Engineering Commons^™

Engineering Education In Hong Kong Secondary Schools - The Applied Learning Course Approach, Ken Hui

Staff Publications

In Hong Kong, the efficacy of engineering education in secondary schools is always difficult to measure. This is mainly because there are limited engineering-oriented subjects and few teachers with backgrounds in engineering. Engineering education is often infused into the curriculum of secondary schools through science, technology and mathematics (STM) subjects. Students’ involvement in engineering related school-based and extracurricular activities are limited. Only a few technical schools in Hong Kong are offering engineering-oriented subjects such as Electronics & Electricity and Technology Fundamentals.

Some previous studies have identified that the lack of engineering education in secondary schools may affect the students’ aspiration …

Improvement Of The Autodriver Algorithm For Autonomous Vehicles Using Roll Dynamics, Ching Nok, Catter To, Sina Milani, Hormoz Marzbani, Reza Jazar

Staff Publications

The autodriver algorithm was introduced as a path-following algorithm for autonomous vehicles, which uses road geometry data and planar vehicle dynamics. In this paper, the autodriver algorithm is improved according to practical implications, and a more realistic vehicle model (roll mode) is used, which considers roll degree of freedom in addition to a planar motion. A Ghost-Car path-following approach is introduced to define the desired location of the car at every instance. Key steady-state characteristics of turning vehicles, namely the curvature, yaw rate, and side-slip responses, are discussed and used to construct a feed-forward component of a path-following controller based …

Thei Student Applied Research Presentations Sarp 2020, Research Office, Technological And Higher Education Institute Of Hong Kong

THEi Student Applied Research Presentations (SARP)

No abstract provided.

Hierarchical Routing Protocols For Wireless Sensor Network: A Compressive Survey, Hiu Fai Chan, Heiko Rudolph, Karina Gomez Chavez, Akram Hourani

Staff Publications

Wireless Sensor Networks (WSNs) are one of the key enabling technologies for the Internet of Things (IoT). WSNs play a major role in data communications in applications such as home, health care, environmental monitoring, smart grids, and transportation. WSNs are used in IoT applications and should be secured and energy efficient in order to provide highly reliable data communications. Because of the constraints of energy, memory and computational power of the WSN nodes, clustering algorithms are considered as energy efficient approaches for resource-constrained WSNs. In this paper, we present a survey of the state-of-the-art routing techniques in WSNs. We first …

An Experimental Study To Measure The Concentration Of Nanofluids By Using Refractive Index, Kwan Ng, Man Hei Chau

Staff Publications

In a decade, nanofluids are a new kind of fluid that has rapid development and wide application in various fields. Especially, nanofluids as a heat transfer fluids in different industrial instead of the traditional heat transfer fluids such as water, oil, and ethylene glycol…etc. The nanofluids have consisted the nano-size metal or metal oxide pArticles with base fluids, the nanoparticles have a superior thermo property to enhance the heat transfer performance of based fluids. Concentration is an important factor that can be influenced by most of the thermal properties of nanofluids. In present, the concentration of nanofluids is predetermined, the …

Design And Installation Of Post-Installed Reinforcements: A State-Of-The-Art Review, Daniel T. W. Looi, Yuen Fai, Augustus Lee, Ray K. L. Su, Yanlong Zhang

Staff Publications

Post-installed reinforcement (PIR) helps facilitate retrofitting works, mitigate misplaced reinforcement problems, as well as support newly cast concrete members such as modular integrated construction. However, it has not been holistically addressed in major international reinforced concrete (RC) design codes. Nonetheless, based on established design philosophy and associated failure modes, the cast-in reinforcement design method in RC can be extended to design qualified PIR systems. The qualification of PIR system can be referenced to AC 308 (2016), European Assessment Document (EAD) 330087 (2018) and EAD 330499 (2017) in the US and Europe, respectively. In Hong Kong, PIR is conservatively limited to …

Perceived Importance And Levels Of Technical English Communication Skills Among Stakeholders In Engineering Fields, Roger Tsz Ho Ng, Alex Ying Yin Wong

Faculty of Science & Technology (THEi)

The purposes of this study were to examine stakeholders’ perceptions of the importance of technical English communication skills in engineering and academic teachers and industry professionals’ perceptions of current engineering students’ and graduates’ levels of technical communication skills. Survey questionnaires were designed to collect data from different research participants. The data were subsequently analysed using descriptive statistics. The study identified a discrepancy between students’ self-perceived performance on technical English communication skills and their perceived standards of these skills required by the programmes in which they were enrolled. Technical communication skills, including writing in engineering genres, essays and technical reports, reading …

