Izni Syahrizal Ibrahim

• B.Eng (Civil) UTM, M.Eng (Structure) UTM, PhD (Civil) Nottingham
• Professor (Associate) at University of Technology Malaysia

Concrete structure damage and severity are determined by examining the width of cracks in various forms. This categorisation of cracks is based on their specific types, which is crucial for engineers and professionals. It allows them to efficiently prioritise maintenance and repair efforts, extending the lifespan of concrete structures. Thus, the c...

3D concrete printing represents a modern trend in construction automation, characterized by the layer-by-layer deposition of concrete using 3D printers to construct structures without traditional formwork. This process alters the rheological behavior, microstructure, mechanical properties, and durability of 3D-printed concrete compared to conventio...

This research focuses on the task of Masonry Wall Crack Identification using limited data, employing state-of-the-art Convolutional Neural Network (CNN) models. The models investigated include VGG16, MobileNetV2, Xception, and DenseNet121. The dataset, consisting of 946 masonry wall images containing cracks, is used to evaluate the effectiveness of...

A grouted sleeve’s efficiency in splicing steel bars makes it a potential choice for connecting precast elements. While most studies have focused on the feasibility of grouted sleeves under tension, only a few have investigated the real response of precast concrete members connected using grouted sleeves. In this study, Tapered Head Sleeves (THS) w...

Purpose This review paper seeks to enhance knowledge of how pre-loading affects reinforced concrete (RC) beams under fire. It investigates key factors like deflection and load capacity to understand pre-loading's role in replicating RC beams' actual responses to fire, aiming to improve fire testing protocols and structural fire engineering design....

A grouted sleeve is a mechanical coupler used to join steel bars. It can be used to join precast concrete walls. Most grouted sleeves are pricey proprietary products. This study investigated the behaviour of a grouted sleeve made of steel pipe sections. The grouted sleeve was used as a wall panel connection. The specimens were subjected to three ty...

This study introduces a pioneering system for real-time classification and measurement of concrete surface cracks, a crucial aspect of Structural Health Monitoring (SHM). We harness the power of transfer learning (TL) in Convolutional Neural Networks (CNNs), including renowned models such as MobileNetV2, EfficientNetV2, InceptionV3, and ResNet50. N...

Deep learning (DL) has grown in popularity in civil inspection, notably for crack diagnosis, as a means of guaranteeing the long-term stability and security of concrete structures. It is critical to identify cracks to conduct inspections and assessments while preserving the existing concrete frameworks. This article reviews and analyses existing li...

This paper aims to investigate the effect of incorporating optical fibre on the concrete compressive strength by varying the fibre diameter and fibre grid (spacing) in light-transmitting concrete (LTC). Optical fibres made of polymethymethacrylate (PMMA) are used as translucent material for the production of LTC. The fibre diameters considered are...

This study investigated the effect of using waste crumb rubber as a partial replacement for the fine aggregates on the fresh and hardened properties of normal mix concrete. Waste crumb rubber with particles sizes of 2 mm–4 mm was supplanted in the mix design of the concrete as part of the fine aggregates. Three different percentages of waste crumb...

Detecting cracks on concrete surfaces is a crucial task in civil engineering inspections, but it poses significant challenges due to the small and concealed nature of cracks. Visual detection is particularly difficult on uneven or rough concrete surfaces. To overcome these challenges, our research focuses on developing an automated system that util...

A structural health assessment of the tunnel lining is carried out to investigate and mitigate the cause of defects in the tunnel lining to ensure user safety. Many factors affect the tunnel's integrity, causing a wide range of defects. Identifying the possible cause and its relation with the degree of associated defect is essential for tunnel stab...

Consideration of fiber configuration and the distance between the light source or light meter and the LTC specimen in the previous studies is still limited. The incorporation of plastic optical fiber (POF) into concrete with fiber configurations of 5 ´ 5 and 6 ´ 6 grids is investigated in terms of short wall panel application to study its light int...

For the goal of construction simplicity, when considering the addition of an intermediate diaphragm (ID) to the bridge deck construction, particularly for beam-to-slab bridges, the majority of engineers were found to be passive. This took place as a result of the perception that ID does not significantly contribute to improving structural capacity,...

Vibration in bridges occurred due to several factors such as structural design, environmental loadings, and loading characteristics (speed parameter, loading patterns, and configuration of axles). If this problem is prolonged for several years, this may lead to stages of failure such as structural cracking, fatigue on structural members, excessive...

