). Construction projects have three general phases; pre-construction, construction and
post-construction. The first stage includes procurement and tendering, bidding and
contractual management (Male and Stock, 1991; Abdul-Rahman et al., 2001). The second
involves the design and construction processes and the third is when maintenance of the
product comes in. Based on the authors’ observation, there is a lack of formal system to
manage the abundance knowledge found in all the phases of construction projects. An
organization with the ability to store and use the information as knowledge can have a
competitive advantage in a leveled playing field.

The main problem of implementing the concept of knowledge management within

construction organization lies in the lack of methodology for measuring the intellectual
capital. (Kululanga & McCaffer, 2001).

According to Garvin (1993), one of the characteristics that have significantly contributed to
improvement of the business processes in learning organizations is the paradigm-shift from
concentrating on tangible assets to focusing on intangible assets as a measure of success in
today's knowledge economy.

Many construction companies, and their clients, are recognizing that the way they manage
knowledge and learn, across the whole supply chain, can make an enormous difference to

4
their performance and the efficiency of the construction process (Bower et al., 1998). At an
early stage of construction project, one of the important parts is contract management as it is
the basic initial agreements between the clients, contractor(s), and other involved parties.
Throughout the construction project activity, changes on the design, material, specification,
etc., will be made as the clients explore the available options and determine what they really
desired for the end product. The problems in construction contract management usually
occurred when the customer made new decisions on the project but it is not documented
properly (Abdul-Rahman and Berawi, 2001).

Knowledge in construction sector can be categorized into three inter-linked groups; domain
knowledge, organizational knowledge and project knowledge (Wetherill et al., 2002).
Domain knowledge refers to the overall information available for the construction
organizations, which is partly stored in electronic databases. It includes information of
administrative, standards, product databases, etc. Organizational knowledge is the intellectual
asset to a company. It resides both formally in company’s records and informally through the
employees’ real job experiences and cross-organizational knowledge. The latter category,
project knowledge, is the knowledge obtained by the construction company regarding their
projects and also that is created by the interaction between other firms. This potential tacit
knowledge is usually not captured and documented, thus, the company does not have the
ability to ‘‘re-use’’ and capitalize the ‘‘creating knowledge’’ activity. Examples of project
knowledge are problems and solutions, project records and memory of processes, etc.

According to Earl and Scott (1999), there are two typical knowledge management practices;
organizational investments and technological investments. For organizational investment, it
includes employees’ education and skills enhancement and the management process, while to
manage the tacit knowledge, suitable and practical programs are organized to encourage
contactivity amongst organizations’ personnel that will lead to the free flowing of knowledge
between them. The second practices; technological investment, involved the use of ICT tools,
directories, and other knowledge-based system to manage explicit knowledge. The available
technologies today also have open doors toward sharing the tacit knowledge, for example,
Intranet and video conferencing.

5
The development of Information and Communication Technology (ICT) has assisted
knowledge management to move forward. Nowadays, many software and practical
computerized system that support the knowledge management practices are available in the
market. The usage of intranet is one of the technological efforts to inculcate the knowledge
sharing culture. One of the leading construction companies in United Kingdom, John Laing,
is creating their path of KM practices to encourage knowledge sharing between personnel by
implementing RedDot, an Intranet system that allowed their employees accessing the
business information from any location (Thomas, 2003).

Many researches on ICT and knowledge management are conducted to create efficient
systems that will support knowledge management practice to a higher quality level.
Examples are the e-Cognos project (Wetherill et al., 2002) and KLICON project (Knowledge
Learning In CONstruction) (McCarthy et al., 1999). The e-Cognos project aims at
specifying and developing an open model-based infrastructure and tools that promote
consistent knowledge management within collaborative construction environments. It also
allowed construction organizations to assimilate large volumes of information, ensuring
timeliness, relevance, accuracy and completeness effectively. The latter example, the
KLICON project, began in February 1999 and based in UMIST’s Centre for Research in the
Management of Projects (CRMP) investigated how information technology can facilitate
organizational learning and knowledge management in construction industry. Christianson
(2003) pointed out that the development of potential new advanced ICT tools such as
semantic web and temporal databases will also influence the building process models and its
construction organizations in the future. On the other hand, ICT must not be regarded as the
knowledge management system, but as an integral part of the company and system.

The knowledge management system has been successfully implemented in many major
construction organizations such as Taylor Woodrow, Arup Consulting Engineers, Balfour
Betty and EC Harris (Payne, et al, 2003). Each organization within the KM community has
its own approach to achieve its KM objectives. The basic ingredient is to create a knowledge
sharing culture within the organization by managing three key aspects in knowledge
management system, which are, the people, processes and technology.

6
Research Objectives
This study aims to:
• To determine the current level of application of Knowledge Management during
construction amongst local construction companies in a developing economy, and
• To identify elements of construction management that may improve with the
implementation of a proper KM system.

Research Methodologies
The investigation is divided into three (3) types of input to achieve the objectives of the
research, namely: literature review, a pilot survey and a final questionnaire survey. Literature
review and pilot survey were carried out on KM concepts and general construction topics.
These early investigations were to provide understanding of KM applications in construction.
The final questionnaire survey was conducted on construction companies in West Malaysia.
The questionnaire focused on the aspects of learning and knowledge sharing culture that have
been adopted by the companies involved. Questionnaires were mailed to 1,000 local
construction companies chosen from the 2003 Construction Industry Development Board
(CIDB) Directory of contractors, the internet and newspaper. Only big to large construction
outfits were selected based on the CIDB classification of Grades 5 through 7.

Out of the 1000 questionnaires distributed, 144 were completed and returned, representing a
response rate of 14.4%. About 8.9% (89 numbers) of the distributed forms were returned
unanswered due to the change of companies’ addresses and 0.5% (5 numbers) refused to
participate in the survey because they are consultancy related companies. Thus, the analysis
is based on data provided by 144 respondents.

The respondents for the survey are mostly top management or middle-level managers of
construction firms. A majority of the respondents were personnel working both at the head
office and on-site (68.7%), followed by office-based (27.8%) and 3.5% site-based personnel.
All firms that participated in the survey are registered with the CIDB. 89.4% are from Grade
7, 7.7% are from Grade 6, 2.1% are from G5 and another 0.7% was foreign contractors. The
following section discusses the findings of the questionnaire survey.
Result of the analysis.

7
Current level of Knowledge Management application during construction in local
construction companies
• Educating employees (Questions: 6, 8, 9, 10)
Learning is always an important part in people’s daily life. Zuboff (1988) highlighted that
“Leaning is the new form of labor”, with the knowledge both as raw material and product of
the labor. For new employees especially those who just step into the working world, they
need to be trained. The same also applies to the former employees, as they need to be
exposed to new knowledge that will promote improvement in their overall productivity and
skills development.

The first question regarding education to the employees is the availability of sources of
knowledge such as manuals, reports, journals, books, etc., that can be accessed by the
employees within the office building. A total of 65.7% of the respondents claimed that their
respective companies provide manuals on job and construction fields to help staff with their
tasks while another 28.0% did not have such facilities. Another 6.3% of the respondents were
not sure if their companies provide staff with the above.

Some companies have their own learning/education program to specifically educate

employees. From the survey feedback, a majority of 55.9% of the involved companies did
not have such program while another 44.1% provide educational facilitiesy. Another 120
respondents (83.9%) claimed that their employers often send staff to attend
seminars/conferences/courses and the remainder 16.1% did not. A respondent commented
that only those whose attendance certificates were required by the employers participate in
seminars. Table 1 shows the summary of results for the three (3) questions.

Yes (%) No (%) Not sure (%)

Manuals provided by the company 65.7 28.0 6.3
Education/learning programs 44.1 55.9 N/A
Seminars/conferences/courses 83.9 16.1 N/A

8
Table 1: Responses on approaches taken by construction companies in educating employees

The next question in this part addressed the efforts taken by construction companies to
encourage their employees to learn and improve their skills and knowledge. These listed
approaches are only focused on the organizations’ planned programs. Figure 1 shows the
overall feedback of the survey.

J 4.9
Efforts in educating employees

I 46.5
H 16.0
G 70.8
F 6.2
E 18.7
D 29.2
C 27.1
B 61.8
A 59.7

0.0 10.0 20.0 30.0 40.0 50.0 60.0 70.0 80.0 90.0 100.0
Percentage (%)

Legend:
A: Training programs E: Establish a learning center within the company
B: Encourage discussion group F: Send employees to seminars/ conference/ course
C: Databases G: Conducting learning/motivation program continuously
D: Collection of reports, journals, etc. H: Technology – Internet, intranet, E-mail system, etc.
E: Small library for the employees 1: Others

Figure 1: Efforts taken by construction companies in educating employees

The responses showed that the most common efforts taken by the construction companies to
educate their staff are sending the employees to seminar (70.8%), encourage discussion
between personnel (61.8%), and offering training programs (59.7%). Other efforts are
adopting technology-based learning such as internet, intranet, etc. (46.5%), collection of
reports/journal as reference (29.2%), databases (27.1%), provide a special room as library for
their employees in the office building (18.7%), conduct learning and motivation program

9
continuously (16.0%), establish a learning center within the company (6.2%) and 4.9% for
other efforts. Other approaches commented by the respondents include giving out reminder
to their staff from time to time, discussions on problems that exist between different project
manager and staff, encouraging their employees to further their study, and maintaining their
professionalism by getting experienced personnel to train new staff.

The respondents were also asked of the companies’ level of satisfaction towards the outcome
from their efforts to educate the employees. From the feedback, 18.9 % of the respondents
believed that their companies’ expectations are fulfilled, 62.9% said “more or less”, and
11.9% believed that expectation is not fulfilled. Another 9 respondents (6.3%) did not
respond. Figure 2 shows the percentage of responses for this question.

No comment
6%
19% Yes
12%
No

63%

More or less

Figure 2: Companies’ level of satisfaction for the outcome of efforts

to educate the employees

• Loss of senior and experienced officer (Question: 7)

This section reflected the situations when an organization loses its senior and experienced
officers due to early-retirement, transfers or quitting from the current post. About 76.1% of
the respondents claimed that their companies have experienced such a loss of staff in the past

10
while the other 23.9% never experienced the loss due to their short existence as a
construction firm. Figure 3 shows the analysis of the result graphically.

The lost of such staff/officers has negative effects to the company. The statement is “totally
agreed” by 5.9% of the respondents, “agreed” by the 42.2%, and “slightly agreed” by 25.5%.
These responses imply that these officers are valuable to the company because of their
experience and knowledge that have been absorbed in their minds. The other options,
“disagree” and “totally disagree” are responded by 9.8% and 4.9%, respectively, while
11.8% (12 respondents) gave a “no comment” answer. Figure 4 illustrates the feedbacks for
this part of questionnaire.

no
24%

yes
76%

Figure 3: Companies’ loss of senior and experienced officer

45
40
35
Percentage (%

30
25
20
15
10
5
0
Totally Disagree Slightly Agree Totally No
disagree agree agree comment
Respondents' opinion

Figure 4: Respondents’ opinion on experiencing effects from the loss

of senior and experienced officer

11
• Transfer of knowledge within the organization (Question: 15)
Knowledge transfer or knowledge sharing within the organization should be an essential part
in of good management practice to ensure all employees are exposed to the latest news
regarding their work activities. In any construction project, the company’s head office and
site office should have an “open-channel” communication with each other. This part of
questionnaire investigates the most common approach of knowledge transference from head
office to site offices and vice versa. According to the respondents, the most common and
effective approaches is by having meeting between employees at site office and head office
(81.9%), and sending reports on regular basis (80.6%). These approaches are then trailed by
having discussions between the employees (69.4%), informal conversation between
colleagues (52.8%), knowledge sharing using technology-based system such as email system,
intranet, databases, etc. (12.5%), and 6.2% for other methods of knowledge transference. The
other methods include: giving reminders and orders from time to time, faxes and phone calls
and encourage staff gathering. Figure 5 shows the analysis of the result graphically.
Modes of knowledge transference

0.0 10.0 20.0 30.0 40.0 50.0 60.0 70.0 80.0 90.0 100.0
Percentage (%)

Legend:
A: Reports on a regular basis E: Database
B: Meetings (employees at site and headquarters) F: Informal conversation
C: Technology-based system (E-mail, intranet, etc.) G: Others
D: Discussion
Figure 5: Responses on modes of knowledge transference

• Knowledge sharing culture within the organization (Question: 13, 14)

12
This section contained 5 different questions regarding knowledge management and sharing
within the sampled firms. The first question seeks the opinion from the respondents about the
fact that productivity improvement can be achieved by adopting a system where the
knowledge from past experiences is captured and shared with other colleague. As a result,
58.0% of the respondents “agree” with the statement, 31.5% “totally agree”, and 6.3%
“slightly agree” with the question. Other respondents chose to “totally disagree” or give a
“no comment” answer, which contribute by 2.8% and 1.4% respectively.