Building Information Modelling For Building Services Engineering: Benefits, Barriers And Conducive Measures, Wai Yee Betty Chiu, Joseph H.K. Lai

Faculty of Science & Technology (THEi)

Purpose – Mandating the use of building information modelling (BIM) in building projects has sprawled, but the uptake of BIM in building services engineering (BSE) remains sluggish. The purpose of this paper is to explore how to achieve wider adoption of BIM in BSE. Design/methodology/approach – Through an extensive literature review, the benefits of, barriers to and measures conducive to, using BIM for BSE were identified and classified. Built upon the review and a focus group meeting, a questionnaire was devised for an industry-wide survey in Hong Kong and the survey data were processed by statistical analyses. Findings – On …

Enhancing Protection Of Vehicle Drivers And Road Safety By Deploying Adas And Facial Features Pattern Analysis (Ffpa) Technologies, Raymond Sze Wai Fu, Xueying Wang, Antonio Wong, Chi-Wing Tsang

Faculty of Science & Technology (THEi)

The latest technology associated with Intelligent Transportation Systems (ITS) have been designed with the aim to minimize the numbers of person injury in road accidents and improve the overall road safety. The driver behavior is one major concern in many accidents in HK urban road links. In particular, the driver's attitudes, such as fatigue, drowsiness and concentration are the major causes to road accidents. It will affect the driver's ability and decisions in properly controlling their vehicles. Very often, this kind of driver distraction is particularly obvious when driving after 2 to 3 hours from most research sources. In the …

Performance Of Desiccant Enhanced Evaporative Cooling System Based On High-Low Control, Yi Chen, Huaxia Yan, Yimo Luo

Faculty of Science & Technology (THEi)

Desiccant enhanced evaporative cooling system is a sustainable air-conditioning (A/C) system which deals the latent load and sensible load separately by a dehumidifier and an evaporative cooler. A LDD-RIEC system consists of a liquid desiccant dehumidifier (LDD) and a regenerative indirect evaporative cooler (RIEC) were investigated. The LDD-RIEC system is characterized by low energy consumption compared with conventional mechanical cooling system, but the main shortcoming is the high dependency on ambient air conditions. To maintain stable indoor temperature, a control scheme is essential. However, very limited research work regarding control strategy can be found in open literatures. In this paper, …

Vibration And Buckling Characteristics Of Functionally Graded Graphene Nanoplatelets Reinforced Composite Beams With Open Edge Cracks, Mei Fung, May Tam, Zhicheng Yang, Shaoyu Zhao, Jie Yang

Staff Publications

This paper investigates the free vibration and compressive buckling characteristics of functionally graded graphene nanoplatelets reinforced composite (FG-GPLRC) beams containing open edge cracks by using the finite element method. The beam is a multilayer structure where the weight fraction of graphene nanoplatelets (GPLs) remains constant in each layer but varies along the thickness direction. The effective Young’s modulus of each GPLRC layer is determined by the modified Halpin-Tsai micromechanics model while its Poisson’s ratio and mass density are predicted according to the rule of mixture. The effects of GPLs distribution pattern, weight fraction, geometry, crack depth ratio (CDR), slenderness ratio …

Structural Behaviour Of Post-Installed Reinforcement Bars In Moment Connections Of Wall-Slabs, Yuen Fai, Augustus Lee, Ray K. L. Su, Ricky W. K. Chan

Staff Publications

Post-installed reinforcement (PIR) bars helps to facilitate retrofitting works, mitigate misplaced reinforcement problems, as well as support newly casted additions. However, the use of PIR has not been addressed in the major reinforced concrete (RC) design codes worldwide. Recently, the European standards have introduced a beneficial coefficient of moments in EN 1992-4 2018 for concrete fastenings which allows compliant PIR systems to be designed by using the bonded anchor (BA) design method. However, when applying this method to wall-slab connection design, the moment resisting capacity is often limited by the lack of bar spacing and small concrete covers. This means …

Autonomous Vehicles: Autodriver Algorithm And Vehicle Dynamics, Hormoz Marzbani, Hamid Khayyam, Ching Nok, Catter To, Đại Võ Quốc, Reza N. Jazar

Staff Publications

A given road can be expressed mathematically in a global (or world) coordinate frame. Following the road can be substituted by following the loci of its curvature center and turning at the right circle of curvature. Considering that a vehicle in motion is always in turn about an instantaneous rotation center relative to the ground, an autonomous vehicle capable of following a given path by coinciding the rotation center of vehicle at every moment on the curvature center of the road could be designed. The dynamic reactions of the vehicle influence its path of motion and make its rotation center …

