Institution of Engineers Malaysia's Journal

8/10/2019 Institution of Engineers Malaysia's Journal

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1 Exploring the Barriers and Driven Factors in Implementing

Building Information Modelling (BIM) in the Malaysian

Construction Industry: A Preliminary Study

by Zahriza Zakaria, Nasly Mohamed Ali, Ahmad Tarmizi Haron,

Amanda Marshall Ponting and Zuhairi Abd Hamid

11 Bifurcation Behaviour of the Buck Converter

by Ir. Dr Ng Kok Chiang, Dr Nadia Tan Mei Lin and

Dr Michelle Tan Tien Tien

24 Novel Bimetallic Tin-Manganese Oxides/Carbon Nanotube

Nanocomposite and Their Charge Storage Properties

by Ir. Dr Ng Kok Chiang, Ms. Siew Shee Lim and Dr Chuang Peng

40 Numerical Simulation of the Decay of Grid-generatedTurbulence in a Shock Tube

by Mohammad Ali Jinnah

49 Guideline for Authors

51 Referees Form

Vol. 75, No. 1, June 2014KDN PP5476/10/2012 (030203) ISSN 0126-513X

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Journal The Institution of Engineers, Malaysia (Vol. 75, No. 1, June 2014) 1

Exploring the Barriers and Driving Factors in ImplementingBuilding Information Modelling (BIM) in the Malaysian

Construction Industry: A Preliminary Study

(Date received: 02.05.13/Date accepted: 20.12.2013)

Z., Zahrizan1; Nasly, Mohamed Ali1; Ahmad, Tarmizi Haron1; Amanda Marshall-Ponting2; and Zuhairi, Abd. Hamid3

1Faculty of Civil Engineering and Earth Resources, Universiti Malaysia Pahang, Gambang, Kuantan2School of Build Environment, University of Salford Manchester, Salford, United Kingdom

3Construction Research Institute of Malaysia (CREAM),

Construction Industry Development Board (CIDB), Cheras, Kuala Lumpur

E-mail: [email protected]; [email protected]; [email protected];[email protected]; [email protected]

ABSTRACT

In Malaysia, Building Information Modelling (BIM) has recently gained attraction from construction players and

some of them have applied it to several projects. By utilising the BIM process, the construction players have the

opportunity to plan, coordinate and design in an integrated approach. This is one of the many benets that they could

gain and resulting in increased productivity. Despite these benets, the implementation of BIM in the Malaysian

construction industry is still lagging behind Singapore, for instance. Thus, it warrants a study such as the present to

determine what are the actual barriers that hamper its implementation and what are the driving factors that could

enhance its pace of implementation in the Malaysian construction industry. In this study, a questionnaire survey

based on Convenience Sampling Method was carried out to gather the possible barriers and driving factors for

BIM implementation among the Malaysian construction players. Additionally, Relative Importance Indices (RII)

were used to analyse the data obtained and to identify those barriers and driving factors for the implementation ofBIM in this country. Consequently, results of this study revealed that the main barriers for implementing the BIM

are: 1) Lack of knowledge about BIM, 2) Reluctance and/or no insistence shown by the Malaysian construction

industry players (Clients, Contractors and Consultants alike) on the use or implementation of BIM. The driving

factors, on the other hand, that could lead to the speeding up of the implementation of BIM are: 1) Support and

enforcing the implementation of BIM by the Government, 2) promote BIM training program and 3) Initiatives of

senior management of the related industry players. In conclusion, for successful wide spread application of BIM

in Malaysia, a good push from the government alone is far from enough. All other construction industry players

mentioned must assume their roles well in promoting the use of BIM in their construction projects.

Keywords: Building Information Modelling, BIM, Malaysian Construction Industry, Barriers, Driving Factors

1.0 INTRODUCTION

In Malaysia, the construction industry has been identied

as an area that plays an important part in contributing to the

Malaysian economy and contributes to approximately 3 to

5 percent of the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) annually

[1]. Although the Malaysian construction industry plays asignicant role contributing to the growth of Malaysias

economy, in the era of globalisation the Malaysian

construction industry needs to evolve. The Malaysian

construction industry must upgrade the current construction

approach, whether in terms of practice, management or

technology in order to be globally competitive because

since the 1960s, construction industry has not transformed

much in terms of technology or construction approach andstill depends on traditional approaches and relies heavily

on foreign labour [1 and 2].


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Z., ZAHRIZAN; NASLY, MOHAMED ALI; AHMAD, TARMIZI HARON;

AMANDA MARSHALL-PONTING; AND ZUHAIRI, ABD HAMID

Journal The Institution of Engineers, Malaysia (Vol. 75, No. 1, June 2014)2

In order to improve the traditional approach in

the construction industry, Information Technology/

Information System (IT/IS) can be utilised to increase the

productivities and transforms the Malaysian construction

industry. Researchers [3, 4 and 5] have discussed the

benets of IT/IS applications. The benets that could

be gained by implementing IT/IS are enhancing the

communication between parties, assisting in the decision

making process, sharing updated information and

accessing the information with ease [3, 4 and 5]. Realising

these benets, the government of Malaysia has been

promoting and pushing the industry to adopt and utilise IT/

IS in order to achieve the developed country status by the

year 2020 [6]. Despite the numerous benets that could be

gained by the construction industry, Stewart & Mohamed

[7] found that the construction industry in Malaysia still

lags behind other industries in terms of implementing IT/IS. This happens because the return in IT investments

does not seem to be attractive. There are numerous factors

to this and the objective of this paper is to explore the

barriers and the driving factors that could contribute to

implementing the new information technology especially

Building Information Modelling (BIM) in the Malaysian

construction industry.

2.0 BUILDING INFORMATION MODELLING

(BIM): AN OVERVIEWBIM can be viewed as a combination of advanced process

and technology that offers a platform for collaboration

between different parties in the construction project by

exploiting the uses of Information Technology (IT). In

the Malaysian construction industry, many construction

players regard BIM as a new technology because it is

not widely used. Traditionally, a 2D design that has been

approved for construction will be checked manually. This

method will consume time especially for complex designs.

This traditional method involves manually checking for

discrepancies in designs depending on the complexity

of the designs. BIM can be referred as the process of

creating and using 3D parametric computer-aided-design

(CAD) technologies for design that allows the exchanges

of information within a construction project team in a

digital format [8, 9, 10 and 11]. This model can be passed

digitally between consultants in the construction projects

and the more important thing is that the model that is

created using BIM has a pool of information and is enabled

with clash detection software to ensure coordination

[12]. This approach is not only faster, but can reduce thechance of human error to a minimum. This model can be

passed to the contractor for estimating and planning the

construction projects. In general, BIM can be viewed as

a single respiratory system that supplies and receives any

information in digital form related to construction projects.