No comment
4% Very lowLow
Very high 1% 8%
4%

High
28%

Average
55%

Figure 6 : Opinions of respondents on improving productivity by KM implementation

The second question reflected the current situation in these construction organizations of
having a systematic approach to manage knowledge from their staffs’ past experiences of
solving problems in construction project. Through the samples, 43.4% of the respondents
claimed that their company did not adopt such system, while another 35.0%, contributed by
50 responses, believed that their companies have made an approach towards managing the
tacit knowledge, sourced from real experiences. Other 31 respondents (21.7%) did not give a
comment on the statement.

The employees’ reception towards an implemented system in an organization is very

important to ensure the objective is fulfilled. In this part, the respondents were asked about
the level of reception from their employees towards the programs/approaches organized by

13
the company to adopt KM culture. Result of the analysis showed that 51.5% of the
respondents chose “average” reception, 16.5% on “high” reception, and these level are then
followed by a “very high” reception from the employees, contributed by 7.6% of the
responses, “low” and “very low” reception, both by 1.5% and other 21.2% would not
comment on it.

The fourth question is to evaluate the level of knowledge sharing culture within the
organizations and 6 options were listed. The options are “very low”, “low”, “average”,
“high”, “very high” and “no comment”. According to the responses, a majority of 56.0%
claimed that their respective company has an “average” level culture of sharing the
knowledge between colleagues. Others chose on other given options. The overall results are
for both levels of employees’ reception and knowledge sharing culture is illustrated in
Figure 7.

70.0
60.0 56.0
51.5
Percentage (%

50.0
40.0
27.7
30.0 21.2
16.7
20.0
7.8 7.6
10.0 1.5 0.7 1.5
4.3 3.5
0.0
Very low Low Average High Very high No comment

Level of reception by the employees Level of knowledge sharing culture

Figure 7: Level of employees’ reception on KM programs and

Knowledge-sharing culture within organizations

Participation from various level of employees in an organization towards an organized

program should always be evaluate from time to time. The last question in this section will
view the level of participation of the personnel from top management, middle manager, and

14
front-line worker towards programs regarding educating staffs or approaches taken to
encourage knowledge sharing culture. Figure 8 shows the overall result for this question.

Not applicable 6.9 6.2 9.7

Very high 10.4 7.6 5.6

High 43.7 43.1 27.8

Average 29.9 37.5 38.2

Low 6.2 3.5 14.6

Very low 2.8 2.1 4.2

Percentage (%)

Top management Middle manager Front-line worker

Figure 8: Level of participation from various levels of personnel toward KM programs

Throughout the samples, a majority of 43.7% respondents claimed that the level of
participation of their top management personnel is high. This involvement of the people from
top management is vital because it will promote a good relationship between every personnel
in the organization. This would create a better working environment, as the staff would feel
more comfortable and appreciated. Other than that, it would also encourage other employees
to take part in the programs organized.

The level of participation of middle managers is also high, yielding a response rate of 43.1%
while for front-line worker, 38.2% of the respondents chose for “average”. Generally, the
personnel from the construction companies show a positive response toward KM practices.
This situation indicates that KM has a high chance to be successfully implemented within
construction companies.

Determining Elements of construction management that require a high level of KM

system
To manage a construction project efficiently, every activity should be carried out within the
planned budget and time frame. Personnel from top management and middle manager would

15
play an important part to ensure all planned activities are carried out and overcome any
obstacles that might arise. To do so, these professionals will need to use their skills and
knowledge to help them in dealing with various situations. This part of questionnaire would
identify the general elements of construction that mostly need these two qualities; skills and
knowledge. From literature review, 21 elements of project management are listed and the
respondents were asked to choose the 10 most applicable, based on their knowledge and
experience in construction sector. Figure 9 illustrates the responses for this question.

100.0
90.0
80.0
70.0
Percentage (%

60.0
50.0
40.0
30.0
20.0
10.0
0.0
A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V
Elements of construction management

Legend:
A: Decision-making L: Productivity maintenance and control
B: Leadership M: Managing change
C: Managing conflict/crisis N: Budgetary control
D: Quality control and assurance O: Health and safety
E: Communication P: Site and office organization
F: Forecasting and planning Q: Contract management
G: Public relations R: Market research
H: Negotiate supplier/contractor/client S: Site maintenance
I: Time planning and control T: Job analysis and specification
J: Material planning and control U: Motivation of others
K: Manpower planning and control V: Others
Figure 9: Responses on the need of skills and knowledge in elements of construction
management

16
The analysis on the feedback showed that 88.2% of the respondents agreed that they need
knowledge and skills to make good and reliable decisions. Other elements that also need a
high level of these two qualities are budgetary control (79.9%), contract management
(77.1%), material planning and control (75.7%), manpower planning and control (70.1%),
and negotiating other involved parties (main and sub-contractors, suppliers, client,
consultants) (69.4%). These elements are then followed by time planning and control
(67.4%), leadership characteristic (66.7%), forecasting and planning activities (59.7%),
quality control and assurance (56.9%), managing conflicts and crisis (56.2%),
communication (47.2%), organizations at site and office (39.6%), health and safety aspect
(35.4%), productivity maintenance and control (32.6%), motivating the employees (20.1%),
managing change (18.7%), site maintenance (18.7%), market research (15.3%), job analysis
and specification (11.8%), and other elements (0.7%). A respondent give an opinion that
human relation is another important part of management that need to be considered in to
create a better working environment.

The importance of decision-making process

Table 1 and Figure 4 show the important of decision-making process in construction
management. This part of questionnaire reflected the general picture of the level of
importance of decision-making process in 10 different areas in construction management.
The respondents are asked to express their opinions from 5 given options, which are “not
important at all”, “not important”, “slightly important”, “important” and very important”.
The overall result for this question is shown in Table 2 and graphically in Figure 10.

From the contractors’ point of view, the areas that mostly need decision-making according
total responses on “totally agree” and “agree” are, forecasting and planning the project,
controlling the budget, material and time planning and control, contract management,
manpower planning and control, site supervision and monitoring, acceptance of tender,
quality control and assurance, and health and safety.

17
 Opinion of
Not Not Slightly Very
respondent Important
important at Important Important Important
Areas in const. (%)
all (%) (%) (%) (%)
management
Acceptance of tender 0.7 1.4 20.1 31.9 48.6
Contract management 0 3.5 8.3 44.4 43.7
Forecasting and planning 0 3.5 4.9 52.8 40.3
Material planning and control 0 1.4 5.6 52.1 41.0
Time control and planning 0 3.5 6.2 53.5 37.5
Budgetary control 0 1.4 4.2 40.3 54.2
Workforce planning and control 0 4.9 10.4 56.2 29.9
Site supervision and monitoring 0 5.6 12.5 52.8 30.6
Quality control and assurance 0 14.6 14.6 50.7 28.5
Health and safety 0 10.4 20.1 50.0 23.6
Table 2: The importance of skills and knowledge in areas of construction management

60

50
Percentage (%)

40

30

20

10

0
A B C D E F G H I J

Not important at all Not important Slightly important Important Very important

Legend:
A: Acceptance of tender F: Budgetary control
B: Contract management G: Workforce planning and control
C: Forecasting and planning the H: Site supervision and monitoring
project
D: Material planning and control I: Quality control and assurance
E: Time control and planning J: Health and safety
Figure 10: The importance of skills and knowledge in areas of construction
management

18
General current level of KM in construction organization
In this section, a general evaluation of the current level of knowledge possessed by the
personnel from their respective company is measured. The knowledge posed in the question
includes management and business skills, communications skills; written or oral, and
technical skills. Figure 11 shows the analysis of the samples. The findings for top
management seems acceptable but for the middle managers only about 50% are deemed to
possess high management and business knowledge, communications skills and technical
knowledge. For the front-line workers (excluding labourers), the responses indicated that
about 20% have low communication skills and 10% have poor technical skills. The majority
of such workers have an average level of knowledge in the three categories listed.

70.0
60.0
Percentage (%)

50.0
40.0
30.0
20.0
10.0
0.0
A B C A B C A B C

Top management Middle manager Front-line worker

Very high High Average Low Very Low

Legend:
A: Management and business knowledge
B: Communication Skills
C: Technical knowledge

Figure 11: Evaluation of general current level of knowledge

within the construction organizations

The last question in the questionnaire form sought opinions from the respondents on whether
the implementation of a well-planned KM system in construction firms would improve the
companies’ overall performance. The questions required the respondents to provide their
views by considering the positive and negative situations that might arise in performing their

19
routine operations such as overall cost, challenges and benefits that could be gain. From the
total responses, a majority of 90% of respondents agreed to the statement. The other 13
(9.3%) respondents that would take up KM as a system did not comment on this question
while 0.7% believed that the implementation of a formal KM system is not a worthy
approach to their organizations.

Conclusions

Managing knowledge is an essential part in organizational survival. An effective knowledge

management system requires attention to both tacit and explicit knowledge, and involved the
people, processes and available technology, which are the backbone of the system.
Organizations should take a wider perspective of the role of knowledge as a valuable asset to
them.

Some of the common approaches used by the companies in the survey to increase the level of
knowledge amongst staff is to use manuals, educational facilities and sending staff to attend
short courses and seminars. While the majority of companies allocate resources for such
facilities there are still a considerable number that does not. This is a threat to the local
construction firms as many construction companies that have excelled in developed countries
have begun to treat KM as an essential component of the business.

The need for knowledge to be stored and allowed to be retrieve for use by the organisational
staff for purposed of decision making and problem solving is high as illustrated by more than
three-quarters of the respondents who experienced losing knowledgeable and senior staff.
Such responses indicate the need for an overhaul in the local construction industry where vast
room for improvement is required to make the local industry more competitive and less
reliance on the mere tolerance and give-and-take attitude. For professionalism to be practised
the whole industry has to be aware of the need to acquire and use knowledge for overall
improvement and to be as competitive as their foreign counterparts in the developing
countries.

20
Based on the feedback of the survey, there is plenty of room for improvement to the local
construction companies in the management, communication and technical skills of workers at
the three organizational levels namely: top, middle and front-liners. The result of the survey
indicate that top and middle managers scored most for all three areas and front-line workers
has a lot of opportunity to be improved. This is probably because most of the trainings and
educations are channelled to the two former groups of staff. To be able to provide a better
service and quality for clients, all three organizational levels of construction companies must
be aligned in knowledge and skills in construction production and decision-making. The
project objectives must be well understood by each and every employed person in the head
office and on-site.