Residential colleges are where students spend a significant amount of time at university. The university’s maintenance team must keep the building facilities in good condition to ensure the safety and comfort of the students and staff as well as to protect the university’s reputation. However, with today’s economic challenges, management frequently...

This study investigated the behaviour of grouted sleeve connectors under shear loads. Tapered Head Sleeve (THS) connectors were fabricated from mild steel pipes. Five test specimens and a control specimen were produced. Each test specimen comprised two walls, which were connected by THS. An incremental shear load was applied at the joint until the...

Light incidence angle is an important parameter to Light-transmitting Concrete (LTC), especially when it is used for building materials exposed to sunlight. Yet, there is a lack of deeper understanding on the performance of LTC when light incidence is encountered with different angles. This study covers the synergistic effect of light incidence ang...

This paper presents the design and analysis of hybrid method adhesion mechanism of the Wall Climbing Robot (WCR) by using online Computational Fluid Dynamic (CFD) software SIMSCALE. The simulation is focused on the investigation of the air flows and negative pressure region inside the chamber while calculating the adhesion force by varying the gap...

Constant need-for-change in the construction market and social trends has resulted in the demand for more adaptable building systems. The ability to practise and accommodate change has consequently become a new necessity for buildings. Adaptability, therefore, is to be considered in both the pre-construction stage and the entire life cycle of the c...

In this study, the timber beam was strengthened at the shear span with intermitted glass fiber reinforcement polymer (GFRP). The effect of different numbers of GFRP strips, different orientation angles of GFRP strips to the principal axis of the beam, and different warping schemes of GFRP strips on the performance of the timber beam under flexural...

This paper evaluated feasibility of using the waste rubber tire crumbs (WRTCs) as partial replacement for the natural aggregates in production of alkali-activated rubberized concrete (AARC). Numerical model calculations using the neural network technique were performed to evaluate the overall performance of the proposed rubberized concretes in term...

In this study, a series of experimental tests on untreated species of Bambusa Vulgaris Vittata (BV), Bambusa Heterostachya (BH) and Schizostachyum BrachycladumYellow (SB) were conducted to investigate the effect of strip’s shape, bamboo’s types, and moisture content on the tensile strength of bamboo strip. Four different cutting shapes, which are s...

Buildings deteriorate gradually over time due to several reasons, including unattended defects, neglected damage, and natural causes. Hence, maintenance activities are required to impede the deterioration process to ensure the continuous function of the buildings. Maintenance is a systematic process to safeguard features and resources operated at o...

Effects of different surface textures on the interface shear strength, interface slip, and failure modes of the concrete-to-concrete bond are examined through finite element numerical model and experimental methods in the presence of the horizontal load with ‘push-off’ technique under different normal stresses. Three different surface textures are...

This paper presents several types of condition assessment metrics that were used by previous literatures. The condition assessment metrics are developed to supports decision making for stakeholders in accomplishing the maintenance priority and proposed budget driven. These condition assessments have both advantages and disadvantages to support the...

The consumptions of artificial light especially in urban area leads to carbon footprints and global warming. The introduction of light-transmitting concrete (LTC) enables light to be transmitted through opaque concrete and reduces building energy consumptions. The aesthetic value and the light transmittance properties of LTC attracted the attention...

Biaxial behavior of various types of concrete is essential to be considered in construction design because construction structures normally experience multiaxial stresses rather than uniaxial stress. Research on biaxial behavior of steel fiber-reinforced concrete (SFRC) has been conducted in the past decades. Most of the research, however, is only...

The standard guideline for Building Condition Assessment (BCA) [7] has been introduced by Public Work Department of Malaysia to manage the government’s building in Malaysia especially in Peninsular Malaysia. Whereby, BCA has never been implemented in Public Work Department of Sabah. Since there is so many buildings need to be maintained especially...

The autonomous crack healing process using microbiologically induced calcium carbonate precipitation (MICP) is a sustainable alternative to overcome propagation of micro-cracks and restore the durability of concrete. This paper presents the potential use of tropical soil bacteria as a self-healing agent for fly ash concrete. A solution of 10 ⁷ cell...