3.0 THE CHALLENGES IN IMPLEMENTING

BUILDING INFORMATION MODELLING(BIM)

There are many benets that BIM can offer to the

Malaysian construction industry, especially in enhancing

the communication between different parties in

construction projects. BIM is able to streamline and

aids clear communication between client, consultant and

contractor in construction projects by providing a single

respiratory system for exchanging digital information in

one or more agreed format. Khanzode & Fisher [13] and

Azhar et al. [14] believe that, this approach can reduceerrors associated with inconsistent and uncoordinated

project documents because BIM is capable of carrying

information which are related to the building either

its physical or functional characteristics. Furthermore,

Kymmell [12] and Taylor & Bernstein [11] believed

that visualisation is one of the benets gained when

implementing BIM. The visualisation could help parties

that are involved in the construction projects to gain better

understanding of what they construct by creating detailed

3D view. Kymmell [12] added that one of the critical tasks

in Mechanical, Electrical and Plumbing (MEP) designis clash detection and without having good visualisation

tools, this task will consume time. Traditionally, in 2D

drawing, clash detection process is done by overlaying

2D plan drawings to visualize the location of the system

components in 3D space. However, by the exploitations of

3D parametric modelling between architect and structural

engineer, this task can be done within a short time and

is more accurate compared to traditional method. Other

benets that are gained by the utilisation of BIM are in

terms of cost estimating and planning and scheduling

when the information on BIM incorporated time and cost.

In terms of cost estimating, BIM can facilitate quantity

surveyor quantifying the cost and the material of the

projects in shorter time which can be reduced up to 80%

compared to traditional methods [14].

Despite the numerous benets from the utilisation of

BIM, review of literature also has identied the factors

impeded the pace in implementing BIM in construction

industry. Grifth et al.[15], OBrien [16] and Whyte &

Bouchlaghem [17] believe that, the failure to implement

new information technology (IT) in construction industryhappens because of technical issues rather than social

issues such as lack of technical expertise, the complexity


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EXPLORING THE BARRIERS AND DRIVING FACTORS IN IMPLEMENTING BUILDING INFORMATION

MODELLING (BIM) IN THE MALAYSIAN CONSTRUCTION INDUSTRY: A PRELIMINARY STUDY


of the system and lack of support system. However,

Ruikar et al.[18] and Rojas & Locsin [19] have a different

view where they believe that people also play a part as the

major barrier to implementing new IT in the construction

industry. Martinko et al. [20] added that, the failure in

changing people behaviour to handle new tools is the

most prominent factor of why people are reluctant to

adopt new technology. A survey done by Khemlani [21]

revealed that the primary obstacles in implementing BIM

is the resistance from employees who are reluctant to learn

something new and challenges because of their beliefs and

complacency with current status.

Meanwhile, Stephenson, P. & Blaza, S. [22] and Love

et al. [23] added, besides the factors of technology and

people, the failure in implementing new technology is

because of organisational problems. Some organisations

are reluctant to change their business process becausethey are afraid that by changing their business process,

it involves cost and jeopardises their established process

because they cannot accept the uncertainty. Some people

in that organisation feel that the technology will take over

their roles and feel anxiety towards changes especially

when new technology is involved and this happens

because not many managers understand how to manage

technological change. Many organisations believe that

implementing BIM will affect their established business

processes because implementing new technology will

reshape their business processes and during this process,

productivity will suffer because the transition process from

fragmented to collaborative in nature will put the project

outcomes and clients expectations at risk [24].

To reduce the resistance from people to change,

support from top management is very crucial [25] because

during the migration to a new technology, the role of

top management is very important to formulate the

strategies and direction of the organisation in adopting

new technology. This action shows the commitment of

the organisation in adopting new technology and it willmotivate their workers to implement new technology.

Motivation of the organisation is one of the approaches

to reduce the resistance from people. Motivation by the

organisation could be one of the factors to build up self-

condence to motivate individuals to use IT applications

[16]. According to Stewart & Mohamed [7] lack of

knowledge and skill in using the new technology could

lead to a hindrance of implementing new technology

besides contributing to low self-condence, therefore, a

proper training provided by the organisation could reduce

the resistance from people in the implementation. Trainingis one of the factors that could increase the pace in adopting

new IT, but according to Eastman et al.[9], it is hard to

guarantee that each person participating in the organisation

has the required technology and skill, therefore, the

organisation could establish a technical support group

to cater these problems and to solve any problems that

arise. This technical support group could disseminate their

knowledge among the staff within an organisation and

this activity could spread the spirit of knowledge sharing

among them. Support from the authority also plays a

signicant role to promote the implementation of new IT.

The authority could come out with an interactive package

to any construction players who are willing to implement

new IT [26; 21 and 27].

On top of cost, compatibility and complexity of the

technology are also the factors that inuence the adoption

of new technology. Cost is a more subjective issue because

it requires external factors such as regulations imposed by

the government or clients. To increase the pace of adoptionof new IT, higher compatibility and more user-friendly

technology are the characteristics that the technology

must have [28] because, it is easy for people to accept and

use new technology if they are familiar with it. Besides,

the time required for training can be reduced.

4.0 METHODOLOGY

In this study, an exploratory survey was used to discover

and identify the relative importance of the barriers and

the driven factors in implementing Building InformationModelling (BIM) in the Malaysian construction industry

from the perception of clients, consultants and contractors.

The survey questionnaire consists of three sections. The

rst section was to identify the respondents prole.

The second section of the questionnaire focused on the

barriers factors in implementing BIM and the last section

of the questionnaire was designed to identify the relative

importance of the driving factors in implementing BIM.

In order to identify the relative importance of the

barriers in implementing BIM, there was a total of 15

variables used while to identify the relative importance

of the driving factors in implementing BIM, there was a

total of 19 variables used and these variables were grouped

into two categories: External Push and Internal Push. All

these variables were selected from the literature. The

respondents were asked to select their choices through

open-ended questions by ticking a column of the relative

importance of each of the question. A ve-point Likert

scale ranging from 1 which represented the least important

to 5 which represented the most important was being used

to capture the importance of the barriers and the drivingfactors in implementing Building Information Modelling

(BIM) in the Malaysian construction industry.


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Convenience sampling method was used although

this approach has its potential for bias. However, after

considering that this is a preliminary study, convenience

sampling was considered appropriate [29]. The samples

addresses were obtained from the company which

registered with Construction Industry and Development

Board (CIDB), a board of architects and engineers. The

questionnaire was distributed via email to the 150 potential

respondents at all levels in their organisations. Out of

the 150 potential respondents, 50 sets of questionnaire

were sent to clients, 50 sets to contractors and 50 set to

consultants.

As shown in Table 1, out of the 150 questionnaires that

were sent, 48 rms responded, thus, giving a response rate

of 32%. The response rate was considered average and

acceptable because according to Frohlich [30], the normal

average response rates for an organisational survey areabout 30 to 40 percent since the middle of 1990. Therefore,

considering that this is a preliminary study, the response

rate gathered from the clients, contractors and consultants

which was 32% was considered appropriate.

The low response from the respondents happened due

to their unawareness or they did not know of the existence

or the term, BIM, especially for clients (response rate of

8%) and contractors (response rate of 14%).

4.1 Method of Data Analysis

The RII was calculated using the following formula:

Where:

RII = Relative Importance Indices

Pi= Respondents rating

Ui= Number of respondents placing an identical

weighting/rating

N = Sample size

n= The highest attainable score (in this study nis 5)

The value for RII ranges from 0 to 1 and the factors which

scored the highest value of RII are the most important

factors.