The local construction companies must always be ready for advancement and be prepared to
take up challenges for competition and improved quality. An integrated and sustainable
approach must be initiated by the professional bodies and regulated by government bodies to
eliminate negative practices that may be available in the industry. Clients must be well
advised by professionals and the professionals must be truly fair and objective in providing
their services. For construction companies, the effort to implement a KM system within them
could lead to better and a more competitive performance as majority of the construction
companies belief that managing knowledge is an important business strategy. The most
important challenge that needs to be overcome is how to inculcate the knowledge-sharing
culture into the current work environment amongst all participants involved in construction
projects.

REFERENCES
Abdul-Rahman, H. & Berawi, M.A. (2001), Developing Knowledge Management for
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24
 EVALUATION OF THE THERMAL PERFORMANCE OF METAL ROOFING
UNDER TROPICAL CLIMATIC CONDITIONS

Mohamed HARIMI
Djamila HARIMI
V. John KURIAN
Bolong NURMIN

1
2
Center of Mineral and Materials, Universiti Malaysia Sabah, 88999 Kota Kinabalu, Sabah, Malaysia.
School of Engineering and Information Technology, Universiti Malaysia Sabah, 88999 Kota Kinabalu,
Sabah, Malaysia.

Abstract
The assessment of the thermal performance was carried out on a low cost house mainly built from waste oil
palm shell (OPS-Concrete) with galvanized steel-roof. It was noticed that reasonable thermal comfort took
place during the night for the roof without ceiling and without insulation, and during the day at a peak
temperature of a highly ventilated attic area. For such situation, it was recommended to install insulating
horizontal plated surface under the roof, which should be turned into a vertical position during the night.
Other alternatives may be creating small adjustable openings around building envelope just under the ceiling
or making an open roof-ceiling system. This technique will reduce the heat flux from insulated ceiling by the
flow of the cooling air at night, but the impact of surrounding microclimate on human thermal comfort should
be considered. The mathematical model used to predict the attic temperature for a lightweight roof system
was obtained by correlation, which can be used for a quick inspection. Insulation materials of 50 mm
fibreglass and foil-aluminium were used with sealed attic, and found the ceiling temperature reduced by
about 3 oC and 2 oC respectively. For the case of fibreglass of thickness beyond 50 mm, the reduction of
o
ceiling temperature was recorded less than ½ C, really not attractive.

Keywords: thermal performance, metal roofing, attic temperature, sealed attic, ventilated attic, insulation

1. Introduction
Kota Kinabalu city (the capital of the Sabah state of Malaysia) experiences a typical equatorial humid climate
with heavy rainfall usually in the afternoon time, where the temperatures are uniformly high and extremely
invariable throughout the year. A good thermal performance of any house in Kota Kinabalu has to have an
indoor temperature between 25 oC and 28 oC (comfort range). The analysis of bio-climatic chart indicated
that the ventilation should be considered for this type of climatic conditions. The utilization of active cooling
system seems to be the only solution during the peak air temperature when no passive strategies could
minimize the effect of radiation and air temperature to the acceptable indoor comfort range.
Metal roofing in Kota Kinabalu practically became the norm for low-cost houses, considerably contributing to
heat gain and increasing the indoor temperature. A such roof system requires particular attention, since it is
the most envelope building part exposed to solar radiation. Berdahl et. al. (1997) and Miller et. al. (2004)
have studied the effect of roof colour in minimizing surface temperature, and found that high solar
reflectance and infrared emittance of roofs surface reduce heat gain and also the UV radiation received by
roofs. The utilisation of lighter colour is very highly recommended under Malaysia climate due to their high
solar reflectivity, but it is less diffused and not well accepted by the population. Several solutions are
possible to minimize the ceiling temperature such as the insulation of roof, attic ventilation, selection of
roofing materials more suitable under warm humid conditions, the realisation of high-pitched roof, and may
be other suitable and practical techniques.
The objective of the present study is to provide recommendations for the improvement of roofing design
under Malaysia climate. Therefore, the assessment of the thermal performance of metallic roof system with
sealed and ventilated attic will be considered. In addition to that, the impact of different thickness of
fibreglass and foil- aluminium in reducing ceiling temperature will be studied. The model house used in this
research is the low cost house built inside the campus of the Universiti Malaysia Sabah (5.93oN, 116.05o-
about 2.3 m above sea level) using waste oil palm shells “OPS” as aggregate for the realization of walls,
whereas the roof is made from galvanized steel.
2. Experimental Procedures
2.1 Description of the OPS House
The low-cost house used as a case study is a single story detached one family house which is considered as
model house utilizing agricultural solid waste namely oil palm shell “OPS” in an innovative light weight
concrete mix, based on financial and environmental design factors. This has double advantage of reduction
in the cost of construction materials and solves the disposal of waste products generated at the palm oil
mills. Mannan et. al. (2001, 2004) reported that the trend of behaviours of OPS concrete and control
concrete is very similar construction and building materials. It was established that OPS performs as
aggregate in concrete and possesses the potential of being used in building construction. The OPS concrete
is also considered environmentally sustainable building materials, friendly product and does not have any
health hazard since it is covered with cement paste and no deterioration is taking place. The model-house
realised with the OPS concrete is considered socially acceptable for the low-income families. The roof
system was built with red pre-painted galvanised steel sheet, and with ordinary plywood 6 mm in thickness
used as ceiling without insulation, for all rooms. Table 1 describes the OPS building materials used and
figure 1 shows the plan view of the house.

Table 1 Description of Materials Used in the OPS House

Description of material Usage

• OPS concrete (G20) Lean concrete, ground beam,

-Density = 1850 kg/m 3 Ground slab, Lintel, Roof
capping beam.
• OPS hollow block Walls- Attic ventilation.
- Size=420 mm (L) × 125 mm (W) × 190 mm (H)
- Void/block=32%
- Weight/block=12 kg

Figure 1 Ground floor plan of project.

The building consists as shown in figure 1, of one living dinning room, kitchen, shower, study room and two
2
bedrooms, with floor to ceiling heights of 3.1 m, occupying an area of 58.68 m . The walls are constructed
with small windows opening in most exterior walls except on the west-south side, which represents around
7.59% of the surface building envelope. These openings were covered with single plane glazing 6 mm, but
no kind of sun shading was used for the openings. Solar radiation reaches the interior of the living and
bedroom 2 during the sunrise and the kitchen during the sunset, which produces direct and immediate
heating effect. The roof was built with narrow overhang of 0.9 m giving a little protection to the walls. The
attic space is well ventilated as it appears clearly in figure 2. The external walls colours are beige and the
house is located in an open area without landscaping. The vertical distance between the inlet and the outlet
of the vent area facilitate the increase of the ventilation rate in attic space. However, the outlet vent area in
this attic is less than the inlet vent area, which in turn minimizes airflow through the attic. The net free
ventilating area in the attic space was about 1/13, which is higher than the minimum recommended of most
codes at least a 1/150.

Figure 2 Ventilation gaps in the OPS house.

2.2 Data Monitoring

The field test includes mainly measurements of air temperature with the utilisation of data-loggers HOBO
thermometer during two series of measurements, ventilated and sealed attic. The data-loggers were
positioned in the centre of the house, outside the house, and at the centre of the attic space. The daily
average monthly radiation was estimated on possible sunshine hours, nearly the same during these two
periods about 20.22 MJ/m2 from 8 July until 8 august 2004, and 20.77 MJ/ m2 from 21 October 2004 until
22 December 2004. The assessment of different ceiling configurations was evaluated with sealed attic and
summarized in table 2.

Table 2 Thermal Properties of the Evaluated Ceiling Configurations

Component U Ceiling component (W/m2.K)
6 mm plywood 0.99
Foil-aluminium + air space + 6mm plywood. 0.86
50 mm fibre glass + 6mm plywood 0.41
100 mm fibre glass + 6mm plywood 0.26
150 mm fibre glass + 6mm plywood 0.19

3 Results and Discussion

3.1 Temperature Prediction of Ventilated and Sealed Attic
Data reported in figure 3 shows a sequence of the indoor, mid attic and outdoor temperature from 8 July
2004 until 4 August 2004 with ventilated attic. The indoor temperature was recorded 1.5m above the floor.

39
Temperature *C

37
35
33
31
29
27
25
23
07/08/04
07/10/04
07/11/04
07/13/04

07/14/04
07/15/04
07/17/04
07/18/04
07/20/04
07/21/04
07/23/04
07/24/04

07/26/04
07/27/04
07/29/04
07/30/04
08/01/04
08/02/04
08/04/04
08/05/04

Outdoor Tem perature (*C) Attic Tem perature (*C)

Indoor Tem perature (*C)

Figure 3 Indoor air, mid attic, and outdoor temperature

The thermal mass of the OPS house brought the maximum indoor temperature which is below the maximum
daily outdoor temperature. The thermal capacity of walls has the effect of delaying the impact of external
conditions on the interior of the building. The low thermal mass roof system, which is simply red galvanized
steel and plywood for the ceiling, shows the tendency of similarity between the outdoor and attic temperature
with slight variation during the daytime. This could be due to the roof surface temperature raised by
absorption of solar radiation. The system of ventilation was judiciously chosen for this house in reducing the
heat transfer through roofing materials. The hourly evolution of attic temperature for one hot sunny day’s
th
variation recorded on 25 July 2004 was slightly similar to the outdoor temperature, while the maximum
indoor temperature was lower by about 4.58 oC below the maximum outdoor temperature. Note that the
variation of attic air temperature during the night was lower than the indoor air temperature by about 3.16 oC.
The outdoor temperature range (difference between maximum and minimum) recorded was about 10.14 oC.
This means the utilisation of thermal mass under Malaysia climate to reduce the indoor temperature by
about 7 oC or at least 4 oC during the peak indoor temperature could be quite acceptable. The correlation
between hourly attic and outdoor temperature is shown in figure 4.

C
o
38 y = 1.542x0.8741
36

Attic temperature
34 R2 = 0.9636
32
30
28
26
24
22
20
22 24 26 28 30 32 34 36 38
Outdoor tem perature oC

Figure 4 Correlation between hourly attic and outdoor temperatures with ventilated attic

An analysis of the hourly attic temperature was plotted versus outdoor air temperature. The daily maximum
attic temperature was best predicted on the basis of the mean daily outdoor temperature as shown in
figure 5, yielding good correlation between measured and calculated maxima.
Maximum daily attic

y = 38.416Ln(x) - 96.21
temperature oC

37 R2 = 0.8505
35
33
31
29
27
25
26 28 30 32
Mean daily outdoor
tem perature oC

.
Figure 5 Correlation between max. attic and mean daily outdoor temperatures with ventilated attic

The best curve fitting correlations for hourly and maximum daily attic temperature prediction, are as follows:

=
0
.
8
7
4
1

− −
T

1
.
5
4
2
T

(1)
h
a
t
t
i
c

h
o
u
t

− = ( −
) −
3
8
.
4
1
6

9
6
.
2
1
T

L
n
T
m
a
x
d

a
t
t
i
c

d
M
e
a
n
o
u
t

(2)

Where;
Th-attic : Predicted hourly attic temperature. Th-out: Recorded hourly outdoor temperature.
Tdmax-attic: Predicted daily maximum attic temperature. TdMean-out: Recorded daily mean outdoor temperature.

Figure 6 shows the measured and the computed maximum ventilated attic temperature based on Eq. (2),
which are quite similar in terms of temperature. The difference between them was found statistically not
significant using t-test (t-test = 0.04206) with total degree of freedom equals to 52, for the 2 samples
(measured and computed), and each one contains 27-recorded data of temperature.