Eucheuma Cottonii is a sea plant that commonly known as seaweed grows abundantly and part of the products in agricultural industries. The effects of alginate from seaweed benefited the properties of composites due to its advantage as a hydrophilic gelling material. This paper investigates the effects of Eucheuma Cottonii in polymer modified concret...

As one of the fastest growing plants on earth, bamboo has a lot of species that range in size from a few centimeters to many meters tall. Bamboo is a unique plant where it can reach their full height up to 30m in a period of 2 to 4 months. Even though bamboo has been used traditionally as a construction material for thousands of years, there are no...

The end region of the dapped-end beam experienced multiaxial stress actions, which requires high amounts of reinforcement and this resulted to the closely space reinforcement. Therefore, hooked-end steel fibres were mixed into all beam specimens to partly replace the secondary shear and bursting reinforcement to reduce the congestion issue. A serie...

This paper provides an overview on the development of Light-transmitting Concrete (LTC). Concrete is improved in terms of transparency by installing optical fibres into the concrete. The application of LTC in building enables light transmission, which reduces light energy consumptions and carbon footprint, providing a more sustainable living enviro...

This paper aims to examine the effect of cellulose nanocrystals (CNCs) derived from oil palm empty fruit bunch fiber (EFB) incorporating cement mortar on its structural performances. Cellulose nanocrystals (CNCs) were extracted from α-cellulose extracted from EFB using an acid hydrolysis process with a concentration of acid used was 64% w/v under t...

Tunnels after serving period of time, need to be inspected and maintained for them to perform without any structural failure and posing no hazard to the ongoing traffic. Structural visual assessment of operational tunnel is carried out to understand and mitigate the cause of distress in tunnel lining. This paper focuses on the visual health assessm...

Pore forming agent is widely used in clay brick making process whether originally organics or inorganics materials which can improve thermal insulation facing global warming issue. Many researchers trigged to discover the thermal insulation materials since the past decade due to responsibility to develop a comfort living demand for heating or cooli...

The Sultan Ibrahim Reservoir located at Gunung Pulai catchment area was previously managed by the Singapore’s Public Utilities Board before the Board handed over the reservoir to Johor State Government under current management of the Syarikat Air Johor. At the present time, the Syarikat Air Johor is operating a Gunung Pulai Water Treatment Plant co...

This paper presents a comparative study of methods building condition assessment used in Asian countries. The following methods were compared: a Malaysia method to assess buildings condition, an Indian, Hong Kong and Singapore method about buildings condition assessment and the assessment methods. The comparative analysis included three tasks. Firs...

Seaweed is one of the natural sources usually use in industrial food, cosmetic, pharmaceutical and fertiliser. A natural polymer material such as seaweed is found to have excellent bonding mechanism and also the critical factor to achieve sustainability. Malaysia is also rich with seaweed species like Eucheuma Cottonii. The future study was carried...

The Malaysian construction industry significantly contributes as an empowerment to its development vision of 2020 by reducing up to 40% of carbon emission. Moreover, the industry accounts as threat to the environment, not only in terms of natural resources consumption but also in emitting million tons of carbon emission annually. In fact, Malaysia...

Bamboo is a naturally available construction material and one of the fastest growing plant compared with the tree, which increases its suitability to be used as a sustainable source for wood industry, especially in construction works. Due to the lack of understanding on bamboo properties and lack of design standard, the utilization of bamboo in con...

Building condition assessment (BCA) is an assessment that provides the information of deficiencies of the property to support the decision-making and management of its maintenance and rehabilitation. This paper presents the execution of BCA on heritage building, namely Balai Zaharah in Johor Bharu to obtain its rating. The BCA was conducted based o...

Due to advances in technology of materials, substitution of steel reinforcement with steel fibre becomes one of the possible solution for reducing the congestion of transverse reinforcement in concrete’s element structures. Previously, there are various researches done on laboratory work to investigate on mechanical behaviors such as tensile streng...

Utilisation of waste product as a construction material is received encouraging response worldwide. "Waste to wealth" has hit of waste reused that in line with Malaysia Green Technology Master Plan 2017-2030, that promoted on green and sustainable concept in a construction industry. Cement is widely used as a construction material due to its excell...

This paper provides general overview on the development of biaxial behaviour of plain concrete and steel fibre reinforced concrete (SFRC) under various types of loading conditions, namely, biaxial compression, biaxial tension-compression and biaxial tension. The biaxial behaviour including failure envelope, ultimate strength, failure mode and stres...