5.0 FINDINGS AND DISCUSSION

5.1 Barriers in Implementing Building

Information Modelling (BIM)

Table 2 illustrates the relative importance indices and the

rank for factors that hinder the implementation of BIM in

the Malaysian construction industry by all respondents.From Table 2, the top ve most important factors that

hinder the implementation of BIM are (1) Lack of

knowledge about BIM (RII = 0.950), (2) Clients do not

request/enforce BIM (RII = 0.950), (3) Reluctance from

clients, contractors or consultants to implement BIM (RII

= 0.875), (4) BIM is not required by other team members

(RII = 0.838) and (5) Lack of data of Return on Investment

of BIM (RII = 0.833).

Lack of knowledge about BIM could contribute

to the resistance in implementing BIM because in the

construction industry it involves various parties. Without

signicant knowledge about BIM, each party is reluctant

to use BIM because they believe that new technology such

as BIM technology is difcult to learn and could increase

the operating cost. The lack of knowledge about BIM in

terms of benet to the operation and maintenance phase

in the projects life cycle has a signicant role on why

clients, consultants, contractors and others parties that

are involved in construction projects are reluctant to use

BIM in their construction projects. In addition, lack of

measurable data to measure the benets and return fromthe investments in information technologies also plays a

major role to their reluctance.

On the other hand, the three least important factors

that could hinder the implementation of BIM are (1) BIM

is too expensive (RII = 0.592), (2) Lack of training of

BIM software (RII = 0.608) and (3) BIM lacks features

or exibility to create a building model/drawing (RII

= 0.650). For the weakest factors, the respondents

believe that the cost to purchase the BIM technology is

not so expensive compared to the benets that can be

gained by utilising the BIM technology. On top of that,the respondents do not believe that BIM technology is

lacking the exibility to create a building model/drawing

compared to the traditional 3 dimensional modelling

(3D) such as AutoCAD. They found out that creating a

3D model is easier using BIM technology compared to

the traditional 3D [8]. The respondents also believed that

in the Malaysian construction industry, organisations are

willing to send their staff to undergo related training in

order to enhance their knowledge and skills, therefore,

lacking in BIM training is not a factor that could hinder

the implementation of BIM in the Malaysian construction

industry.

Respondents Questionnaire

distributed

Responses

returned

Percentage

of

responses

Clients 50 4 8%

Consultants 50 37 74%

Contractors 50 7 14%

TOTAL 150 48 32%

Table 1: Respondents Profle and Response Rate

(1)RII = PiUi

N(n)


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5.2 Driving Factors in Implementing Building

Information Modelling (BIM)

Table 3 shows a summary of the relative importance

indices and the rank of the variables that could increase thepace of implementing BIM identied by the respondents.

Table 3 also shows the relative importance indices of the

categories that could increase the pace of implementing

BIM. From Table 3, it can be found that the top ten

most important factors that could increase the pace of

implementing BIM are:

1) Support and enforcement in the implementation of

BIM by the government (RII = 0.950)

2) BIM training program (RII = 0.950)

3) Leadership of senior management (RII = 0.925)4) Provide a grant scheme for training BIM

(RII = 0.905)

5) Promotion and awareness road show about BIM

(RII = 0.892)

6) Collaboration with universities (Research

collaboration and curriculum design for students)

(RII = 0.879)

7) Incentive given by client such as tax reduction

(RII = 0.842)

8) Outsourcing BIM specialist (RII = 0.842)

9) Technical support (RII = 0.800)

10) Clients demand the application of BIM in their

project (RII = 0.792)

From the different categories of the factors that could

increase the pace of implementation of BIM in theMalaysian construction industry, the respondents generally

agreed that External Push (RII = 0.805) has a more

signicant role to speed up the pace of implementation of

BIM compared to the Internal Push (RII = 0.755).

The most important factors that could be the

driving factors in implementing BIM in the Malaysian

construction industry are 1) Support and enforcement

in the implementation of BIM by the Government

and 2) BIM training program where both scored RII =

0.950. This indicates that in the Malaysian construction

industry, government push is a must to implementing new

approaches. Having a strong support from the government

is vital and without the enforcement from the government

in the implementation of BIM in the Malaysian

construction industry, it will be slow or stagnant. Other

countries like the United Kingdom (UK), Australia, Hong

Kong and Singapore have implemented the use of BIM in

their construction industry through their governments. In

the UK for instance, the government is mandating BIM;

Australia is supporting BIM, Singapore enforces the use of

BIM as part of their policy and terms of contract and HongKong is assisting BIM [26, 21 and 27].

Table 2: Rank for Factors of Barriers

Factors why BIM is not being implemented in Malaysia RII Overall Rank SD

1 Lack of knowledge about BIM 0.950 1 0.437595

2 Existing CAD system fulls our need to design and draft 0.804 8 0.668106

3 BIM is too expensive 0.592 15 0.988408

4 Lack of training on BIM software 0.608 14 0.898186

5 BIM does not reduce the time used on drafting compared

with the current drawing approach

0.650 12 0.668437

6 BIM lacks features or exibility to create a building model/

drawing

0.650 13 0.437595

7 Clients do not request/enforce BIM 0.950 2 0.437595

8 BIM is not required by other team members 0.838 4 0.733869

9 Application of BIM will affect the current process practice 0.779 9 0.831292

10 Application of BIM will affect the current productivity 0.779 10 0.831292

11 Legal or contract issue 0.817 6 0.918679

12 Lack of working procedures and standards 0.675 11 0.86602513 Reluctance from Client, Contractors or Consultant to

implement BIM

0.875 3 0.761438

14 Lack of data of Return on Investment of BIM 0.833 5 0.753244

15 Software related (i.e.: ease of use) 0.808 7 0.988408


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Other roles that the government should do according

to the respondents are providing a grant scheme for BIM

training (the fourth most important factor with RII = 0.905),

conducting promotion and awareness road show about

BIM (the fth most important factor with RII = 0.892) and

giving tax reduction (the seventh most important factor

with RII = 0.842). The respondents believe that by having agrant scheme for training and by giving tax reduction, they

can increase the pace of implementing BIM. Previously,

the Construction Industry Development Board (CIDB) has

implemented this approach for contractors who implement

Industrial Building System (IBS) in their construction

projects [1] and this approach can also be used for those

who are implementing BIM in their construction projects.

This approach could attract the attention of construction

players.

The government through its representative bodies

such as CIDB could conduct awareness roadshow aboutBIM and promote the benets of BIM. This promotion

could spark the curiosity about BIM among construction

players. By having a series of awareness programme to

disseminate the knowledge of BIM, it can convey the

benets that can be gained by implementing BIM to the

construction players. The private sector could take part

in this promotion roadshow because involvements from

private sector also play a signicant role in speeding up

the process of adoption and implementation of BIM in theMalaysian construction industry.