Improving The Energy Efficiency Of Petrochemical Plant Operations: A Measurement And Verification Case Study Using A Balanced Wave Optimizer, Man Hin Eve Chan, Kar-Kit Chu, Hin-Fung Chow, Chi-Wing Tsang, Chi Kuen Danny Ho, Shuk-Kei Ho

Faculty of Design & Environment (THEi)

The Chinese petrochemical industry is facing pressure to meet strict targets of energy consumption and carbon emission reductions. Water pumps are the primary equipment used in most chemical and agrochemical industries sectors since water is commonly used for cooling and heating purposes, but these pumps also consume a large amount of energy. Other uses of water pumps in these industries include producing steam for heating, preparing reaction media or absorptive reagents, rinsing products, and distilling. As for the electrical components of the water pump systems, current technologies of variable frequency drives and superconducting transmission lines are unable to increase the …

Improving The Energy Efficiency Of Petrochemical Plant Operations: A Measurement And Verification Case Study Using A Balanced Wave Optimizer, Eve Man Hin Chan, Kar-Kit Chu, Hin-Fung Chow, Chi-Wing Tsang, Danny Chi Kuen Ho, Shuk-Kei Ho

Faculty of Science & Technology (THEi)

The Chinese petrochemical industry is facing pressure to meet strict targets of energy consumption and carbon emission reductions. Water pumps are the primary equipment used in most chemical and agrochemical industries sectors since water is commonly used for cooling and heating purposes, but these pumps also consume a large amount of energy. Other uses of water pumps in these industries include producing steam for heating, preparing reaction media or absorptive reagents, rinsing products, and distilling. As for the electrical components of the water pump systems, current technologies of variable frequency drives and superconducting transmission lines are unable to increase the …

Fuel Consumption And Emissions Performance Under Real Driving: Comparison Between Hybrid And Conventional Vehicles., Yuhan Huang, Surawski C. Nic, Organ Bruce, John L. Zhou, Oscar H.H Tang, Edward F.C. Chan

Faculty of Science & Technology (THEi)

Hybrid electric vehicles (HEVs) are perceived to be more energy efficient and less polluting than conventional internal combustion engine (ICE) vehicles. However, increasing evidence has shown that real-driving emissions (RDE) could be much higher than laboratory type approval limits and the advantages of HEVs over their conventional ICE counterparts under real-driving conditions have not been studied extensively. Therefore, this study was conducted to evaluate the real-driving fuel consumption and pollutant emissions performance of HEVs against their conventional ICE counterparts. Two pairs of hybrid and conventional gasoline vehicles of the same model were tested simultaneously in a novel convoy mode using …

Outside The Site Boundary, Timothy Kwan Fai Chan

Faculty of Science & Technology (THEi)

No abstract provided.

Study Of Synthesis Of Biodegradable Plastics From Alkaline Fermented Excessive Activated Sludge, Yaohui Liu, Chua Hong

Faculty of Science & Technology (THEi)

The environmental problems associated with plastics have become increasingly severe in recent years. Technologically and economically feasible solutions are in urgent need in order to ensure sustainable development in the plastic industry. Polyhydroxyalkanoates (PHAs) are a family of specialized polyesters of hydroxyalkanoates (HAs) and can be completely degraded in natural environment. They can be synthesized naturally or under artificially controlled processes. The barrier of limiting the application of PHAs is the high production cost. From years of study, PHAs are proofed to be able to be accumulated within the bacterial cells in activated sludge and the production yield had been …

An Orthogonal Study Of Industrial Scale Colour Fading Process Of Cotton Fabric, Yaohui Liu, Chester Kin-Man To, Hiu-Yan Cheung, Chi-Wai Kan, Chua Hong

Faculty of Science & Technology (THEi)

Colour fading is now a popular process used for imparting a vintage look to textile and fashion products, which enhances market value because of the current fashion trends. This study examined a non-aqueous colour fading process with the use of oxygen plasma-induced ozone treatment. An industrial scale machine and commercially available red sulpur-dyed cotton fabric (with 0.5 %, 1.5 % and 2.5 % colour depths) were used in this study. Since the colour fading process factors are inter-related to each other, a specific experiment approach, i.e. orthogonal method, was used for obtaining the optimum conditions in an industrial scale colour …

Atmospheric Pressure Plasma‐Induced Decolorisation Of Cotton Knitted Fabric Dyed With Reactive Dye, Yaohui Liu, Chester Kin-Man To, Mei‐Ki Ngai, Chi-Wai Kan, Chua Hong

Faculty of Science & Technology (THEi)