This paper present the results of combined bending and shear test on composite slabs reinforced with steel fibres in-situ concrete topping. The mechanical properties of steel fibre reinforced concretes (SFRCs) were first determined by varying the fibre dosage from 0% to 1.25%. The result shows that there was not much improvement on the SFRC propert...

This paper presents the effect of surface roughness (smooth and rough) and surface condition (ponded and optimum wet) on the bending capacity of precast prestressed hollow core slabs with in-situ concrete toppings by a series of full-scale experimental tests. Interface slip was also measured throughout the test to observe the composite behaviour of...

A research had been done to study the stress-strain relationship of fibre reinforced concrete (FRC) exposed under elevated temperature. The FRC used were single fibre concrete and hybrid fibre concrete which is combination of two different properties of fibres i.e. steel (SF) and polypropylene (PPF) by applying fibres volume fraction at 1.5%. At th...

Concrete is a material that is good in compression but weak in tension. Enhancing the tensile properties of concrete will lead to its greater application in construction. It was reported that improvement on the mechanical properties of reinforced concrete structure can be achieved by the inclusion of short fibres. The use of short steel fibres have...

The numerical behaviour of steel fibre reinforced concrete (SFRC) corbels reinforced with different fibre volume ratio subjected to vertical incremental load is presented in this paper. Precast concrete structures had become popular in the construction field, which offer a faster, neater, safer, easier and cheaper construction work. The constructio...

This paper presents a case study on the structural assessment of building damaged by fire and discussed on the site investigations and test results prior to determine the existing condition of the building. The building was on fire for about one hour before it was extinguished. In order to ascertain the integrity of the building, a visual inspectio...

This paper presents an experimental study of a new grouted splice connection for wall panels, called Welded Bar Sleeve (WBS). The connections were made from steel pipes and tested with incremental tensile, shear and flexural loads until failure. The aim is to determine the behaviour of the connection under the three load cases. For this, the connec...

This paper discusses the experimental results on the flexural test of concrete containing different proportions of steel fibre (SF) and polypropylene fibre (PPF). The flexural test was carried out under 4-point bending load and followed the relevant standards to FRC. Hooked-end deformed SF fibre with 60 mm length and fibrillated virgin PPF fibre wi...

Polymer modified concrete or mortar is an alternative to the advancement of long serving civil engineering material - mortar and concrete. The excellence and promising benefits of modified composites have led to numerous progressive studies of its application. This paper presented a critical review from previous research on the polymer modified con...

In typical precast construction practice of floor slabs using precast concrete hollow core unit (HCU), insitu concrete is cast on top of the HCU to obtain smooth and even floor finish. The surface of the HCU is seldom given proper treatment prior to casting the concrete topping. The texture and surface moisture condition of the HCU just before rece...

An experimental study had been carried out to investigate the mechanical properties, expansion and shrinkage of fibre reinforced concrete composite (FRC). However, instead of using single type fibre of either steel (SF) or polypropylene (PPF), this study also combined the two types in one mix.The mechanical properties investigated in this study inc...

The rise of extensive research and development on the application of steel fibre inside concrete is a tremendous topic in the last few decades. The obvious benefits of adding steel fibre inside concrete can be seen from the improvement of the mechanical properties of steel fibre reinforced concrete (SFRC). The improvement of the mechanical properti...

This study tests grouted splices connected by two types of sleeves, namely Welded Bar Sleeve (WBS) and Tapered Head Sleeve (THS). These sleeves are made from non-proprietary pipe sections, where (a) WBS is fabricated by welding the deformed bars to the inner wall of the pipe, and (b) THS is made tapered with smaller openings at both ends. To study...

Fibre reinforced concrete (FRC) has been found to improve strength, ductility, toughness, and durability of the structures. The application of FRC includes tunnel lining, ground slab, façade and many more. However, when exposing them to high temperature such as fire, there is still little information on the impact on its mechanical properties. The...

Grouted connections are defined as the system used to join steel rebars available in precast components by means of grouting the splice sleeve and steel rebars together. The bond between the infill material and the steel bar is the key factor that governs the capacity and the performance of the connection. This study was carried out to investigate...

Precast concrete building system has gained its popularity in Malaysia because of the many advantages such as high quality of structural components, less labour intensive at the construction site, and shorter completion time of a project. One of the constraints in precast concrete structures is to ensure that the connections are strong enough to en...