Besides the push from the government and BIM training

program, leadership of senior management (the third

most important factor with RII = 0.925) has a signicant

impact to accelerate the pace of BIM implementation in

the Malaysian construction industry. Gilligan & Kunz

[25] found that the resistance to change from the senior

management is one of the factors why some organisations

are reluctant to utilise information technologies. Among

their excuses are, to implement new technology they need

to change their current organisational structure and processand it could jeopardise their productivities. This happens

because the senior management do not really understand

Table 3: Rank of Driving Factors

Factors that could increase the pace of

implementing BIM in Malaysia

RII Overall Rank Rank in

Group

SD

External Push 0.805

1 Clients willing to pay extra for BIM implementation 0.488 19 9 0.711793

2 Promotion and awareness road show about BIM 0.892 5 3 0.8240623 Incentive given by client such as a tax reduction 0.842 7 5 0.92157

4 Provide a grant scheme for BIM training 0.904 4 2 0.850271

5 Support and enforcement in the implementation of

BIM by the government

0.950 1 1 0.437595

6 Clients provide pilot project for BIM 0.763 12 7 0.981884

7 Collaboration with universities (Research

collaboration and curriculum design for students)

0.879 6 4 0.916505

8 Clients demand the application of BIM in their

project

0.792 10 6 0.797825

9 BIM required by other project team members 0.733 13 8 0.952786

Internal Push 0.775

1 Development of BIM department within an

organisation to monitor the application of BIM

0.700 16 8 0.989305

2 Require/hire BIM specialist 0.721 15 7 0.983688

3 Requirement for staff to be BIM competent 0.608 18 10 0.742576

4 Outsourcing BIM specialist 0.842 8 3 0.92157

5 An organisational structure that supports BIM 0.792 11 5 0.797825

6 Standardise work procedure for BIM 0.733 14 6 0.952786

7 Technical support 0.800 9 4 0.71459

8 BIM training program 0.950 2 1 0.437595

9 Continuous investment in BIM 0.683 17 9 0.646869

10 Leadership of senior management 0.925 3 2 0.703336


9/56




how to manage technological change. Having a strong

support from senior management could ease the process of

migration at any organisation, because this action shows

the commitment of the organisation in adopting new

technology and it will motivate their workers to implement

it. OBrien [16] revealed that, some people have low self-

condence especially related with implementing new

technology because the lack of knowledge, therefore

motivation by the senior management could be one of the

factors to build up self-condence to motivate individuals

to use new technology applications.

The respondents also believe that local universities

could play a major role in promoting BIM by providing

curriculum or course related to BIM, for example.

This is why collaboration with universities (Research

collaboration and curriculum designed for students) is

one of the important factors that could increase the paceof implementing BIM with RII score of 0.879. Having

a curriculum or course related to BIM could give the

students an idea of what BIM is in the early stage and

can produce students who are ready with 3D parametric

model. As we know, BIM technology in Malaysia is really

new, therefore there are many opportunities for university

researchers to conduct research related to BIM and they

could collaborate with the industry to identifying the

needs and the area for exploration. Collaboration with

local universities in research and development can be

done through research grants which are provided by the

government such as Exploratory Research Grant (ERGS)

or Science Fund.

Fox & Hietanen [31] added, one of the factors

the organisations fail to realise about the benet of

implementing new technology is the lack of training

provided by the organisation for their staff, and the level

and type of training should be based on the needs of

the organisation or individuals within an organisation.

Training is one of the factors that could increase the pace

in adopting new Information Technology (IT). In addition,Eastman et al. [9] found out, it is hard to guarantee that each

person participating in the organisation has the required

technology and skill; therefore, the organisation could

establish a technical support group to cater these problems

and to solve any problems arise. This technical support

group could disseminate their knowledge among the staff

within an organisation and this activity could spread the

spirit of knowledge sharing among them. Therefore, the

respondents believe that by outsourcing BIM specialist

(RII = 0.842) and having technical support team (RII =

0.800), it can complement the training program providedby the organisations.

6.0 CONCLUSION

Many evidence show that Building Information Modelling

(BIM) can enhance the construction performance but the rate

of implementation of BIM in the Malaysian construction

industry has been at a slow pace. A number of factors

that contributes to this situation are identied such as (1)Lack of knowledge about BIM, (2) Clients do not request/

enforce BIM and (3) Reluctance from clients, contractors

or consultants to implement BIM. These issues need to be

addressed accordingly if the government wants to see the

Malaysian construction industry able to compete globally.

Besides that, supports from the government also play a

signicant role to increase the pace of BIM implementation

in the Malaysian construction industry. However, by just

having a strong support from the government alone is not

practical; therefore, the Malaysian construction players

such as clients, consultants and contractors must playtheir own role by shifting the paradigm from using the

traditional approach into a more innovative approach. To

do this, the Malaysian construction industry needs the BIM

implementation strategy and guide to ensure both parties:

the government and the industry players work together to

ensure the success in implementing BIM in Malaysia. It

can be concluded that the construction industry in Malaysia

needs to evolve by upgrading the current construction

approach, whether in terms of practice, management or

technology in order to meet the global standard.

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Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, 2009.

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[3] Alshawi S., Irani Z. and Baldwin L., Benchmarking

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[6] Mastura Jaafar, T. Ramayah and Abdul-Rashid Abdul-

Aziz and Basri Saad, Technology readiness among

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2,pp. 180-191, 2007.

[7] Steward, R.A. and Mohamed, S., Integrated Information

Resources: Impediments and Coping Strategies in

Construction, Australian Centre for Construction

Innovation, University of New South Wales, 2003.

[8] Revit, White Paper: The Five Fallacies of BIM, REVIT

INC., 2008.

[9] Eastman, C., Teicholz, P., Sacks, R., and Liston, K., 2nd

Edition BIM Handbook: A Guide to Building Information

Modelling for Owner, Managers, Designers, Engineers,

and Contractors, John Wiley and Sons, Inc. New Jersey,

2011.

[10] McGraw-Hill Construction, Building Information

Modeling Trends Smart Market Report, McGraw-Hill,

New York, 2008

[11] Taylor, J.E., & Bernstein, P.G., Paradigm trajectories

of building information modelling practice in project

networks.ASCE Journal of Management in Engineering,

Vol. 25, No. 2, pp. 69-76, 2008.

[12] Kymmell, W., Building information modeling: Planning

and managing construction projects with 4D CAD and

simulations, McGraw-Hill, New York, 2008.

[13] Khanzode, A., and Fisher, M. (2000). Potential savings

from standardized electronic information exchange: A case

study for the steel structure of a medical ofce building.

CIFE Technical Report, No 121. Palo Alto, CA: Stanford

University.

[14] Azhar, S., Hein, M., and Sketo, B., Building Information

Modeling (BIM): Benets, Risks and Challenges,Proceedings of the 44th ASC Annual Conference, Auburn,

Alabama, April 2-5, 2008.

[15] Grifth, T. L., Zammuto, R. F. and Aiman-Smith, L.,

Why New Technologies Fail: Overcoming the Invisibility

of Implementation,Industrial Management, Vol. 41, No.

3, pp. 29-34, 1999.

[16] OBrien, W. J., Implementation Issues In Project Web

Sites: A Practitioners Viewpoint,Journal of Management

in Engineering, Vol. 16, No. 3, pp. 34-39, 2000.

