Steering module is a part of automotive suspension system which provides a means for an accurate vehicle placement and stability control. Components such as steering knuckle are subjected to fatigue failures due to cyclic loads arising from various driving conditions. This paper intends to give a description of a method used in the fatigue life reliability evaluation of the knuckle used in a passenger car steering system. An accurate representation of Belgian pave service loads in terms of response-time history signal was obtained from accredited test track using road load data acquisition. The acquired service load data was replicated on durability test rig and the SN method was used to estimate the fatigue life. A Pearson system was developed to evaluate the predicted fatigue life reliability by considering the variations in material properties. Considering random loads experiences by the steering knuckle, it is found that shortest life appears to be in the vertical load direction with the lowest fatigue life reliability between 14000–16000 cycles. Taking into account the inconsistency of the material properties, the proposed method is capable of providing the probability of failure of mass-produced parts.

Oscillating Water Column (OWC) is a technology that harvests wave energy to generate electricity. It works by harnessing the wave-induced pressure oscillation in the opening mouth of OWC. The oscillation of the pressurised air is extracted using a turbine placed at the top of the OWC structure. Although OWC has been studied for many years, designing an optimum air duct for such devices is still an open research area. The air duct plays a crucial role in the energy conversion process, as it is responsible for directing the airflow towards the turbine, and its design can greatly affect the performance and efficiency of the system. The article aims to study how the air duct design impacts the power output form. Moreover, the result will be compared with the conventional air duct design. The OWC performance is analysed using Computational Fluid Dynamic (CFD) software to identify which shape of the air duct has high efficiency. Autodesk Inventor is used to design the OWC devices modified from the basis design. Then these designs are imported into CFD software to simulate and obtain the energy extraction result. The CFD software is chosen to simulate the hydrodynamics problem. In this study, the oval design shows significant improvement in the energy extraction performance compared to the basis design. The oval design managed to produce 9.81, 10.02, and 11.66 J/kg of mechanical energy compared to 9.81, 9.82, and 10.04J/kg as prompted by the basis air duct design at the wave height of 0.2505, 0.75, and 2.25m, respectively. The result shows that the non-edge produces higher air pressure than the sharp edge of the air duct shape. Thus, the oval air duct design is more efficient, and it may increase the performance of the OWC wave energy converter device at a low wave height of 0.75 m.

The need for improvement in engineering reliability characterization for automotive components is nowadays becoming a major industry request. The post-design approach in determining reliability is inappropriate for an integrated product development process that aims to incorporate engineering life cycle requirements from the early stage. This paper intends to give a description of a method used in predicting the service loads in the reliability characterization of the automotive front corner module system. An accurate representation of the service environment as well as load histories is obtained from the proving ground by data acquisition. The acquired service load data is applied on durability test rig and number of cycles of the resultant random stress-time data is determined using rainflow cycle counting. Superposition of rainflow matrices is applied in order to replicate the actual service loads profile and cumulative damage analysis based on Palmgren-Miner rule is employed to determine life of components and system.

This paper presents the propose application of GSM wireless datalogger at Small Hydro Power Generation Station. Normally, renewable energy power generation system requires the application of data acquisition. Data acquisition of power, voltage, current, sedimentation, water flowrate and quantity of water are common data needed to evaluate performance. Thus, influence the planning electrical energy supply to the grid TNB station and provide clarification to ecological events. Intake of Small Hydro Station is located inaccessible area that is 2.07km heights and 3.44km distance by route from powerhouse. There is no active GSM line provider at the area. Therefore, advance communication technologies such as radio frequency device offers new possibilities of efficient data transferring. They are more reliable and cheaper than conventional method. Datalogger DT80M has the ability to send data using GSM line provider from remote area. Route distance is approximately 100km between powerhouse Small Hydro station to Host or Master Station. Power and water flowrate, will be monitor using Labview and save into database server. Random raw data derive into mean, standard deviation, skewness and kurtosis will be use to simulate performance model of density function.

In view of increasing pressures of shortened development cycles and desire to save costs, inverse power law scaling has been devised for operative life estimation based on accelerated laboratory test data extrapolation. Derived from the Coffin-Manson's model of fatigue life, this analytical solution however is not capable in addressing probabilistic nature of fatigue. This paper is aimed to provide further insight into the operative life estimation of carbon steel stub axle using parametric models derived from integration of inverse power law stress-life model and probabilistic fatigue life distributions. Maximum likelihood estimation is applied in deriving the parameters of the parametric models and PSN curves are obtained from reliability function of accelerated laboratory test data. PSN curves at operative life as well as any life region can be estimated based on inverse power law acceleration factors. The procedures presented in this study can be applied in estimating the probabilistic fatigue life curves at an accelerated pace resulting in shortened development cycles.