C
36

o
35

Temperature
34
33
32
31
30
29
28

07/13/04

07/17/04

07/21/04

07/25/04

07/29/04
7/9/04

8/2/04
Maxim um daily attic tem perature recorded (*C)
Maxim um daily attic tem perature com puted (*C)

Figure 6 Comparison between computed and measured maximum attic temperature.

After the attic was sealed, the correlation between daily maximum attic temperature and maximum outdoor
temperature was less predictable, conversely to the hourly prediction of attic temperatures plotted in figure 7.

42 y = 0.9073x1.0468
C
o

40 R2 = 0.96
Attic temperature

38
36
34
32
30
28
26
24
23 25 27 29 31 33 35 37 39
Outdoor tem perature oC

Figure 7 Correlation between hourly attic and outdoor temperatures with sealed attic

The predicted hourly attic temperature with sealed attic is expressed by the following formula;
1
.
0
4
6
8

− = −
T

0
.
9
0
7
3
T
h

a
t
t
i
c

o
u
t

(3)

The predicted hourly attic temperature with ventilated and sealed attic for a possible outdoor temperature
variation from 24 oC to 35 oC were computed using Eq. (1) and Eq. (3) respectively, and plotted in figure 8.
 39

C
o
36

Attic temperature
33
30
27
24
21
18
15
23 25 27 29 31 33 35 37
Outdoor tem perature oC
Predicted tem perature before sealing the attic
Predicted tem perature after sealing the attic

Figure 8 Computed attic temperature with sealed and ventilated attic

It is clear that the effect of ventilation in reducing attic temperature was more noticed with the increased
outdoor temperature, and the difference between ventilated and sealed attic reached about 3 oC when the
outdoor temperature attained 35 oC. The temperature with ventilated attic was always lower than the sealed
one, and the difference between them becomes more significant when the outdoor temperature increases.

3.2 Thermal Performance of Metal Roofing and OPS Concrete Walls

The interior surface temperature of the OPS concrete wall as well as the temperature under metal roofing
and the ceiling surface temperature were recorded and plotted against outdoor temperature as illustrated in
figure 9. Inspection of figure 9 shown that the OPS concrete walls was always lower than the outdoor
temperature, generally from 10 am to 15 pm. The OPS concrete wall rose after that and reached its
maximum usually before 20 pm. The main issue of any building components particularly realised with
concrete or bricks under tropical humid conditions, is the heat storage released during the early evening or
before the outdoor temperature reaches its minimum. As for the case of the traditional building materials
made with lightweight materials such as wooden, bamboo or thatched walls, used since the past in Malay
architecture, are considered suitable under Malaysia climate, but could be warmer than concrete walls
during the daytime since they follow greatly the outdoor temperatures. These traditional building materials
are more suitable when the microclimate surrounding the building is modified with the plantation of trees or
simply when the house is located in the jungle. Moreover, walls in traditional houses permit air to pass
through gaps, which decreases the thermal sensation of the effect of temperature on human body. The
problem of overheating was rather solved in the traditional houses in terms of human thermal comfort and
not limited on building thermal performance. The designer under warm humid conditions should take into
consideration not only the characteristic and the thermal performance of building materials but also the
impact of surrounding microclimate on human thermal comfort.
C

52
o

48
Temperature

44
40
36
32
28
24
20
01 2 /0 2 H
01 /05 6 H
01 2 /0 0 H

01 /05 H
02 2 /0 8 H

02 2 /0 2 H
02 /05 6 H
02 2 /0 0 H
02 /05 4 H
03 2 /0 8 H
03 /05 2 H
03 2 /0 2 H
05 H
H
31 /05 0H
31 1 /0 4H
01 1 /0 18H
01 /05 2H

02 /05 2H
4

2/ 6

0
/0 5:1
/0 :1

2 2

2 2
/0 :0
/0 5:0
/0 :1
/0 5:1

/0 :1

/0 :0
/0 5:0
/0 :1
/0 5:1
/0 :1
/0 5:2
/0 :0
/0 5:0
:1
/0 5:
/0 4:

/0 5:
31 1 /0
1

2
/0
31

Outdoor Tem perature

Ceiling tem perature
Surface tem perature under roof
Wall tem perature

Figure 9 Hourly outdoor, ceiling, roof, and wall temperature

The hourly solar radiation and relative humidity are plotted with respect to roof surface temperature, and
shown in figure 10.
 60 100%

Temperature oC
Radiation Mj/m 2
50 80%
40 60%
30
20 40%
10 20%
0 0%

/ 5 H
/0 05 H
/0 5 H
/0 5 H
/ 5 H
/0 05 H
/0 5 H
/0 5 H
/ 5 H
/0 05 H
:2 H
H
02 2 /0 :00
02 02 / :02
02 2 /0 :04
02 2 /0 :06
02 2 /0 :08
02 02 / :10
02 2 /0 :12
02 2 /0 :14
02 2 /0 :16
02 02 / :18
05 0
2
2 / :2
/0 5
02 2 /0
/0
02
Radiation
Surface tem perature under roof
Relative Hum idity

Figure 10 Hourly solar radiation and relative humidity versus roof temperature
It is evident from figure 10 when the roof surface temperature reaches its maximum limit the radiation attains
its maximum level. This is not the case with the relative humidity, since the relative humidity increases when
the outdoor temperature decreases which occurs during the nighttime. These results could be also
encouraging for possible utilisation of evaporative cooling even under warm humid climate during the peak
outdoor temperature when the relative humidity attains its minimum (Harimi et. al., 2005).

3.3 Thermal Performance of Insulation Materials

Thermal insulation is an important factor in minimizing the effect of heat absorbed and transmitted by metal
roofing materials. When solar radiations as well as the roof surface temperature reach their maximum level,
the radiant temperature from warm ceiling causes the greatest discomfort and increases the physiological
heat stress as reported by Vecchia (2001). This could be reduced with the installation of insulation above the
ceiling or just under the roof, and it may well reduce the energy consumption, which lowers utility bills in
residential buildings under active cooling system. The role of fibreglass is to minimize conduction and
convection, thereby decreasing the ceiling temperature, whereas, the principal function of reflective insulator
(radiant barrier) is to reflect radiant heat rays and acts also as vapour barriers. Its capacity to insulate could
be lost after a few years. The reflective insulation material is installed in general on a ceiling for more
effectiveness. Figure 11 shows the variation of ceiling temperatures without insulation, and with different
characteristics of insulation materials.
C

35
o

33
Temperature

31
29
27
25
01 /04 H

01 /04 H

01 /04 H

02 /04 H
02 /04 H

02 /04 H

02 /04 H

02 /04 H

03 /04 H

03 04 H
04 H
H
31 /04 H
01 /04 H
01 /04 H
0

5
2 20

1
6

1
2

2
7

2/ 2

2/ 3

8
/0 :1

/0 :1

/0 :0

/0 :0
/0 :1

/0 :1

/0 :2
/0 :0

/0 :0
/0 :1

/0 :1

/0 :2

/0 :0
:0
:
31 04
1/

1
1

2
2

2
2

2
/0

/0
31

Ceiling Ceiling + foil alum inium

Ceiling +fibre glass 50m m Ceiling +fibre glass 100m m
Ceiling + fibre glass 150 m m

Figure 11 Impact of insulation materials on ceiling temperature

As it was expected, the fibreglass has more effect in reducing ceiling temperature in comparison to foil-
aluminium. This is due to the low emissivity of metal roofing, which has the ability to minimize considerably
the emitted radiation into attic before reaching the foil-aluminium. The efficiency of foil-aluminium could be
more significant for a roof system made of concrete or clay tile with a ventilated attic space. The temperature
difference between insulated ceiling with fibreglass and plywood ceiling could attain 3 oC; while the maximum
difference recorded using foil-aluminium was about 2 oC. The increase of insulation thickness beyond 50 mm
o
was not appreciated, because the maximum temperature reduction was found less than 0.5 C. Table 3
summarize the ceiling surface temperature with different thickness insulation materials that was recorded on
the second February 2005.
 Table 3 Summary of Results for different types of insulation materials
Surface Ceiling Ceiling + Foil Ceiling + Fibreglass Ceiling + Fibre Ceiling+ Fibre
Temperature Aluminium 50 mm Glass 100 mm Glass 150 mm
Max 33.1 31.1 30.4 30.2 30.1
Min 26.2 26.9 27.6 27.6 27.6
Average 29.25 29.03 29.11 29 28.97

It comes into view from table 3, that the minimum surface ceiling temperature recorded during the night was
always higher than the ceiling temperature without insulation. The ceiling insulated with fibreglass recorded
the highest temperature. Givoni (1994), has recommended in such situation the installation of hinged interior
insulating horizontal plated surface under the roof, and should be turned into a vertical position during the
night. This special roofing design recommended by Givoni (1994) is more detailed in page 120 of his book
and could be very useful under Malaysia climate particularly for low-cost houses. However, the application of
such technique needs some improvements in the area of aesthetic and psychological side. Other
possibilities could be simply making small adjustable openings all around building envelope and just under
the ceiling to reduce the heat flux from insulated ceiling with the cooling air during the night, or by the
realisation of an open roof-ceiling system as shown in figure 12.

Figure 12 Roof design under warm humid conditions.

The overhang design should be large enough to protect the penetration of rain into ceiling floor and at the
same time should allow the winds to penetrate easily in this area, which in turn can be slightly inclined to
avoid the stagnation of rainwater in case.

4. Conclusions
From the thermal assessment of the OPS house, many observations have been recorded. It was noticed
that during the night, roof without ceiling and without insulation performs thermally better than any roof
system under tropical climate conditions. When the outdoor temperature reaches its maximum, the low-mass
corrugated metal roof cools down rather quickly than the ceiling temperature, whereas, the highly ventilated
attic area performs thermally better than the sealed attic area. This system is highly recommended under
Malaysia climate with no additional cost, but the designer should take into consideration not only the
characteristic and the thermal performance of building materials but also the impact of surrounding
microclimate on human thermal comfort.
The prediction of attic temperature with lightweight roof system is possible and has been well established
using a mathematical model correlation, which can be applied in the future for a quick inspection. The use of
50 mm fibreglass with sealed attic significantly lowers the ceiling temperature by about 3 oC, while for the
case of foil-aluminium, ceiling temperature decreases by about 2 oC. It should be highlighted, that the
advantage gained by increasing insulation thickness of fibreglass beyond 50 mm does not decrease ceiling
temperature significantly, and the maximum temperature reduction was recorded less than ½ oC.

Acknowledgments
The authors would like to acknowledge the financial support of CIDB Malaysia for funding this project under
grant No 02-002. Also a special thank to Prof. Dr. Eduardo l. Kruger-CEET-PR, Brazil, for his advice and
useful suggestions.
References
Berdahl, P. and Bretz, S. 1997, Preliminary survey of the solar reflectance of cool roofing materials, Energy
and Building, Vol. 25, pp. 149-158.
Givoni, B. 1994, Passive and low energy cooling of building, New York, F. (ed.), Van Nostrand Reinhold,
pp. 120.
Harimi, D., Harimi, M., Kurian, V. J., Nurmin, B., Ideris, Z., and Lilian, G. 2005. Evaluation of the thermal
performance of concrete tile under tropical climatic conditions, Conference on Sustainable Building South
East Asia, 11-13 April 2005, Malaysia.
Mannan, M.A. and Ganapathy, C. 2002, Engineering properties of concrete with OPS as aggregate,
International Journal of Construction and Building Materials, Vol16.
Mannan, M.A. and Ganapathy, C. 2004, Concrete from an agricultural waste oil palm shell (OPS), Building
and Environment, 39, pp.441-448.
Miller, A. W., Desiarlais, A., Parker, D. S. and Kringer, S. 2004, Cool metal roofing for energy efficiency and
sustainability. CIB World Building Congress, Toronto Canada.
Vecchia, F., Givonu B., Silva, A.C. 2001, Analysing thermal performance of occupied houses in Descalvado,
Brazil, In Proceedings of the Eighteenth Conference on Passive and Low Energy Architecture, PLEA
Florianopolis Brazil, Paper Code PLO1-185, pp.1-7.
This article is an extract from Annual Productivity Report 2003 published by
National Productivity Corporation (NPC).