Many structural failures in precast concrete buildings are initiated by connection failures. To avoid such failures, the connections should have enough strength to join the reinforcement bars between precast concrete panels. This paper presents the structural performance and behaviour of a proposed splice sleeve connection using generic steel pipe....

Graphical abstract Abstract Composite concrete consists of two elements cast at different times which are the concrete base and concrete topping. To achieve composite action, interface shear strength must be sufficient to resist the sliding motion between the two concrete surfaces in contact. The interface shear strength is mainly depended on concr...

This paper discusses the experimental results on the mechanical properties of hybrid fibre reinforced composite concrete (HyFRCC) containing different proportions of steel fibre (SF) and polypropylene fibre (PPF). The mechanical properties include compressive strength, tensile strength, and flexural strength. SF is known to enhance the flexural and...

Eurocode 4 design provisions specify two methods for the design of composite slabs, namely the m-k and the partial shear connection (PSC) methods. Currently, the m-k method includes the concrete thickness and the shear span of the slab as variables while the PSC method does not. This has resulted in a better accuracy for the m-k method when slabs w...

This paper presents the experimental results and discussed the feasibility of adding hooked-end deformed type steel fibre (SF) and fibrillated type virgin polypropylene fibre (PPF) in concrete. A number of tests are conducted to investigate the fresh and hardened state properties of hybrid fibre reinforced composite concrete (HyFRCC) such as concre...

This paper presents the experimental result on the shear capacity of composite slab reinforced with steel fibre concrete topping. Experimental test is carried out on 75 composite slab specimens reinforced with various steel fibres volume fractions in the concrete topping. The type of steel fibres is varied to determine the suitable type to be appli...

This paper discusses the experimental results on the mechanical properties of hybrid fibre reinforced composite concrete (HyFRCC) containing different proportions of steel fibre (SF) and polypropylene fibre (PPF). The mechanical properties include compressive strength, tensile strength, and flexural strength. SF is known to enhance the flexural and...

The conventional bar lapping approach to connect steel bars requires long development length and always leads to bar congestion problems. For this reason, grouted splice connectors are used to confine the grout surrounding the bars to improve the bond between the grout and the bars. Four series of specimens with a total of 35 specimens were tested...

The aim of this study is to establish a reliable equation to estimate the strength of in situ concrete from the results of a new non-destructive testing method that depends on measurements of the drilling penetration speed. Some previous studies used the same technique to determine the strength of other construction materials, such as rocks or marb...

This paper presents the experimental results on the strength of shear key connection in precast concrete construction. The use of shear key is to connect two separate precast components to increase the shear resistivity of the joint surfaces. The proposed shear key shape in this study comprises of triangular, composite rectangular, semi - circle an...

Fibres in concrete provide a means of arresting crack growth. Short discontinuous fibres have the advantage of being uniformly mixed and dispersed throughout the concrete. In this study, the mechanical properties of hybrid fibre reinforced composite concrete (HyFRCC) were investigated by combining polypropylene (PP) and steel fibres (ST). Polypropy...

The objective of this paper is to presents experimental results on the composite slab reinforced with steel fibre compared to prefabricated welded wire mesh in concrete topping; subjected to applied shear load. In order to achieve the objective, 24 composite slabs reinforced with different types and amounts of steel fibres were prepared. At the sam...

Distribution system is critical links between the utility and the nuclear installation. During feeding electricity to that installation there are power losses. The quality of the network depends on the reduction of these losses. Distribution system which feeds the nuclear installation must have a higher quality power. For example, in Inshas site ,...

In the past few decades, design development of high performance machines and devices encouraged industries to utilize advanced materials such as polymers. Special mechanical features of polymer materials such as high strength to weight ratio and etc have increased scientists demands to investigate the nonlinear behaviour of polymers. One of the cha...

In the past few decades, underground railway systems as one of the accepted transportation system have become an integral part of populated cities, and consequently developing advanced structure to speed up the tunnels construction process become vital. Ceiling collapse is defined as the major failure in construction of tunnels that need to be conc...

Improve stability and reliability of machine components has confirmed the necessary needs of using advance materials such as polymers and composites. Specific characterization of polymer materials can improve the altitude of products design by increasing the mechanical feature of structures such as high fatigue strength, longer life and etc. Polyme...