[17] Whyte, J., Bouchlaghem, D. and Thorpe, T., IT

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[18] Ruikar, K., Anumba, C.J. and Carrillo, P.M., End-user

perspectives on use of project extranets in construction

organisations, Engineering, Construction and

Architectural Management, Vol. 12 No. 3, pp. 222-35,

2005.

[19] Rojas, E.M. and Locsin, S., Integrated practice: the road

ahead, Proceedings of the 2007 ASCE Construction

Research Congress, pp. 771-8, 2007.

[20] Martinko, M. J., Henry, J. W. and Zmud, R. W., An

attributional explanation of individual resistance to the

introduction of information technologies in the workplace,

Behaviour & Information Technology, Vol. 15, No. 5, pp.

313-330, 1996.

[21] Khemlani, L. (2005), CORENET e-plan check:

Singapores automated code checking system, AECbytes,

available at: http://www.aecbytes.com/

buildingthefuture/2005/CORENETePlanCheck.html

[22] Stephenson, P. and Blaza, S., Implementing technological

change in construction organisations, Proceedings of the

IT in Construction in Africa conference, Mpumalunga,

South Africa, 2001.

[23] Love, P. E. D., Irahi, Z., Li, H., Cheng, E. W. L. and

Tse, R. Y. C., An empirical analysis of the barriers

to implementing e-commerce in small-medium sized

construction contractors in the state of Victoria, Australia,

Construction Innovation, Vol. 1, No. 1, pp. 31-41, 2001.

[24] Taylor, J.E., & Levitt, R., Innovation alignment andproject network dynamics: An integrative model for

change, Project Management Journal, Vol. 38, No3, pp.

22-35, 2007.

[25] Giligan, B., & Kunz, J., VDC Use in 2007: Signicant

value, dramatic growth, and apparent business opportunity,

CIFE Technical Rep. No TR171. Palo Alto, CA: Stanford

University, 2007.

[26] Succar, B., Building information modelling framework:

A research and delivery foundation for industry

stakeholders,Automation in Construction, Vol. 18, No.

3, pp. 357-375, 2010.

[27] Teo Ai Lin, Evelyn and Cheng Tai Fatt, Building Smart

A Strategy for Implementing BIM Solution in Singapore;

Synthesis Journal Singapore, 2006 available at: http://

www.itsc.org.sg/pdf/5_BIM.pdf.

[28] Lederer, A. L., Maupin, D. J., Sena, M. P. and Zhuang, Y.,

The technology acceptance model and the World Wide

Web,Decision Support Systems, Vol. 29, No. 3, pp. 269-

282, 2000.

[29] Frey, L.R., Botan, C.H., Friedman, P.G., and Kreps,

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[30] Frohlich, T. M., Techniques for improving response rates

in Operations Management Survey Research, Journal of

Operations Management, Vol. 20, pp. 53-62, 2002.

[31] Fox, S., & Hietanen, J., Inter-organizational use of

building information models: Potential for automation,

informational and transformational effects, Construction

Management and Economics, Vol. 25, pp. 289-296, 2007.

PROFILES

ZAHRIZAN ZAKARIAstarted his career as an Engineer for a contractor company for 5 years after obtaining his

BEng (Hons) in Civil Engineering from Universiti Teknologi Malaysia (UTM) in 1999. He gained his Master Degree

in Civil from Universiti Malaysia Pahang in 2007 and appointed as a lecturer at Faculty of Civil Engineering and Earth

Resources, Universiti Malaysia Pahang (UMP) since then. Currently he was continuing his study at UMP at PhD level

in the eld of IT in construction focusing on Building Information Modelling. His research interest is within the area

of Strategic Management of IT in Construction; Culture and organisational issues related to construction companies;

Managing change and IT implementation; Social aspects of urban regeneration and sustainability.

NASLY MOHAMED ALIwas appointed as a Professor at the Faculty of Civil Engineering and Earth Resources,

Universiti Malaysia Pahang (UMP) since 2003. Before she joins UMP, she was a professor at Faculty of Civil

Engineering, Universiti Teknologi Malaysia (UTM). She obtained her Diploma in Civil Engineering from UTM in

1977. After graduated she appointed as Assistant Lecturer UTM. In 1980, she gained her rst class BSc (Hons) Civil

Engineering from University of Strathclyde. She was being offered to continue her study in PhD majoring in structural

at University of Strathclyde and obtain her PhD in 1986. Because of her passion in information system, she enrols as a

Master Degree student majoring in Information Technology Management at UTM and obtained her master degree in

2002. Her research interest and expertise are within the area of application of information systems for the construction

application; managing change and IT implementation; Finite Elements; Structural dynamic (wind engineering and

earthquake engineering) and prefabricated building construction.

AHMAD TARMIZI HARONcurrently attached at the Faculty of Civil Engineering and Earth Resources, Universiti

Malaysia Pahang (UMP) as a senior lecturer. He obtained her rst degree in BEng (Hons) in Civil Engineering

majoring in Construction Management from Universiti Teknologi Malaysia in 2003. After that he is pursuing his

Master in Construction Management at Universiti Teknologi Malaysia and gained his Master Degree in 2005. After

graduated from Universiti Teknologi Malaysia, he serves as lecturer at Universiti Malaysia Pahang from 2005 until

2007 before continue his study in PhD at University of Salford. He obtained his PhD in Building Information Modelling

from University of Salford in 2013. His research interest and expertise are within the area of IT in construction,

construction management, Culture and organisational issues related to construction companies; Managing change

and IT implementation. He actives in involving with local construction working committee such as appointed by

CIDB Malaysia as External Independent Reviewer for CIDB BIM Access Portal and as Research and Technical

Committee for Building Information Modelling for Industrialised Building System which is appointed by CREAM

CIDB Malaysia.


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ZUHAIRI ABD. HAMIDis the Executive Director of the Construction Research Institute of Malaysia (CREAM), a

research institute established under the Construction Industry Development Board (CIDB) which he joined in January,

2006. He has over 27 years of experience in the construction industry and started his professional career as a civil and

structural engineer with the Public Works Department of Malaysia in 1984. He has worked under various capacities

such as a road, bridge, building and district engineer, assistant director of planning, and a forensic and structural

design engineer. Later, in 1998 he joined CIDB as a senior manager at the Technology Development Division and was

then appointed to his current post at CREAM. He holds a B.Eng. (Hons.) Civil from Universiti Teknologi Malaysia, a

Masters Degree in Structural Dynamic Engineering from the Kanazawa University, Japan and a PhD in IT Construction

majoring in Healthcare Facilities Management from the University of Salford, United Kingdom. He is a Professional

Engineer (P.Eng.) in the Board of Engineers Malaysia, a Fellow of the Institution of Engineers, Malaysia (FIEM) and

also sits as a Board Member in the United Nation support International Research Council, CIB Conseil International

du Btiment (International Council for Research and Innovation in Building and Construction). He also serves as

construction industry advisor to UTM, UTHM, UNITEN, UPNM and UiTM.