PRODUCTIVITY PERFORMANCE OF CONSTRUCTION SECTOR

Introduction

The construction sector comprises the residential construction of houses and

condominiums, the non-residential construction of commercial and industrial buildings
and infrastructure construction or "civil engineering" of physical amenities and
facilities for transportation. Infrastructure construction includes highways, urban and
rural roads, bridges, railways, ports, airports and light rail transit system, for
telecommunications which include fibre-optic cables, submarine cables and earth
stations and for utilities which include sewerage and power plants.

In 2003, the sector contributed RM7,417 million of 3.2% of GDP (2002: RM7,275
million or 3.3%), which a GDP growth of 1.9% (2002: 2.4%). The positive growth was
spurred by the budgetary allocation for public infrastructure projects and stimulated
demand in selected parts of the property market. The employment of the sector at
768,480 persons in 2003 recorded a slight expansion of 0.4% (2002: 1.3%), which
resulted in a productivity growth of (2002 : 2.5%).

The favorable growth experienced in the sector was due to a higher level of
construction activity in public sector projects, including construction of roads, schools,
public-housing and health facilities. Construction activity in the residential properties
was sustained by the large number of property launches during 2002.
The property market for both residential property and commercial property continued
to have significant overhang from the economic slow-down of the previous years. The
sector was able to sustain its growth due to the economic stimulus package. Under
this package, numerous incentives were allocated to the construction sector with the
objective of stimulating interest in residential housing, in particular, to make affordable
houses for the lower income group. The Government also liberalized foreign
ownership by allowing foreigners to acquire landed properties exceeding RM150,000
per unit.

On the input side, the government has facilitated the recruitment of foreign nationals
to support the construction activities with new G-to-G agreements with the
Government of Indonesia and Sri Lanka. The recruitment process and procedures
were also rationalized to ensure better regulate the recruitment of foreign workers for
the sector. The Technical Committee on Foreign Workers under the Ministry of Home
Affairs approved 67,172 foreign workers at the end of July 2003, out of this, 40.8%
were recruited into the construction sector.

The productivity growth in the sector was attributed by greater efforts made to
increase productivity and quality of output. There was more emphasis on the use of
modern building techniques as well as the use of industrialized building systems
(IBS). Industrializing construction activities has enabled cost savings and improved
quality, the reduction low-skilled labour intensity and accrued benefits of construction
standardization. The Government has drawn up a new roadmap to promote and
intensify industrialized building systems. In 2003, up to 42% of completed projects
were using some elements of IBS (frames, slabs, roof trusses, etc.) as compared to
only 34% in 2002.

Productivity Performance of Selected Construction Sub-Sectors in 2002.

The construction sector can be categorized into three sub sectors, namely

a. Residential construction sub-sector

b. Non-residential construction sub-sector
c. Civil Engineering construction of infrastructure projects

The productivity performance of the construction sector was good for the year 2002.
Both the Total Output per Employee and Added Value per Employee grew by 2.2%
with the Added Value per Labour Cost growing by 0.5%. The Labour Cost per
Employee grew marginally by 0.1%, but this was significantly lower than the increase
in productivity, resulting in the improvement in labour cost competitiveness with a Unit
Labour Cost of declining by 2.2%. Total Output per Fixed Asset improved by 1.4% but
Added Value per Fixed Asset declined marginally by 0.3%. This reflected an
improvement in the utilization of more mechanization in the sector. The marginal
improvement in the Added Value per Labour Cost further supported this.
Residential construction sub-sector

Residential property construction sub-sector mostly involves in the construction of

entire dwellings such as houses, flats and apartments. In 2002, the sub-sector
recorded a growth in Total Output per Employee and Added Value per Employee of
3.3% and 0.7% respectively, which were higher than the sectoral average growth.
These increases were due to stimulated demands for affordable houses (Figure 2).
The increase labour productivity with the marginal decline in Labour Cost per
Employee of 0.8% resulted in better labour competitiveness as reflected by a
significant decline in Unit Labour cost of 3.3%. This was also reflected in the marginal
increase in Added Value per Labour Cost of 0.7%.

Total Output per Fixed Asset grew by 1.8% but Added Value per Fixed Asset declined
marginally by 0.8% reflecting greater utilization of mechanization in the sub-sector.
This was also reflected in the marginal growth in Added Value per Labour Cost of
0.8%

Two major factors stimulated the expansion in the residential construction sub-sector
2002. One factor was the promotion of home ownership via the stamp duty waiver in
the first half of 2002. The waiver on the stamp duties contributed to an increase in the
supply houses. Several developers brought forward the launches that were originally
planned to capture the benefits of the waiver. The other factor was attractive financing
packages with very competitive rates offered by financial institution.
Non-residential construction sub-sector

The non-residential construction sub-sector covers the construction of offices and/or

commercial buildings, stores and other public and utility buildings, farm buildings, etc.
The sub-sector recorded a growth in Total Output per Employee of 2.9% and Added
Value per Employee of 0.9% in 2002 which were higher that the overall growth of the
construction sector. These increases were influenced by higher Government
expenditure in infrastructure projects such construction of new schools and colleges
and other government properties (Figure 3).

Labour cost per employee registered negligible growth of less than 0.1% resulting in a
large decline in Labour Cost per Employee of more than 2.8%, thereby experiencing
improved labour cost competitiveness.

The total Output per Fixed Asset improved for the year with a growth of 1.4%. There
was a marginal declined in the Added Value per Fixed Asset at 0.6% reflecting
greater investment in capital during the year. This was also reflected by the marginal
increase in Added Value per Labour Cost of about 0.9%.

Although the sub sector performed better than the overall construction sector,
commercial properties still continued with significant amount of property overhang at
an estimated RM2,8 billion as at the end of 2002. Vacant office space experienced a
slight increase of 0.6% to 2.76 million s.m. At the same time, the retail vacant space
experienced a slight reduction of 1.1% to 1.38 million s.m.
Civil Engineering Sub-sector

Civil engineering includes construction of roads, bridges, tunnels, viaducts highways,

elevated highway, railways, airfield, harbours, dam, irrigation system, drainage and
sewage system, pipelines and other water projects, communication and power line,
sports facilities such as stadium and golf course and other civil engineering projects.

In 2002, the sub-sector recorded a growth in Total Output per Employee of 1.0% and
a marginal Added Value per Employee growth of 0.1%, both of which were below the
average performance of the total construction sector. At the same time the sub-sector
did not experience any significant increase in Labour Cost per Employee thereby
improving its labour cost competitiveness by a significant decline in Unit Labour Cost
of 1.1%. There was a marginal growth in Total Output per Fixed Asset of 0.6% with a
slight decline in Added Value per Fixed Asset of 0.3%. Added Value per Labour Cost
improved marginally by 0.1%. Overall, the sub-sector performance recorded marginal
improvement in performance, which was below the average performance of the total
construction sector.

Figure 4 : Productivity Performance of Civil Engineering Sub-sector,

2002(Growth in Percent)
Conclusion

With the better overall performance in the country’s economy in 2003 and the
expected strong performance for 2004, the construction sectors is expected to record
even better productivity performance for 2003 and 2004, in particular, for the
Residential Property and Non-residential Property sub-sector. The overhang of
properties from the post-crisis years is expected to decline with the bustling economy.
However, the Civil Engineering Sub-sector is not expected to follow the bright outlook
trend because most of the major construction projects are completed of nearing
completion. The continuing rationalization effort by the government to reduce fiscal
deficits over the next few years may impact upon the productivity performance of this
sub-sector.
TENDERING ON-LINE OR ON-THE-LINE – DOES IT MATTER?
A Malaysian Case Study and Review Of The Latest Developments In Technology, Law
And Implementation Of Electronic Tendering For The Construction Industry

Syed Alwee Alsagoff

CIDB E-Construct Services
Malaysia

Abstract

This paper examines the validity of the claim through an analysis of an IT-led construction
tendering initiative soon to be implemented in Malaysia. The National ETendering Imperative
(NETi) is a national initiative that integrates and bridges every process and component of the
entire construction tendering supply chain onto an electronic or digital medium in the hope
that it can then transcend geographical, time, economical and people-based error and
inefficiency barriers, making it faster, more efficient and more profitable for all the players in
the industry. Online or e-tendering is a good test subject for validating the IT/Business
connection, because it has met with a mix of responses in real-life implementation recently
like in the USA, UK, Japan, Singapore, Hong Kong and other countries. In some, like in
Hong Kong, the program itself had changed fundamentally after strong industry consensus, in
others like with the CALSEC program (Japan), it has been touted as a new patch for inter-
country collaboration with the introduction of new standards and protocols. Some had been
industry/contractor driven (Singapore), others client driven (e.g. Tesco – UK). Professional
associations has not been quiet either, like their outright rejection of new reverse auctions
systems in Canada and the UK or applauding budding new collaborative units like in Japan,
Hong Kong and Malaysia (NeTI) or for others, close-knit communities of contractor-suppliers
(USA). By highlighting the need for good governance, one of the focus areas of the paper is
the examination of how the legal, business and process protocols combine and integrate in e-
tendering. It examines whether there area any universal trends in a unified tendering protocol
and formal control if projects are tendered electronically across borders.

Keywords: I.T. in Construction, Tendering, Ecommerce, Tendering Laws

-1-
Introduction

“IT Solutions For Your Business Problems”. A common tagline for IT providers, vendors,
and even government authorities in touting for a move towards more automation and so-
called collaboration opportunities that can be brought in the IT era. Sounds evangelistic?
Well, not quite. For some, this has been proven true as new and streamlined work processes
starts to increase productivity and accuracy in day-to-day work. For many though, the
purchase of expensive “systems solutions” has not generated value to their organization,
changes in works has instead garnered dissatisfaction and distrust within users, all at the
detriment of its sole cause – the business. So is IT a real solution to all business ills? This
paper examines the validity of the claim through an analysis of an IT-led construction
tendering initiative soon to be implemented in Malaysia. Online or e-tendering is a good test
subject for validating the IT/Business connection, because it has met with a mix of responses
in real-life implementation recently like in the USA, UK, Japan, Singapore, Hong Kong and
other countries. In some, like in Hong Kong, the programme itself had changed
fundamentally after strong industry consensus, in others like with the CALSEC programme
(Japan), it has been touted as a new patch for inter-country collaboration with the introduction
of new standards and protocols. Some had been industry/contractor driven (Singapore),
others client driven (e.g. Tesco – UK). Professional associations has not been quiet either,
like their outright rejection of new reverse auctions systems in Canada and the UK or
applauding budding new collaborative units like in Japan, Hong Kong and Malaysia (NeTI)
or for others, close knit communities of contractor-suppliers (USA). Quite an array of
responses, not even mentioning new calls for a review of the tendering process itself - its laws,
policies and standards, in light of a new-found awareness of the possibilities of increased
transparency, efficiency and value-selections in the construction procurement process made
possible with IT. Perhaps after all, we have found a new elixir – or have we really?

