Papers by Dr. Mohd Zamani Ahmad
A hybrid ballast free system is proposed on a selected LNG vessel. The particulars of the vessel ... more A hybrid ballast free system is proposed on a selected LNG vessel. The particulars of the vessel are LBP 266.0 m, beam 41.63 m and depth 3.91 m. The additional system is coupled to the existing conventional ballast system. The hybrid system requires the introduction of longitudinal tunnels on each side of the vessel centre line in the double bottom. The tunnels occupy the full height of the double bottom, thus maintaining the LNG ship cargo space. The volume of 57,839 m 3 is available for ballast water could be maintained or slightly reduced. Of the total tunnel volume of 10,370.02 m 3 , 4,941.77 m 3 would be allocated to the tunnels in the double bottom.
Ballast free system for the management of ballast water onboard ship has been thoroughly studied ... more Ballast free system for the management of ballast water onboard ship has been thoroughly studied by and Parsons et al.
Fulfilment of quay crane (qc) deployment for future requirement can be achieved by supplying the ... more Fulfilment of quay crane (qc) deployment for future requirement can be achieved by supplying the required capacity or increasing crane's productivity. Traditional methods of capacity expansion model focus on the fulfilment of future capacity requirement in a long term lump sum basis. Some studies focus on increasing productivity by increasing the handling efficiency of quay crane. The existing quay crane expansion models for a container terminal is based on changes in demand for the entire terminal total expansion size. However, not all quay cranes are required at the same time. One additional quay crane could sustain the immediate future operational requirement rather than, say, providing all the required future crane at the same time now. The quay crane's expansion plan will be more accurate if the quantity and period of sustainance for each expansion period could be identified. Consequently, the expansion of quay crane more justified by size and time. Marginal approach to expansion of quay crane is required. This study proposes a marginal approach model to determine the marginal expansion requirement for quay crane. Each marginal expansion unit of quay crane is evaluated using net present value (NPV) method to check for economic viability. An illustration using a case study shows that a marginal approach will indicate periods of sustainance, time when additional unit of crane is required and the associated NPV value. The current capacity will sustain for 11 more years before one additional unit is required every 5 year then on.
Offshore fishing is located as far as 300nm from the mainland and fishermen need to spend a high ... more Offshore fishing is located as far as 300nm from the mainland and fishermen need to spend a high percentage of their operation time travelling to and from the fishing grounds. On the other hand, services required by deep sea fishermen are mostly land based. The opportunity for improvement is possible by providing the required services at sea to increase efficiency through time reduction. A concept such as Large Offshore Remote System (LORS) which provides crucial services at an optimum level close to the fishing grounds should be possible in improving efficiency. Such services have been preliminary identified as business and catch trading, boat building, equipment supply, boat maintenance and repair, repair equipment, healthcare and welfare and safety and security at sea. The research investigates the acceptance of LORS among Malaysian deep sea fishermen and their preferred offshore services. Survey and statistical method have been used in order to get valid and convincing idea on LORS concept. Questionnaire based on Likert scale has been selected as an instrument for this research and 143 respondents from the East Coast and West Coast of Peninsular Malaysia. Data collected has been processed using Statistical Package for Social Science (SPSS) statistical analysis software. The results show that the means for East Coast and West Coast suggest deep sea fishermen agree on the proposition that LORS concept required. It is also shown that, based on Chi Square analysis, loading unloading, repair and maintenance of boat, terminal administration, hospitality and shelter services are significant to LORS concept at 95% confident level.
Investment on laboratory equipment for education and training in the engineering field is usually... more Investment on laboratory equipment for education and training in the engineering field is usually released by the government. The amount and its viability is not determine totally on economic merits in the sense that such an investment is not a total business endeavour and sensitivity analysis can be considered futile since the true cost to output relationship is difficult to establish. This paper shall highlight this problems and propose the method successfully adopted by the authors for a RM25 million project for Universiti Teknologi Malaysia.
Knowledge generating activity through research is a very important facet of the academia. However... more Knowledge generating activity through research is a very important facet of the academia. However, all indicators give a very low ranking on research activities in developing countries, particularly in the ASEAN region. There is a need to improve research capacity, one of which is through provision of large scale laboratories. Laboratories which run along the line of research and consultancy Laboratories can be a catalyst for growth of the relevant industry. Marine Technology Laboratory in Universiti Teknologi Malaysia is one such Laboratory. This paper describes the setting up of the Laboratory, the role it is playing in spurring the marine industry in Malaysia and the difficulties in managing such a laboratory within a public university setting. One of the main problems is manpower planning as well as balancing the conflicting priorities between teaching, research and consultancy services. Whilst the laboratory is expected to generate income to the university using the state of the art facilities, it has to provide enough usage time to cater for the teaching needs of the growing student's population. In addition, limited funds for maintenance as well as government strict procedures on purchasing are also hampering its growth. Running a sophisticated laboratory in a developing country has other challenges, a principal one of which is the lack of sufficient expertise in the country to provide the specialised maintenance services required.