AMANDA MARSHALL PONTINGcurrently attached at the School of Built Environment, University of Salford

as a senior lecturer. She obtained her rst degree in BSc (Hons) in Applied Psychology from Liverpool John Moores

University in 1999. She then gained her Master in Resources Informatics from University of Manchester in 2000 and

her PhD in nD modelling from University of Salford in 2006. Her actives in many international working committees

such developing Intel-City Roadmap Project and developing research links between the USA and the EU and funded

by the NSF (National Science Foundation, USA). Her research interest and expertise are within the area of application

of information systems in the Built Environment (GIS, VR, the internet, planning participation systems, multi-dimensional modelling); Culture and organisational issues related to construction companies; Managing change and

IT implementation; Social aspects of urban regeneration and sustainability.


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Bifurcation Behaviour of the Buck Converter


Ir. Dr Ng Kok Chiang*1, Dr Nadia Tan Mei Lin2, Dr Michelle Tan Tien Tien3

1

Leong Hing Sdn. Bhd., No. 1, Jalan P4/7, Seksyen 4, Bandar Teknologi Kajang, 43500 Kajang, Semenyih, Selangor, Malaysia2Universiti Tenaga Nasional, Jalan IKRAM-UNITEN, 43000 Kajang, Selangor, Malaysia3The University of Nottingham Malaysia Campus, Jalan Broga, 43500 Semenyih, Selangor, Malaysia

*Corresponding author: [email protected]

ABSTRACT

The bifurcation and chaos phenomena appeared in power system have become a focus subject at present. It

has become apparent about a decade ago that power converters exhibit various types of non-linear behaviour

which includes all kinds of bifurcations and chaos. Even basic DC/DC converters exhibit bifurcation and chaos

phenomena as well as parallel-connected DC/DC converters and PFC system. The main source of such non-linearity

is the switching mechanism of the converters. Non-linear components of the converter circuit and control scheme

such as the use of naturally-sampled, constant-frequency PWM further contribute to the non-linear behaviour of

converters such as a DC-to-DC buck converter. Thus, all feedback controlled power converters exhibit certain

non-linear phenomena over a specic breadth of parameter values. Despite being commonly encountered by power

electronics engineers, these non-linear phenomena are by and large not thoroughly understood by engineers. This

paper examines the bifurcation behaviour of the buck converter in an ideal case when the input voltage is varied.

The computer simulation scheme, PSPICE is employed to model the behaviour of the ideal buck converter. For

certain values of the input voltage, Vininstability occurs. The analysis and conclusion presented in this paper will

provide an overview of the bifurcation behaviour of the DC-to-DC buck converter, aspiring to draw attention of the

power electronics and the circuits and systems communities to a eld that is not often researched and examined.

Keywords: Bifurcation, Chaos, Non-linear Behaviour, Buck Converter

1.0 INTRODUCTION

The mechanisms of bifurcation and chaos are so complex

that there is not a unied criterion to identify them.Bifurcation is also known as the emergence of a further

pattern of behaviour or string of states for a system. It

can be thought of as a qualitative change in an attractors

structure when a control parameter is smoothly changed.

The qualitative change is followed by a change of the

stability in the attractor too [1]. A simple example

would be that of a xed attractor that might cave in to a

periodic oscillation, and a periodic attractor that might

become unstable and be replaced with a chaotic attractor

when stress on the system is increased. Successive

bifurcations are normally attained when the value of somecharacteristic parameter is increased. An analogy would

be that of a person walking down the road. The longer the

distance he travels, the more side streets or other routes

appear. In other words, bifurcation establishes history.

Knowledge of the paths taken or not taken would be

required to identify the state of the system at any point in

time. The existence of bifurcations is unavoidable in the

realm of nonlinear dynamical systems, which is beyond

the territory of circuitry. Rich bifurcation phenomena can

be found in power systems. An example would be the

oscillations and bifurcations due to the movement of the

dynamics of an electric power network towards its stability

boundary when the user demand for power arrives at its

peaks. Voltage collapse would probably be unavoidable.

Bifurcations exist in mechanical systems too [1-5]. Hopf

bifurcation may be present when a road vehicle understeering control loses its stability. In the worst case, the

development of chaos and hyperchaos might take place.


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IR. DR NG KOK CHIANG, DR NADIA TAN MEI LIN AND DR. MICHELLE TAN TIEN TIEN


Period-doubling bifurcations which would ultimately lead

to chaos may be experienced by a hopping robot even if

it is just a simple two-degree-of-freedom, exible, robot

arm. Bifurcations may also occur when an aircraft stalls

due to over a critical angle-of-attack, or reduction of speed

to be below a critical speed happens while in ight [1, 2,

5]. Vibration or wave frequencies that approximate to the

natural frequency of the machine can cause bifurcations

in the dynamics of aero-engine compressors, vehicles and

ships. This could also lead to disasters if the oscillations

and chaotic motions created by the bifurcations are not

controlled. Bifurcations are also observed in various elds

such as chemistry, (for example, in chemical reaction

and uid dynamics), weather dynamics and biological

population dynamics [1, 3, 5].

Thus, from the discussion above, it can be said that

bifurcations are ever-present in most physical systemseven when subject to controls. In many nonlinear systems,

including some closed-loop systems which have feedback

controls, do exhibit all types of bifurcation. It is surprising

that local instability and complex dynamical behaviour

exist in such controlled systems but in actual fact, this

can happen due to the poles movement of the closed-

loop transfer function over the stability border when the

feedback means of the system is not robust enough [1].

The signal divergence caused due to the movement of

poles when the control progress continues may eventually

lead to some local self-excited oscillations, bifurcations

and even chaos instead of a global unboundedness.

The popular automatic gain control loops and all other

types of controlled and uncontrolled pendula would be

among others examples of controlled systems where

complex behaviour can be observed [1, 3-5]. The three

typical types of bifurcation which are known as the co-

dimension-one bifurcations are the stationary, Hopf and

period doubling bifurcations. Such bifurcations are termed

co-dimension-one bifurcation due to the fact that there

may exist a number of control parameters for which netuning is necessary to obtain the bifurcations intended.

A stationary bifurcation involves the crossing of a single

eigenvalue over the border of stability. Hopf bifurcations

on the other hand involve the crossing of a conjugate pair

over the border of stability. A limit cycle bifurcates in the

time-continuous case. The imaginary part of the crossing

pair gives the angular frequency of the bifurcations. In

the discrete case however, a quasiperiodic bifurcation

orbit is normally obtained [1]. The bifurcation which is

possible in the discrete dynamical systems and absent in

the continuous systems is known as the period doublingbifurcation. In this bifurcation, the border of stability is

crossed by a real eigenvalue at period-1, while a period-2

orbit bifurcates at a period-doubling bifurcation point

[6-10]. The simulations carried out in this study seek to

identify the bifurcation points where the crossing of the

border of stability occurs and the type of bifurcations that

occur in the buck converter.

2.0 METHODOLOGY

The PSPICE Model for this study The PSPICE schematic

of the closed-loop voltage feedback buck converter

used in this study is depicted in Figure 1. The circuit is

very similar to that proposed by Fossas and Olivar [6].