Industry Background

Now is a good time as any for a revival of enhanced levels of transparency, efficiency and
collaboration in construction. There is beginning to be a gradual liberation of global trade in
this industry brought out by the new developments in the General Agreement on Tariffs and
Trade (GATT) and the General Agreement of Trade in Services (GATS) from 1993 onwards.
There have also been new developments in easing trade restrictions like a reform in
construction procurement by over 20 countries agreeing towards a “Government Procurement
Agreement” initiative which came into force in 1996. Nevertheless, the objectives of the
tender system in construction even in the global context remains unchanged, that is to devise a
most efficient framework to select capable contractors who can complete the construction
project within set parameters of time, money and quality.

Within this changing environment, construction procurement needs to be modernised to face

its new challenges. The usual way of choosing, selecting and appointing a contractor through
a tendering process, (that is simply the acceptance of an offer of price along some prescribed
project conditions) must be streamlined. Also termed as “bidding” or “bid process”, the
common process is that contractors will be invited to place their offer after reviewing the
details of the project (drawings, specifications, requirements, etc.) and conditions attached
(time, security, performance, etc.). The employer will then be in a position to choose between
the contractors' bids, in turn accepting the tender offered to him.

-2-
 Understanding Legacy Problems In Tendering Facing The Malaysian Construction
Industry

Preparing tendering documentation and conducting tenders for employers and obtaining,
processing and submitting tenders for contractors are costly. For contractors, the costs
associated with preparing and submitting a tender will go to waste if their tenders are rejected.
Studies conducted by Holt, etc. (1996) and Pasquire and Collins (1996) further showed that
contractors would have invested their own resources in preparing and submitting items like
brochures, presentation materials, estimating resources, administration and clerical assistance.
These can be significant. They would put an extra strain against contractors’ finances, especially
on those whom already would have to cut down their profit margins when tendering
competitively for a project (Williamson (1981), Alsagoff (1996), Walker and Chau (1999),
Bridge (1999)). Sometimes, in order to ensure selection in the face of the risks of abortive tender
costs, some contractors may even go as far as conducting themselves in underhanded and
sometimes illegal practices (CBM Construction Sdn. Bhd. v. Buildcon And Development Sdn.
Bhd.).

For employers, factors other than tendering costs may be important. Apart from the
employer’s belief that the lowest prices can be only obtained through a competitive process,
there are other aspects that must be considered in selecting a contractor for his project. For
some employers, especially those linked with government authorities or large corporations,
accountability may be paramount. If tenders are assessed through negotiations only, it is
difficult for the employer’s agents or his employees to show that the negotiations have been
conducted purely objectively and that the best package has been secured through this process.
Transparency becomes more important in situations where the contract has been substituted or
novated, or where there are further requirements to show that the employer has discharged an
unprejudiced selection of replacement contractors (see circumstances in Government Of The
State Of Selangor v. Central Lorry Service & Construction Ltd.)

In addition to these legacies, there have great difficulties to restrict uncompetitive tactics
practised by contractors themselves. For contractors, the submission of a cover price and bid
peddling is as much a norm as it is a strategic manoeuvre. An industry study in Australia
conducted by Ray et. al (1999) concluded that a majority of employers considers bid peddling
as important to obtain a competitive price from a preferred contractor. In another study in the
UK, Pasquire and Collins (1997) found a similar majority showing support for cover pricing
practices and concluded that this majority felt that it was necessary to avoid “offending” the
employer or prejudice the contractors’ future opportunities.

Understanding Specific Problems And Issues Related To The Tendering Process For in
Malaysia

The Malaysian Statistics reported (MER, 200) that there are over 100,000 dependent
businesses in the Malaysian construction industry. Even so, construction-based competitive
based improvements are not relegated to these businesses – it affects directly the
competitiveness of the nation. It has often been said that pushing demand from the
construction sector directly benefits other sectors. Some statistics come to support this
contention, For example, there is a correlation between the value added generated by the
construction industry and the competitiveness index of a nation. Data from the World

-3-
Economic Report 1999, the International Institute for Management Development, Switzerland
(IMD) and the World Economic Forum (WEF) shows (Table 1):

Table 1: WEF Economics Report (1999)

Malaysia Singapore Australia Hong Kong

Construction Volume (RM billion) 1977 60.7 38.5 90.7 51.3

As a percentage of GDP1977 4.80% 8.90% 6.30% 5.80%

Total Value Added 9.5 21.5 63.1 18.7

(RM billion) 1977

Percentage Value added per Volume 15.6% 55.8% 69.5% 36.5%

Value added per employment (RM) 10,834 66,853 108,643 61,237

World Competitiveness Ranking 2002 (IMD) 29 5 14 14

Growth Competitiveness Indicator 2002 (WEF) 30 4 7 17

Basing itself on this premise, for Malaysia, in OPP3 (“Rancangan Malaysia ke-8” – RM8), a
strategic economic plan tabled for the formation of a “Dasar Wawasan Negara” (National
Strategy), the Malaysian government highlighted the need to increase the competitiveness of
national industries. According to OPP3, such improvements can be implemented by the use
of high technology that generates higher value added and productivity, promoting the
awareness for a knowledge-driven society and to stimulate more demand for industries, both
locally and internationally.

-4-
The Need For An Common Platform For An Integrated Construction Tender Value
Chain

Tendering, although appearing elementary at first, has had its share of implementation
problems. In Malaysia, over 90% of the total number of projects awarded during the past 10
years are for those valued under RM20 million. These projects often become the target of
unethical bid practices in the construction industry. It is a truism as evidenced in numerous
industry researches that for contractors, the submission of a cover price and bid peddling is as
much a norm as it is a strategic manoeuvre. An industry study in Australia conducted by Ray
et. al (1999) concluded that a majority of employers considers bid peddling as important to
obtain a competitive price from a preferred contractor. In another study in the UK, Pasquire
and Collins (1997) found a similar majority showing support for cover pricing practices and
concluded that this majority felt that it was necessary to maintain an amicable relationship
with the employer otherwise prejudice the contractors’ future opportunities. Malaysia, as is
many other countries, is not immune to these problems. The effect of these practices, just
taking an approximate calculation could cost taxpayers close to RM200 million per year even
if there is a 1% artificial wastage in the tender process.

In response to these problems, in a sitting of the 29th August 2001, the Malaysian Cabinet
highlighted an immediate need to enhance efficiency in managing construction projects that
had systematically resulted in procedural delays and late implementation of capital injection
into the economy. Further to this, the Cabinet called for a study of contractors in a Cabinet
letter ref. PM(R)11880/A/94 Jld. 2 dated 9th September 2001. Subsequently, in this study,,
the Ministry of Finance has highlighted the underlying cause of the problems lies in the lack
of specific integration policies in the tendering value chain in the Malaysian construction
industry. It then called for a need for a different approach to overcome fundamental problems
in the production, posting, retrieval, submission and analysis of tender documents that must
be addressed by the Malaysian construction industry as one step towards promoting better
integration into what is considered a “fragmented” sector of the general economy.

The Malaysian Construction Industry: Enabling Conditions for IT Facilitated

Paradigm Shift

During 1980-85 the construction industry contributed 4.9% to the nation’s GDP, in 1986-90
this reduced to 3.5% before recovering to 4.4% in 1996-98. The average annual growth was
2.9% in 1980-85, 4.7% during 1986-90 and increased to 13.0% during 1991-95 before
declining at 8.3% during 1996-98. At the peak of the economic crisis, the construction
industry contracted by more than 20% (MER, 2000).

Although the sector's share of the GDP contribution was small in terms of value-added over,
it supported extensive upstream and downstream linkages. Demand for construction was
driven by increasing demand for capacity and efficiency as is evident in the share of
employment the construction sector. In 1991-95, the sector's employment enjoyed a growth
of 11.2% before declining by 2.9% in 1991-95. The sector therefore accounted for 7.6% share
of total employment in 1991-95 and 9.5% share in 1996-98. In term of productivity, the GDP
per employee grew at 1.6% in 1991-95 before declining by 5.6% in 1996-98 (MER, 2000).

Even so, the added value per employee for the construction sector was calculated to be at
10.6% in 1988-93 which is considered to be relatively low. An increase of 12.2% fixed asset
per employee during the same period indicated a shift from being labour-intensive to capital-

-5-
intensive construction operations. This means that there is a capacity for inducing capital to
be spent in investments like IT to increase productivity per worker from these low levels to
those comparable with other sectors.

With a clear potential for economic improvement in the sector, coupled with a general drive
for IT related knowledge intensive government policy, it is easy therefore to mount a
nationwide call for the Malaysian government to inject a vision of IT for the construction
industry. The advances that are forecast by this vision is for Information Technology (IT) to
provide for significant improvements through dramatic reductions in cost and speed, increases
in performance and functionality of such magnitude as to provide opportunities that cannot be
fully conceived at this time. This is similar to the ways how the telephone made possible new
ways to run organisations that were not foreseen at the time it was first introduced; it is
claimed.

Technology And a Need For a Malaysian Affirmative Action

Technology adoption and utilization in construction for Malaysia is evolving from the infancy
stage and poised to enter the ‘growth’ stage in the coming years. According to an IT
Masterplan for Malaysia (ISIS, 2002), as the Malaysia government progress to the new phase
of ICT deployment, it is focusing more and more on the systematic alignment of people,
policies, processes and technology. The technology investment constitute only the small
portion of the total investment in the initiative, as more resources and time are needed for the
soft elements e.g. policies, skills, culture, governance. Due to the magnitude and interest in
ICT as a key driver and differentiator in the Malaysian ICT Agenda Context over the last 5
years, as evidenced in the examples of successes like the MSC Project, Broadband and ADSL
penetration, ICT has emerged as a popular and reliable business enabler and transformer.
However, many have yet to feel the impact of various eGovernment initiatives. A survey
conducted by the government, (SIRIM, 2003) found that the majority of the respondents are
not aware of ongoing eGovernment initiatives such as eSPKB, PMS2 (SPP2) and ePerolehan.
This comes with a realization that it is important for educating and sensitizing organizational
members on the initiatives to better prepare them to leverage the eGovernment initiatives.

The next phase is to enhance inter-departments and inter-teams collaboration, communication

and coordination. To achieve this, the industry needs to link the existing islands of
information and form a collective knowledgebase. The information stored represents the
intellectual capital of the organization and its value is significantly increased if it is easily
accessible organization-wide (information at the fingertips of the right people at the right
time). Paperwork can be reduced further if staff can access share information digitally. Staff
can enter the data/information once and can be accessible many times across the organizations.
Also, research and information gathering can be done with ease as the repository of
information can be accessed and retrieved with greater efficiency and effectiveness.

Therefore we are left with policy, process, people and technology variables in the hunt for the
three main objectives of construction tendering (Diagram 2). IT “solutions” typically focus
on the process (Workflow re-engineering) and Technology (security, architecture, etc.) but
not the qualitative measures of Policy (laws, regulations, standards, etc) and the People (users,
knowledge implementation, trust factor, etc.)

Besides technological integration, construction needs to relook at its processes and practices.
IT investment alone will not make the industry more efficient and effective in facing
challenges in the emerging global, digital economy. The investment needs to be
complemented by investment in time, sustained efforts and creativity in changing redundant
processes. As noted by Professor Brynjolfsson of MIT Sloan School of Management

-6-
(Bryniolfsson, 2004), “[t]he biggest investments go toward developing business processes
that can reap technology’s benefits.” It is the intangibles such as the rethinking of value chain,
customer service, incentive systems and product offerings that determine whether
productivity can be achieved with IT. The successful interplay of competent organizational
members, digital technologies and redefined business processes provide the necessary
ingredients to thrive in the emerging global, digital economy. All these provide room for
growth, progress and sometimes new opportunities to emerge. Historical processes become
future opportunities and information becomes new knowledge. ICT can help the industry
manage these opportunities and take advantage of them.