The aim of this study was to investigate the decolorisation effect of atmospheric pressure plasma treatment on knitted fabrics dyed with reactive dyes under different processing parameters, ie, air concentration, treatment duration and water content. The fabrics were dyed with reactive dye of a blue colour, and the colour depths were 0.5%, 1.5% and 3.0% on weight of fabric. The colour properties of untreated and plasma‐treated fabric samples were evaluated by means of reflectance, K/S and relative unlevelness index. The colour properties were evaluated instrumentally and quantitatively in order to study the decolorisation effect induced by atmospheric pressure plasma treatment. …

Effects Of Beam-Column Depth Ratio On Seismic Behaviour Of Non-Seismic Detailed Reinforced Concrete Beam-Column Joints, Ying Liu, Ho-Fai Wong, Sung-Hei Luk, Ching-Kit Tong, Hei Lam

Faculty of Science & Technology (THEi)

Four reinforced concrete exterior beam-column joints with open anchorage beam reinforcement, which are manufactured to simulate those in existing reinforced concrete framed buildings, are tested under reversed cyclic loads simulating earthquake excitation. The particular emphasis of this project is given to the effects of the beam-column depth ratio and the stirrup ratio in joints on the shear strength and seismic behaviour of the exterior joints without seismically designed details. The experimental results indicate that the stirrup placed in the beam-column joint cores can effectively improve the shear strength of the joint and enhance the seismic performance, and the shear strength …

Effect Of Limited Tension Stiffening On Behavior Of Reinforced Concrete Panels In Shear., Xueying Wang, Jun Shang Kuang

Faculty of Science & Technology (THEi)

The principal tensile strength of cracked concrete is not well defined in existing models for predicting the shear response of reinforced concrete (RC) membrane elements; hence, the shear strength of RC elements is generally overestimated due to the unrealistic decreasing slope of tensile stress as the crack accumulates. In this paper, the effect of limited tension-stiffening behavior of cracked RC panels under pure shear stresses is investigated by proposing an analytical model named as the tension-stiffening fixed-angle truss model (TFTM). The proposed model includes the limited tension-stiffening effect of post-cracking reinforced concrete and adopts the fixed-angle theory. In the analysis …

Characterisation Of Diesel Vehicle Emissions And Determination Of Remote Sensing Cutpoints For Diesel High-Emitters., Yuhan Huang, Organ Bruce, John L. Zhou, Surawski C. Nic, Yat-Shing Yam, Edward F.C. Chan

Faculty of Science & Technology (THEi)

Diesel vehicles are a major source of air pollutants in cities and have caused significant health risks to the public globally. This study used both on-road remote sensing and transient chassis dynamometer to characterise emissions of diesel light goods vehicles. A large sample size of 183 diesel vans were tested on a transient chassis dynamometer to evaluate the emission levels of in-service diesel vehicles and to determine a set of remote sensing cutpoints for diesel high-emitters. The results showed that 79% and 19% of the Euro 4 and Euro 5 diesel vehicles failed the transient cycle test, respectively. Most of …

Fragility Curves For Buildings In Hong Kong, Sung-Hei Luk, Ho-Fai Wong

Faculty of Science & Technology (THEi)

Fragility curves are the tools for evaluating the damage of structural or nonstructural components under different levels of ground excitation. It is also the necessary information for calculating the life-cycle cost of buildings during their design period. In this paper, development of fragility curves for buildings designed based on HK standard is presented. Two prototype models, which include three-storey and tenstorey reinforced concrete rigid frames, were considered. Incremental dynamic analysis was conducted under nine sets of past earthquake records with scaled peak ground accelerations. Maximum inter-storey drift ratio was selected as the damage indices and three performance levels were considered. …

Study Of Behavior Of Plastic Modified Bitumen By Incorporating Carbon Black, Ho-Fai Wong, Hao-Jue Hong, Lai-Ming Leung, Tsz-Chun Fong, Yi-Fei Shen, Tsz-Hin Lo

Faculty of Science & Technology (THEi)

In recent years, the performance of polymer modified bitumen has been widely studied. This study reports a research carried out to investigate the properties of polymer modified bitumen (PMB) by using polypropylene as modifier, carbon black as additives, to examine the optimum ratio of polypropylene to carbon black. With this objective, sample preparation using wet mixing method combining high shear mix was firstly performed. Subsequently, 18 samples were developed for the study, of which the polypropylene (PP) contents 10%, 12%, 14%, 16%, 18% and 20% with 2%, 3%, 4% of carbon black content. Afterwards, samples were characterized by standard tests …