Conventional container terminal development planning methodology lacks the human modes of reasoni... more Conventional container terminal development planning methodology lacks the human modes of reasoning that uses approximate, imprecise, linguistic, and subjective values. Fuzzy methods could be applied to the current method to improve such shortcoming. This study applies fuzzy methods to a container terminal development planning model which has been improved by incorporating container handling system selection (chs) and determination of terminal other area (toa) to the current container park area (cpa), freight station area (cfs), berth-day requirement (bdr), and ship cost at terminal (sct). Membership functions have been derived for all the planning variables and planning process flowcharts showing fuzzy operations and defuzzification stages have been drawn. A simulated planning exercise has been performed on chs and cpa and the results obtained indicate that the application has been successful. The potential of coupling the method with an expert system has also been highlighted.
Pressures have increased on R&D agencies that support industrial growth to demonstrate economic r... more Pressures have increased on R&D agencies that support industrial growth to demonstrate economic rationales for the proposed industrial R&D programs. Major R&D programs at institutions of higher learning are the focal point. The economic impact assessment will serve as the basis for decision making by the central funding agencies. The metric to be used for such an assessment should be selected depending on the nature and the quality of the available data as on the technical or market nature of the proposal's output and outcomes. The paper will highlight the concepts on R&D program evaluation metrics and share the lessons learned from the exercise for the Marine Technology Laboratory Project at Universiti Teknologi Malaysia.
Almost all Malaysian fishing boats, including trawlers, are of local design despite some exterior... more Almost all Malaysian fishing boats, including trawlers, are of local design despite some exterior esthetic features imported from Southern Thailand. Local boats are designed and built on rule-of-thumb basis and it is believed that their features inherit the technical perception of the local boats operators passed from generation to generation. Their technical perception focused on the operationability as well as the workability of their design. A recent survey performed indicates for example, that trawlers from the west coast of Malaysia possess smaller rise of floor and tend to have vertical wall around the midship thus making the body fuller. Trawler built by the east coast boat builders feature slimmer hull with lower angle of entrance. Further deduction says therefore that their propulsion characteristics differ the same way. Principal dimensions of thirteen trawlers surveyed has been processed using SPSS statistical analysis software to obtain confirmation whether Malaysian trawlers are categorisable according to their states of origin. SPSS result on the values L/B, B/T, trim, estimated C B and few others gives an indication that there are crossrelationships between trawlers from different geographical regions. SPSS has categorised the trawlers into four grouping. A representative boat from each group is then selected and measured on site to gather its full geometrical details. Measurements are then input into TRIBON ship design software to obtain hydrostatic particulars and preliminary estimates on powering. The paper will highlight some of the findings and their repercussion on scientific thought on the criteria of local boat design.
Maritime research is socio-techno-economic in nature. Research title could cover categories inclu... more Maritime research is socio-techno-economic in nature. Research title could cover categories including economic, managerial, operational, social impacts, policy and legal. It is synonymous with techno-economic and socio-political activities of port, shipping and the related industries like shipbuilding, offshore and fishing. The research is field-based rather than laboratory-based and normally focused on probing the current system with an attempt to improve it. Identifying, planning, designing and implementing field-based maritime research is always unique. Researchers and fund providers should have a reasonable depth of maritime engineering knowledge as well as the ability to appreciate and comprehend its complex non-engineering, techno-economic and socio-political environment. Maritime research may fail at many different points; proposal, objective and scope, methodology and implementation, all of which could be due to lack of understanding on the research itself. This paper provides a typical management model for maritime research based on author's many experience in the field. Base on case studies, the highlight of the paper will be the identification of its critical success factors for successful implementation within a university environment.
Container terminal capacity should be periodically reviewed. It has to be audited against demand ... more Container terminal capacity should be periodically reviewed. It has to be audited against demand and current performance. A system that allows quick capacity audit is required so that terminal managers are promptly informed of their terminal capacity usage. A quick audit system based on a simple yet effective approach is advantages since an extensive audit exercise is costly and time consuming. This paper presents a quick capacity audit system based on fuzzy expert system approach. The audit system was model based on capacity planning ideas extracted from UNCTAD (1985) and Thomas (1987). CLIPS expert system shell has been used and the logic was developed using fuzzy approach so that it mimics human mode of reasoning and approximation.
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Papers by Dr. Mohd Zamani Ahmad