Diagram 1: Model for an Effective e-Tender National Programme

There have been some initiatives worldwide for e-Tendering in construction, as illustrated in
Table 2. Some has been successful while others have fallen prey to poor implementation
results. For Malaysia, it is no different. Whist there have been many private-based initiatives
but nevertheless, the implementation of information and communication technologies by
businesses in the construction industry has been very slow relative to other industries.
Statistics show (MERC, 2000) that the construction sector have not improved its
capitalisation of such new technologies to bring about more productive outputs. For the
moment the capital-to-output ratio had risen from 3.0 in 1988 to 6.5 in 1997, suggesting that
the use of capital, including I.T. related spending has been increasingly less efficient. There
has been little implementation of I.T. related cutting-edge advances in design and
manufacturing systems locally.

Table 2: International Comparison Of Government Electronic Construction

Procurement Systems (Adapted from Liao, et. al 2002)

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Country Government electronic
procurement system
USA FACNET
FACNET applies to open
procurement processes if
simplified procurement process
requirement is met
Canada MERX
MERX applies to open
procurement processes and
some limited procurement
processes
Australia Transigo
Transigo applies to open and
limited procurement processes
Singapore GITIS
GITIS applies to all new
procurement information
accessing and bidding
submitting services, including
open, selected and limited
procurement processes
Japan JETRO
JETRO applies to open and
limited procurement processes
CALSEC
A scalable and replicable
private-public architecture for
online tendering in construction
R.O.C Electronic tendering system
(Taiwan)
This system applies to open
selective and limited
procurement
Functions
• Announcing governmental procurement
opportunities
• Providing related governmental procurement
information
• Accepting bidding electronically
• Processing online payment towards contractors
• Collecting related governmental procurement
information
• With built-in procurement matching system,
contractors can be informed immediately with
appropriate procurement cases and receiving related
information
• Accepting bidding electronically
• Providing documents to contractors, confirming
orders online and inquiring buyers’ ordering history
•
Providing online procurement information, bidding
processing, government procurement handbook and
application from government procurement contractor
registration
Supplying information such as government procurement
announcement, item category, construction category,
procurement institution and location announcement
publication date, application deadline, bidding winner
announcement dates and procurement dates
Electronic tendering system: digitalising procurement and
bidding submission documents, which can be retrieved
and submitted online
Government procurement information system :providing
information about government procurement
announcement, classification, procurement entity and
address, deadline for requesting tender documentation
and bidding means requesting tender documentation,
contractor requirement, contact deadline, budgets,
winning bid price winning contractors and debarred
-8-
 Country Government electronic Functions
procurement system

contractors

Moreover, despite a doubling of computer ownership in the last five years, studies have
showed (SIRIM, 2003) that local contractors had simply used IT to automate existing
processes. Perhaps in the fragmented nature of the construction industry at present, no single
organisation can dictate and therefore be responsible for establishing and maintaining the
necessary communication networks for a construction project. Consequently, this industry
sector is faced with ineffective communication and information processes, which have
inadvertently contributed to project cost and time overruns.

Why? One answer, which came to light during a national survey commissioned by the
Malaysian Economic Planning Unit (SIRIM, 2003) was that although over 80% of the
construction industry had said that they “cannot manage without IT” and that “IT contributed
significantly to their operations”, over 90% of respondents wanted the Malaysian Government
to take the lead in strategic directions and applications. A “Top-Down” implementation
policy was also favoured by the respondents in the Malaysian construction sector.

These findings show that the Malaysian construction sector differs somewhat in its readiness
for e-commerce and full scale IT implementation. While research in Australia by Love, et. al
(2001) suggested behavioural barriers must be overcome as a first priority for their Australian
counterparts, other research focussed on strategic awareness for example Cheng et. al. (2000)
(re-examiniation of business relationships), Love and Gunasekaran (1997) – supply chain
collaboration evaluations, Alsagoff (2001) suggesting project coalition buy-in and Gulati
(1999) – who suggested trust, interdependence and bargaining power.

Instead, the Malaysian study has given the government an affirmative action to lead the
construction industry in IT adoption. It enables the government to feel the pulse of the
industry and hence becoming more responsive to industry shifts. There seems to be an
underlying awareness that today’s IT enables the industry to become more networked by
providing the possibilities to communicate, coordinate and collaborate with external
stakeholders with greater efficiency.

NeTI as a Government Led Initiative

Following the needs of the industry, a clear direction, for instance the issue of A
GOVERNMENT DIRECTIVE from the government is necessary. For its successful
implementation, initiatives shall then take the micro-projects approach as a strategy, to
leverage on an implement-via-use and produce a quick benefit return model. This not only
ensures support, ownership and relevance, but also produces maximized and immediate
returns for the effort.

With these objectives, a taskforce under patronage by the Ministry of Works (MoW or
“KKR”) Malaysia conceived an initiative for e-tendering or NeTI (National ETendering
Initiative). Taking stock of the industry’s needs and national aspirations and armed with case
studies from similar government backed initiatives, the National eTender initiative (NeTI)
promises to integrate and greatly improve on the tedious and multi-faceted tendering process
into a streamlined, progressive and 'intelligent' one by use of procedural streamlining and
technology empowerment. A key business driver, the eTender initiative will not only serve to

-9-
consolidate and strengthen the industry and defrayments its value, but also to provide a sound
and manageable basis for standardization, accreditation and knowledge-based recognition.

With the Construction Industry Development Board (CIDB) and the Public Works
Department (JKR) as its key players, NeTI is a product of the principals of prioritised projects
under the MoW as its mission for
• The development of a Knowledge Management Portal
• Internal agency application systems to support the agency’s operational needs
• Integration of the latest technology in electronic device for security, communication
and collaboration.

Diagram 2: NeTI
Diagram
as a 2:
Collaborative
NeTI as an Inter-Agency
Undertaking Between
Collaborative
Government
Government
Construction
Effort Agencies

The intensification and upgrading of telecommunications infrastructure and skills,

prerequisites for IT development, will be emphasised with the government playing a proactive
role in providing an environment for IT advancement. to invest in IT-related programmes and
projects. The most important issue in the implementation of IT, which distinguishes
construction from other sectors, will be the integration problems; that is how to exchange the
information among different the participants involved in the construction process. The
introduction of a common platform as a foundation for building integrated databases is among
the solutions to the industry at present and remains the primary focus of all major construction
IT initiatives world-wide.

What distinguishes NeTi from her other international counterparts is that it is designed to
integrate with the Malaysian eGovernment Flagship as a 2nd tier infrastructure to like up and
interface with all other agencies for construction procurement and tenders as well as project
management. By doing this, as illustrated in Diagram 3, NeTi will synthesize all aspects of
pre, during and post tender processing for government projects as well as private-based
projects; providing not only integration but also streamlined processing of all data and
payment directly by the Auditor General Department.

- 10 -
- 11 -
Implementing E-Tendering: Ongoing Issues on Transparency, Tendering Abuses and
the Malaysian Law

IT should be strategically used to enable the Malaysian construction industry to become more
responsive to industry shifts and market trends. In the increasingly dynamic knowledge-based
economy, it is by being agile that defines competitive advantage. IT needs to enhance
processes and make them more efficient by reducing redundancy. IT needs to enable the
workforce to become more creative and innovative to thrive successfully in the emerging
knowledge-based economy. It is only through the creative and innovative utilization of IT that
will determine success.

Is IT the sole and definitive solution for tendering efficiency in Malaysia? Many have
claimed that efficiency generated vis-à-vis IT/electronic tendering, for some, coining a
“paradigm shift” in tendering automation will automatically be an elixir to the ills of the
construction tendering process. Perhaps. Or perhaps not; it is argued that the notion of IT as
a cure-all for tendering is a funnelled utopian vision. Considering that automation will bring
about some improvements, the legacy system of tendering must be re-examined in a new way
if indeed the vision for efficiency can be realised. Transparency and the legal process cannot
be overlooked. Instead, it is suggested here that efficiency in tendering is first and foremost
linked to transparency of the process itself. “Transparency” or “Ethics” has many
interpretations. It has been described as “rules of conduct”, “moral principles or values” or
“principles of right conduct”. In tendering, what is viewed as “efficiency” in a process must
also embody sub-elements of trust, acceptance and adaptability as suggested by Love, et. al
(2001) to infuse some form accepted ethical codes of conduct governing both the employers
and the contractors. These codes should not only be recognised in law but more practically
goes beyond that. They are conditions upon which individuals and organisation and trusted
and respected by those they deal with. Only with trust established can efficiency be tackled
successfully.

No doubt, by and large, tendering ethics are based on the principles of good faith and good
professional practice (C.U.P., 1997, De George, 1995, Donaldson and Werhane, 1996). At
times, they may border into those acts that are otherwise enforceable by law for example
against tendering fraud or corrupt practices. It is clear therefore that the principle means of
incorporating duties of fairness, and hence efficiency, in Malaysia has to be by express
provisions in the contract or under certain government legislation eg. in Chew Chee Sun v.
Public Prosecutor, 1975. Nevertheless, construction tendering is not all in disarray though.
It can just be fundamentally “uncontrollable”. Take the extreme point – tender corruption and
fraud for instance. While it is true to say that corrupt practices and proven frauds are
actionable by law; the treatment for opportunistic tendering tactics is not that straightforward.
There will always be debates on what is considered “transparent”, “ethical” and what is
considered as “lawful”. In law, some guidelines in Richardson v. Silvester (1873) have been
offered as a cornerstone where it has been shown that if an employer has no intention of
letting the contract to the person invited to tender, or to one of a number so invited, the
invitation is clearly fraudulent and an action will lie to recover any tendering expenses by
incurred by the contractor. In short, the tender can be both unethical and unlawful. Making
the process on-line (with IT) does not change it one bit.

Does IT make tendering “transparent” enough that any fraudulent act can be nipped at the
bud? For any tender to be unlawful per se, fraud must be proven. This is constantly a moot
point as evidence of clear fraud in law is always circumspect in most legal jurisdictions.
Otherwise, clear of fraud, “unethical” conducts although to some may arguably be
“transparent” may be better described as an abuse of the competitive tendering process,
opportunistic manoeuvres or sometimes as “anti-competitive tactics”. There are many

- 12 -
examples of these in the day-to-day practice in the construction industry, both by the
employers and also by the contractors like “Dutch auctioning”, repeated tendering and
“negotiated” reductions to name a few. IT, with its penchant for instantaneous inter-location
communication may have made matters worst – at least a revival of reverse or Dutch auctions.
A variant of the system has been used in a few major projects in Malaysia like in the Westport
project (New Straits Times, 2002). While the response from Malaysia is lukewarm,
elsewhere, Dutch auctions in e-tendering has been met with strong opposition and views
across some construction industries (for example in the UK reported by Wood, 2002 and
Pearman, 2002). For others, it may just be another cost-cutting avenue – albeit rightly or
wrongly.

There is some reprieve if (some say opportunistic) manoeuvres like Dutch auctions in
construction tendering are carried out too far, though. The law do intervene to aid contractors
by limiting post-tender, “forced pricing” negotiations. In Ben Bruinsma & Son Ltd. v. The
Corporation of the City of Chatam et. al, the Canadian courts refused to permit an employer
to manipulate a conforming tender by deleting items from the work. By an action brought on
by one of the tenderers, the employers have had to discard all of the tenders and start again
with the new requirements. This point has also been discussed by Dorter (1996) and Bailey
(1999) and further demonstrated in other jurisdictions as well like in Australia in Hunter Bros
v. Brisbane City Council concerning post-tender readjustments for project manning levels for
a refuse collection contract.