The changes made in this PSPICE circuit however are

the replacement of one of the comparators with a gain

of 8.4 in the Fossas and Olivars paper with an ideal

multiplier, and a difference comparator which forms the

error amplier circuit of the buck converter. The switchedbuck converter circuit in this study uses a PWM integrator

circuit. The PWM circuit consists of the wave generator,

the error amplier and an innite gain comparator. The

PWM controls the ideal switch, S1and is the most complex

part of the switched regulator of the buck converter [6].

All the components used in this PSPICE model are ideal

components. Both the switches S1and S

2have zero on and

innite off resistance, and can switch instantaneously.

Both the S1 and S

2 switches work in a complementary

manner. When S1is on, S

2will be off and the input voltage

supplies energy to the load resistance and the inductor. Onthe other hand, when S

2 is off and S

1 is on, the inductor

current decays while owing through the switch S2and at

the same time transfers some of the stored energy to the

load resistor. The output voltage is controlled by setting

the frequency of the sawtooth generator to be of constant

switching frequency and by altering the on-interval of the

switch. The switch ratio which can be characterised as the

ratio of the on-time to the switching period is changed

through the PWM switching. As the switches turn off and

turn on in a complementary way, instantaneously allowing

bi-directional current ow, the discontinuous conduction

mode can be assumed to be avoided. Such mechanisms of

the switches also cater for the existence of light load levels

[6, 8-10].

Procedures in Obtaining the Waveforms for Bifurcation

Behaviour The value of Vinas the bifurcation parameter

in the PSPICE model of the buck converter in Figure 1

is varied throughout the series of simulations carried out

to obtain the bifurcation waveforms. The simulations are

carried out with other circuit parameters held constant. The

xed value parameters which include the reference voltageV

ref, the load resistor R, the inductor L, the capacitor C,

switching frequencyfof the ramp generator, and the ramp


15/56

BIFURCATION BEHAVIOUR OF THE BUCK CONVERTER


Figure 1: PSPICE Schematic of a Closed-loop Voltage Feedback DC-to-DC Buck Converter

upper and lower voltages are as summarised in the Table

1 below.

The input voltage Vinis varied from 20V to 40V and the

buck converter circuit is simulated at the different values

of Vin. The corresponding voltage and current waveforms

FFT spectrum, and trajectories (phase portrait diagrams)

are shown in the Discussion and Resultssection for all

cases from when the circuit started out in stable state

and progressed through to period-1, period-2, period-4,and thereafter to chaos via routes of period-doubling

bifurcation.

3.0 DISCUSSIONS AND RESULTS

In the present case, the output voltage is fed into an error

integrator. The difference comparator in the integrator

compares the output voltage with a reference voltage which

is chosen to be 11.3V. The difference between the two is

then input into the multiplier which would amplify the

output of the difference comparator by 8.4. A comparator

then compares the error integrator output voltage with

the output of the sawtooth generator. The switches S1and

S2are controlled by the output of the comparator. If the

magnitude of the sawtooth wave voltage is greater than

that of the error integrator output voltage, switch S1 is

turned on and switch S2is turned off. On the other hand,

when the sawtooth wave voltage is less than the integrator

output voltage, switch S1will be turned off and S2turnedon [6]. The output of the error integrator which has a gain

of 8.4 would be:

The discontinuous conduction mode does not occur, a

piecewise-linear vector eld described by two sets of

different differential equations can be used to represent

the buck converter modelled as in equations 2, 3, 4, and

5 [11-15].

i) Reference Voltage, Vref

11.3 V

ii) Load Resistor,R 22 ohm

iii) Inductor,L 20 mH

iv) Capacitor, C 47 F

v) Switching Frequency,f

(Period = 400 s)

2.5 kHz

vi) Ramp Upper Voltage, Vu 3.8 V

vii) Ramp Lower Voltage, VL

8.2 V

Table 1: Values of Fixed Circuit Parameters

of the Buck Converter

Equation 1vco

(t)= 8.4(v(t) Vref

)


16/56



When vco

(t) > vramp

(t)(i.e. S1is off and S2is on):

When vco

(t) < vramp

(t) (i.e. S1is on and S2is off):

where v is the voltage through the capacitor and I is the

intensity of the current in the inductor.

The sawtooth voltage is given by equation 6 below:

where VLand V

Uare the lower and upper voltages of the

sawtooth wave which are of the value 3.8V and 8.2V

respectively, and T is its period. The operation of the

buck converter can be seen from both points of view:autonomous system and nonautonomous system. Since the

sawtooth wave has an externally determined periodicity, it

is essentially a nonautonomous system.

The periodicity in this case would then be determined by

the number of triangular ramp wave cycles in a period

of the output waveform. Since the system of differential

equations is linear, the exact solution for each of the

differential equation is obtainable if the initial conditions

are set to be vo= v(t

o)and i

o= i(t

o).

Let and and given that:

The solution for the differential equations above would be

equations 7 and 8:

When vco

(t) > vramp

(t) (i.e. S1is off and S2is on):

When vco

(t) < vramp

(t) (i.e. S1is on and S2is off):

whereIis the identity matrix.

The input voltage Vinis chosen as the bifurcation parameter

for the study of the bifurcation behaviour of the buck

converter. The PSPICE model of the buck converter is

simulated for Vinbeing varied from 20V to 40V in steps

of 1V with the critical waveforms when changes occur.

Crucial information about the output voltage (which is

also the capacitor voltage), and the inductor current and

Fast Fourier Transform Spectrum are presented as follows

in their respective graphs.

When Vin= 20V, as can be seen from Figures 2 and3, the output voltage and the inductor current waveforms

in time domain are both periodic in nature, demonstrating

the period-1 stable operation of the buck converter. This

observation is further strengthened by its Fast Fourier

Transform (FFT) Spectrum shown in Figure 4 where

narrowband, discontinuous and isolated frequency

harmonics can be seen. As for the trajectory or the phase

portrait when Vin is equal 20V in Figure 5, a normal

period-1 loop is noticed [16-24].

The system continues to show period-1 behaviour

until Vinreaches 28V. At V

in= 28V, the system starts to

bifurcate into a period-2 domain. It can be clearly observed

from the output voltage waveform, the inductor current

waveform and the FFT spectrum waveforms in Figures

6, 7, and 8 respectively, where little hiccups can be seen

in the voltage output and the inductor current waveforms.

Moreover, the trajectory or the phase portrait when Vinis

equal to 28V shown in Figure 9 shows a two-branch loop

of a period-2 attractor [21, 23].

The period-2 bifurcation only lasted for a narrow range

of Vinvalue up to 32V. Beyond and including the thresholdof V

in= 32V, a period-4 bifurcation occurs. From the output

voltage waveform and the inductor current waveform that

are depicted in Figures 10 and 11, show the hiccups when

Vin= 28V to be worse here. However, the waveforms still

follow a general form of repetition [22]. The trajectory

has now bifurcated into a period-4 portrait where a double

image of the period-2 trajectory is observed as in Figure

13. Period-8 bifurcation lasts for the smallest range of Vin

values from Vin= 32.35V to V

in= 33V. Period-8 bifurcation

waveforms which is observed when Vinis set to be 32.35V

can be seen in Figures 14 to 17.