Recycling Licoo2 With Methanesulfonic Acid For Regeneration Of Lithium-Ion Battery Electrode Materials., Bin Wang, Xin-Ye Lin, Yuanyuan Tang, Qiang Wang, Michael K.H. Leung, Xiao-Ying Lu

Faculty of Science & Technology (THEi)

With the massive consumption of lithium-ion batteries in portable consumer electronics and electric vehicles, proper disposal of spent batteries is of paramount importance for sustainable development. In this study, biodegradable organic methanesulfonic acid (MSA) is investigated for the first time to leach valuable metals from waste LiCoO2 powders for battery material regeneration. Under the optimal conditions, leaching efficiencies of lithium and cobalt are achieved at nearly ∼100% and ∼100%, respectively. Comparison experiment indicates that MSA can achieve better leaching performance than previously reported organic acids (e.g. citric acid, malonic acid, succinic acid, oxalic acid) under the same conditions. Besides, strong …

Recent Advancement In Lignin Biorefinery: With Special Focus On Enzymatic Degradation And Valorization, Chong Li, Chao Chen, Xiaofen Wu, Chi-Wing Tsang, Jinhua Mou, Yun Liu, Carol Sze Ki Lin

Faculty of Science & Technology (THEi)

With the intensive development of lignocellulosic biorefineries to produce fuels and chemicals from biomass-derived carbohydrates, lignin was generated at a large quantity every year. Therefore, lignin has received increasing attention as an abundant aromatics resource in terms of research and development efforts for value-added chemicals production. In this review, studies about lignin degradation especially the crucial enzymes involved and the reaction mechanism were substantially discussed, which provided the molecular basis of lignin biodegradation. Then, the latest improvements in lignin valorization by biological methods were summarized and case studies about value-added compounds from lignin were introduced. Afterwards, challenges, opportunities and prospects …

A Review On High Catalytic Efficiency Of Solid Acid Catalysts For Lignin Valorization, Weixiang Guan, Chi-Wing Tsang, Carol Sze Ki Lin, Christophe Len, Haoquan Hu, Changhai Liang

Faculty of Science & Technology (THEi)

It is imminent to develop renewable resources to replace fossil-derived energies as fossil resources are on the brink of exhaustion. Lignin is one of the major components of lignocellulosic biomass, which is a natural amorphous three-dimensional polymer with abundant C-O bonds and aromatic structure. Hence, valorization of lignin into high value-added liquid fuels and chemicals is regarded as a promising strategy to mitigate fossil resource shortages. Solid acid catalysts are extensively studied due to environmentally friendly in terms of the ease of separation, recovery and reduced amount of wastes. Hence, this review focuses on summarizing the recent progress of catalytic …

Economic Feasibility Of A Gasoline Production Plant From Lignocellulosic Feedstocks, Weixiang Guan, Sim-Ying Chua, Chi-Wing Tsang, Xiao Chen, Carol Sze Ki Lin, Raymond Sze Wai Fu, Haoquan Hu, Changhai Liang

Faculty of Science & Technology (THEi)

In this study, the conceptual process flowsheet was developed and the economic feasibility of woody biomass conversion to biofuel as feedstock was analysed by considering several promising experimental processes for lignin depolymerization, such as hydrodeoxygenation and hydrogenolysis, along with lignocellulosic biomass fractionation processes. The engineering simulation process toward the commercial production of bio-gasoline from lignocellulosic biomass using SuperPro Designer® was modeled. The compatibility of the end products with the current gasoline specifications was evaluated and various blending options were investigated to meet the octane number and Reid vapor pressure requirement of the product. The economic potential of the simulated engineering …

Tuning The Acidity Of Pt/Cnts Catalysts For Hydrodeoxygenation Of Diphenyl Ether, Weixiang Guan, Chuang Li, Xiao Chen, Xiao-Ying Lu, Chi-Wing Tsang, Haoquan Hu, Hongxu Qi, Changhai Liang

Faculty of Science & Technology (THEi)

We herein present a method for the synthesis of HNbWO6, HNbMoO6, HTaWO6 solid acid nanosheet modified Pt/CNTs. By varying the weight of various solid acid nanosheets, a series of Pt/xHMNO6/CNTs with different solid acid compositions (x = 5, 20 wt%; M = Nb, Ta; N = Mo, W) have been prepared by carbon nanotube pretreatment, protonic exchange, solid acid exfoliation, aggregation and finally Pt particles impregnation. The Pt/xHMNO6/CNTs are characterized by X-ray diffraction, scanning electron microscopy, transmission electron microscopy and NH3-temperature programmed desorption. The study revealed that HNbWO6 nanosheets were attached on CNTs, with some edges of the nanosheets being …