Despite a trend for a move towards a stricter legal control of unethical tendering practices, the
Commonwealth and accordingly the Malaysian courts have been reluctant to imply an
straightforward obligation for good faith or good practice outside those in fiduciary
relationships (principal/agent, employer/employee) or where there is an implication of full
disclosure (ubberimae fidae) for instance in insurance contracts. Even so, case law has some
examples where the courts have decided on other means to imply good practice. In Ooi Kiah
Inn Charles & Anor v. Kukuh Maju Industries Sdn. Bhd., the courts have considered the
implications to public policy when deciding on the conducts of the contracting parties. The
courts have also have been referred to issues on non diligence in conduct where performance
was delayed in Kuala Lumpur Landmark Sdn. Bhd. v. Standard Chartered Bank and have had
to decided on common law guidelines for frustration (if not breach for the evasion of the spirit
of the deal). Similarly, in Polygram Records Sdn. Bhd. v. Search & Anor, the Malaysian
courts have considered but rejected arguments that there are grounds for a covenant of
restraint to trade in recording contracts.

All support the line of argument that as the need for transparency is fulfilled, the law,
technology and efficiency will automatically follow.

Conclusion

Have we found the elusive elixir for construction business ills in e-tendering? Is it in IT?
Well perhaps it is more of a dichotomy of solutions. On the one hand, IT will truly improve
communication and make work more efficient and most importantly make people collaborate
more, judging from the implementation across and within countries recently, whether it has
been a success or not. One outlook is apparent though, the industry is more and more aware
of the need for group effort within itself over and above the “fragmented” label it used to
carry as participants scour for more business across blurring country borders. Along these
lines, as tendering protocols seems to be merging, what is also clear is that there is a
governing universal trend in a unification of tendering contract standards in its laws and
formal control across countries. Transparency, efficiency and good governance will follow,
in due time of course. On the other hand, there are and always be opportunists. They come in

- 13 -
many guises. For some, they are the rogue clients, as when e-tender means a bigger
catchment’s net of willing contractors who will undercut each other’s margins for their
benefit. Reverse auctions or not. For others, they are the insatiable IT vendors, with their
superfluously complex tendering “solutions, profiteering from the ever willing customers.
For Malaysia though, having recognized and learnt from others, it is more of implementing a
pathway to better collaboration and more knowledge intensive communities with the
government as catalyst. IT is one but not exclusive source of transparency, efficiency and
value. Perhaps we were looking at the wrong tier solution. IT is a 2nd tier solution as it is a
mere catalyst to 1st tier solutions of better standards, improved communication and more
acceptable laws – those are the true elixirs to business problems, it is submitted.

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Bailey, J. (1999), A Sweet Aftertaste For Sour Grapes Tenderers, Construction Law Journal,
15 Const. L.J. 6, pg. 413 - 418.

Ben Bruinsma & Son Ltd. v. The Corporation of the City of Chatam et. al (1984) 29 BLR 148.

Bridge, A. (1999), The Procurement Of Facility Services: A Transaction Cost Approach And
Beyond, COBRA Conference Proceedings, Royal Institution Of Chartered Surveyors.

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http://www.techreview.com/articles/wo_brynjolfsson031004.asp

C.U.P. (1997), Ethics In Procurement, H.M. Treasury Central Unit on Procurement (UK)
Publication No. 55, HMSO.

CBM Construction Sdn. Bhd. v. Buildcon And Development Sdn. Bhd. (1999) MLJU71
(unreported)

Chew Chee Sun v. Public Prosecutor (1975) 2 MLJ 58, (1975-77) SLR 352.

De George, R.T. (1995), Business Ethics, Macmillan, N.Y.

Donaldson, W. and Werhane, P.H. (1996), Ethical Issues In Business: A Philosophical

Approach, Prentice Hall, New Jersey.

Dorter, J. (1996), Contracting And Tendering: The Legal Perspective, Building and
Construction Law, BCL 12, pg. 234 – 266.

El-Islamy, E. (1998), “Business On The Internet: The Islamic Prespective And Its
Comparison With Common Law And The Law As Applicable In Malaysia”, Thesis for the
International Islamic University, Malaysia.
Government Of The State Of Selangor v. Central Lorry Service & Construction Ltd., (1972) 1
MLJ 102.

- 14 -
Henriod, E.E. and Lantran, J.M. (1991), Trends In Contracting Practice For Civil Works,
Innovative Contracting Practice, Circular No. 386, Transp. Res. Board (TRB), Washington.

Holt, G, Olomoyaiye, P. and Harris, F. (1996), Tendering Procedures, Contractual

Arrangements And Latham: The Contractors’ View, Engineering, Construction and
Architectural Management, Vol. 1 No. 2, pg. 97-115.

Hosmer, L.T. (1990), The Ethics Of Management, Richard D. Irwin publishers, Homewood.
Hunter Bros v. Brisbane City Council (1984) 1 Qd R 533; see also Maxwell Contracting Pty
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Ioannou, P.G. and Leu, S.S. (1993), Average Bid Method - Competitive Bidding Strategy”,
Journal of Construction Engineering and Management, ASCE, Vol. 119 No. 1, pg. 131 - 147.

ISIS (2002), Institute of Strategic and International Studies, Knowledge-based Economy

Master Plan, Institute of Strategic and International Studies, Malaysia (unpublished)

Kuala Lumpur Landmark Sdn. Bhd. v. Standard Chartered Bank (1994) 2 559, HC.

Liao, et. al (2002), “A framework of electronic tendering for government procurement: a

lesson learnt from Taiwan”, Automation in Construction, Vol. 11 pp. 731-742,

New Straits Times (2002), “Westport Accepts Tender Online. Putra Perdana Gets Job To
Build Container Terminal Yard”, Business Times, 13th May 2002, NST Publications, Malaysia.

MER (2000), The Malaysian Economic Report 2000, Ministry of Finance, Malaysia

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Pearman, R. (2002), “E-Bidding: Who Can You Trust”, Contract Journal, 24 April 2002.

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Richardson v. Silvester (1873) L.R. Q.B. 34

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Williamson, O. (1981), "Contract Analysis: The Transaction Cost Approach", The Economic
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2002.

- 16 -
MALAYSIAN CONSTRUCTION
RESEARCH JOURNAL (MCRJ)
Guide to Authors
Aims and Scope:
The Malaysian Construction
Research Journal (MCRJ) is the journal
dedicated to the documentation of R&D
achievements and technological
development relevant to the construction
industry within Malaysia and elsewhere in
the world. It is a collation of research papers
and other academic publications produced
by researchers, practitioners, industrialists,
academicians, and all those involved in the
construction industry. The papers cover a
wide spectrum encompassing building
technology, materials science, information
technology, environment, quality, economics
and many relevant disciplines that can
contribute to the enhancement of knowledge
in the construction field. The MCRJ aspire to
become the premier communication media
amongst knowledge professionals in the
construction industry and shall hopefully,
breach the knowledge gap currently
prevalent between and amongst the
knowledge producers and the construction
practitioners.
Articles submitted will be reviewed
and accepted on the understanding that they
have not been published elsewhere. The
authors have to fill the Declaration of the
Authors form and return the form via fax to
the secretariat. The length of articles should
be between 3,500 and 8,000 words or
approximately 8 – 15 printed pages (final
version). The manuscripts should be written
in English or Bahasa Melayu an abstract in
English must be included. The original
manuscript should be typed one sided,
single-spacing, single column with font of 10
point (Arial). Paper size should be of A4 (21
cm x 29.7 cm) with 2 cm margins on the left,
right and bottom and 3 cm for the top.
Authors can submit the manuscript:
• By website to
http://www.mcrjcidb.com.my/
• By e-mail to
maria@cidb.gov.my /
zulkefli@cidb.gov.my
• By hardcopy and softcopy in
Microsoft-Word format to MCRJ
Secretariat:
Malaysian Construction Research
Journal (MCRJ)
Construction Research Institute of Malaysia
(CREAM)
CIDB Head Office
10th Floor, Grand Season Avenue
No. 72, Jalan Pahang
53000 Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia
Tel : (6) 03-26170200
Fax : (6) 03-40456828
Type of fonts: All text, drawing, graph must
be written using Arial
Language: Follow the spelling of the Oxford
English Dictionary.
Paper title: The title should be brief (ALL
CAPITAL LETTER bold font 12).
CODIFICATION AND
APPLICATION OF SEMI-LOOF
ELEMENTS FOR COMPLEX
STRUCTURES
Authors (full name): The author’s name and
affiliation should follow below the title. Use
numbers to indicate affiliations (font 12).
Jamalodin Noorzaei1, Mohd. Saleh
Jaafar, Abdul Waleed Thanoon,
Wong Jern Nee
Affiliation: Position and full addresses
including post codes (italic font 9)
1
Department of Civil Engineering, Faculty of
Engineering, Universiti Putra Malaysia, 43400
UPM, Serdang, Selangor, Malaysia
Abstract: Written in English (font 9).
Abstract: it should be single paragraph of about
100 – 250 words.
Keywords: Written in English and up to 5
keywords (Italic font 9).
Keywords: Cooling tower; Finite element code;
Folded plate; Semiloof shell; Semiloof beam
Units: All units and abbreviations of
dimensions should conform to SI standards.

Tables and Figures: Tables and figures
should be incorporated in the text. Caption
should be written above the table and at the
bottom for figures (font 9). All illustrations
and photographs must be numbered
consecutively as it appears in the text and
accompanied with appropriate captions
below them.
39
C
o
Journal:
Sze, K.Y. (1994) Simple Semi-Loof Element
for Analyzing Folded-Plate Structures.
Journal of Engineering Mechanics,
120(1):120-134.
Books:
Skumatz, L.A. (1993) Variable rate for
municipal solid waste: implementation,
experience, economics and legislation.
Los Angeles: Reason Foundation,157

36 pp.
Attic temperature

33 Thesis:
30
27 Wong, A.H.H. (1993) Susceptibility to soft
24 rot decay in copper-chrome-arsenic
21 treated and untreated Malaysian
18 hardwoods. Ph.D. Thesis, University of
15
Oxford. 341 pp.
23 25 27 29 31 33 35 37
Outdoor tem perature oC
Predicted tem perature before sealing the attic Chapter in book:
Predicted tem perature after sealing the attic Johan, R. (1999) Fire management plan for
the peat swamp forest reserve of north
Selangor and Pahang. In Chin T.Y. and
Figure 8: Computed attic temperature with Havmoller, P. (eds) Sustainable
sealed and ventilated attic Management of Peat Swamp Forests in
Peninsular Malaysia Vol II: Impacts.
Kuala Lumpur: Forestry Department
Table 1. Recommended/Acceptable Malaysia, 81-147.
Physical water quality criteria
Proceedings:
Parameter Raw Water Drinking Siti Hawa, H., Yong, C.B. and Wan Hamidon
Quality Water Quality W.B. (2004) Butt joint in dry board as
Total coliform 500 0 crack arrester. Proceeding of 22nd
(MPN/100ml)
Conference of ASEAN Federation of
Turbidity 1000 5
Engineering Organisation (CAFEO 22).
(NTU)
Color (Hazen) 300 15
Myanmar, 55-64.
pH 5.5-9.0 6.5-9.0
(Source: Twort et al. 1985; MWA,1994)

Reference: Reference should be cited in the

text as follows: “ Berdahl and Bretz (1997)
found…” or “(Bower et al. 1998)”.
References should be listed in alphabetical
order, on separate sheets from the text. In
the list of References, the titles of
periodicals should be given in full, while for
books should state the title, place of
publication, name of publisher, and
indication of edition.