Equation 2

Equation 3

Equation 4

Equation 5

Equation 6vramp

(t) = VL+ (V

U V

L) t/T

Equation 7

Equation 8


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Figure 2: Output Voltage, VCat V

in= 20V

Figure 3: Inductor Current, ILat V

in= 20V

Figure 4: FFT Spectrum at Vin= 20V

Figure 5: Trajectory when Vin= 20V


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in= 28V


in= 28V




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in= 32V


in= 32V




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in= 32.35V


in= 32.35V

Figure 16: FFT Spectrum at Vin= 32.35V

Figure 17: Trajectory when Vin= 32.35V


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in= 33V


in= 33V




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in= 40V


in= 40V




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At Vin = 33V, the operation of the buck converter

moves into the chaotic region. Random, unsymmetrical

disjoint and aperiodic nature is evident in the waveforms

of the output voltage and the inductor current of the buck

converter as in Figures 18 and 19. The output voltage and

the inductor current waveforms do not follow a specic

form of repetition and are of random structures [24-28].

Furthermore, the Fast Fourier Transform Spectrum in

Figure 20, which has a continuous and broadband nature,

further emphasises that the buck converter is now operating

in the chaotic region. The trajectory however, exhibits a

strange attractor which signies chaotic behaviour [16,

18-20, 25-27]. Figure 21 shows the chaotic waveform

corresponding to Vin = 33V. To conrm that the buck

converter continues to operate in the chaotic region after

Vin= 33V, simulations when V

in= 40V was carried out

and as expected, the results obtained as depicted in Figures22 to 25 point to operation of the buck converter in the

chaotic domain.

4.0 CONCLUSION

Being one of the simplest of the DC-to-DC converters, the

buck converter is chosen to be the subject of this study

because of its widespread representation of the circuit

to many practical DC-to-DC converters. Also, due to

its extensive applications in industrial and engineering

applications, the knowledge of the system behaviour indifferent regions of parameter space should be crucial,

especially in designing the buck converter for sensitive

equipment. The bifurcation phenomenon and chaos in

the voltage mode controlled buck converter has been

investigated with the modelling and simulation of the buck

converter in PSPICE in this study. It has been found that

the buck converter system experiences the normal period

doubling bifurcations leading to a stepwise transition from

period-1 behaviour to chaos. Figures 5, 9, 13, 17, and 21

are phase portrait diagrams which show the progression of

the change from period-1 to period-2, period-4, period-8,

and lastly to chaotic operation of the buck converter

when Vin is varied from 20V to 33V. For low values of

the input voltage, the system is periodic, but as the input

voltage is increased the system bifurcates into period-2

orbit and subsequently into period-4 and period-8 orbits

when the input voltage is increased further. When border

collision occurs at a much higher input voltage, the system

inevitably moves into the chaotic region. The bifurcation

pathway that is observed involves that of smooth period

doubling. Period doubling bifurcation concerns the breakof symmetry as can be seen in the trajectory waveforms. It

is also known as the sudden appearance of a qualitatively

different behaviour when a parameter of the circuit is

changed. When period doubling recurs, an innite period

will ultimately lead to chaos. If bifurcations are under

appropriate control, they can be both important and

benecial.

There are still much to be pursued both in the study

of the non-linear behaviour of power electronics and the

development of more effective control strategies for these

behaviours. Following this study for example, future

work needs to be done on investigating the bifurcation

behaviour of the buck converter when other parameters

besides Vinare varied. Other parameters in the circuit such

as the load resistance,R, the inductance,L, the capacitor C,

the switching frequency,fand the amplitude of the ramp

voltage should be varied so as to enable the study of non-

linear effects they might have on buck converter operation.

The ultimate goal of all these studies on the non-linear

behaviour of the DC-to-DC converters is to gain adequateinformation and understanding of the system behaviour for

better design, functionality, reliability and performance of

the converters when operating in unstable modes or even

chaotically.

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PROFILES

NG KOK CHIANGgraduated from the University of Western Australia with rst class honours in Bachelor of

Engineering in Electrical & Electronics and Bachelor of Commerce majoring in Accounting, Investment Finance

(Derivatives), and Managerial Accounting. He then furthered his studies to the University of Nottingham, UK and

graduated with a PhD in Engineering having worked in the area of renewable energy and its storage for three and

a half years. Ir. Dr Ng Kok Chiang in his course of research and work had liaised with various organisations such

as E.ON (Power and Gas), Lockheed Martin, Jaguar/Land Rover (supercapacitors in automotive industry/electric

cars), Battelle (lab management and commercialisation), Malaysia Rubber Board (energy management, articial

intelligent, control, and electronics), and MOSTI (Fabrication of Advanced Supercapacitors). He is currently the

Chief Technology Ofcer of MyBig Sdn. Bhd. and a Professional Engineer with the R&D Centre at Leong Hing Sdn.

Bhd. involved in research and prototyping projects in collaboration with various Malaysian Government Agencies

and research bodies. Among the prominent solutions founded were the advanced switching mechanism in the Nexcap

storage to efciently capture minuscule trickle of charges, intelligent control systems incorporating power electronics

device, and the advanced Sunopy solar system.

NADIA TAN MEI LINwas born in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. She received the B.Eng. (Hons.) degree from the

University of Shefeld, Shefeld, U.K., in 2002, the M.Eng. degree from Universiti Tenaga Nasional, Kajang,

Malaysia, in 2007, and the Ph.D. degree from Tokyo Institute of Technology, Tokyo, Japan, in 2010, all in electrical

engineering. Since October 2010, she has been a Senior Lecturer in the Department of Electrical Power Engineering,

Universiti Tenaga Nasional. Her current research interests include power conversion systems and bidirectional

isolated dc-dc converters. Dr Tan is a Graduate Member of the Institution of Engineers, Malaysia (IEM), a Member

of the Institution of Engineering and Technology (IET), and a Member of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics

Engineers (IEEE).

MICHELLE TAN TIEN TIENis an Assistant Professor in the Department of Electrical & Electronic Engineering at

the University of Nottingham Malaysia Campus. She received her BEng. degree in Electrical & Electronic Engineeringat Swansea University, Wales, UK where she also completed her PhD on using one dimensional Zinc Oxide nanowires

for bio-sensing application. Michelles current research focuses on the synthesis and characterisation of nanomaterials

for bio-sensing applications, with emphasis on graphene, metal oxide and graphene/metal oxide composites. Besides

that, her research also focuses on incorporating graphene composites for application in critical and hard environments,

such as aerospace applications, of which is currently funded by the Ministry of Science Technology & Innovation

(MOSTI), Malaysia.


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Novel Bimetallic Tin-Manganese Oxides/Carbon NanotubeNanocomposite and Their Charge Storage Properties


Ir. Dr Ng Kok Chiang*1, Ms. Siew Shee Lim2, Dr Chuang Peng3

1R&D Centre, Leong Hing Sdn. Bhd., No.1, Jalan P4/7, Seksyen 4, Bandar Teknologi Kajang,

43500, Semenyih, Selangor, Malaysia2Department of Chemical and Environmental Engineering, Faculty of Engineering, University of No

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