1. Faculty of Mechanical Engineering UNIVERSITI TEKNOLOGI MALAYSIA
MKMO 1903 RESEARCH METHODLOGY Research Questions, Objectives, Methodology And Conclusions
Prof. Dr. Omar bin Yaakob
Faculty of Mechanical Engineering
UNIVERSITI TEKNOLOGI MALAYSIA

2. The failure to grasp the relationships between Problem Statement, Research Questions, Objectives, Methodology And Conclusions is common in proposals and thesis written by research students.
Unfortunately, I also found it in proposals submitted by university lecturers bidding for national research grant.
It is very important to make sure that Research Questions, Objectives, Methodology And Conclusions are directly related to each other. Each research question should be mapped to the objectives, and in turn the methodology should explain how to achieve the respective objectives. Finally the conclusions should follow, describing the attainment of the objectives.
The next few slides show how the above is applied to two HYPOTHETICAL/FICTIONAL research works. Everything about the work here including the citations are FICTIONAL.
Two “projects” are shown, both based on a similar general problem statement but branched into two specific problem statements, which lead to different purpose statements, research questions, objectives, methodology and conclusions.
©Omar Yaakob 2017

3. RESEARCH QUESTIONS, OBJECTIVES, METHODOLOGY AND CONCLUSIONS
Problem Statement
Purpose Statement
RESEARCH QUESTIONS
RQ1
RQ2
OBJECTIVES
OBJ1 – how to answer RQ1
OBJ2 - how to answer RQ2
METHODOLOGY
How to achieve objective 1?
How to achieve objective 2?
CONCLUSIONS
CONC 1
CONC 2
©Omar Yaakob 2017

4. Problem Statement Purpose of research
PROJECT 1: THE EFFECT OF VIRGIN COCONUT OIL ON THE PERFORMANCE OF DIESEL ENGINES
Much work has been carried out in improving the efficiency of diesel engines . These work have been summarised in Mark et al. (2016) and Kawashima et al. (2015). Among the methods proposed are the use of additives in the fuel . The use of vegetable oil as additives has been presented by Tim & Wang (2008), Selamat (2013), Musa & Reza (2013), Lim et al. (2017). They have used jathropa, palm oil, soya oil and corn oil., with varying degree of success. The maximum improvement was reported by Lim et.al who used corn oil in a medium speed marine engine and found a 10 % increase in efficiency.
Previous work on improvement of diesel engine performance has not studied the use of virgin coconut oil (VCO) which has been shown to have superior qualities as reported by Hashim et al. (2016). They used VCO to improve the combustion characteristics of a steam boiler. They found that the combustion characteristics was far superior with a reduction in harmful and carbon dioxide emissions. With such interesting findings, it is pertinent and timely to extend their work by investigating the use of VCO in diesel engines.
The purpose of this research is to study the effect of VCO on the performance of diesel engines. The research will be undertaken out by carrying out experiments on a HP diesel engine in the University Combustion laboratory. Various parameters will be investigated….
Problem Statement
This paragraph is common/general similar to project 2
This paragraph is specific to project 1
Purpose of research
©Omar Yaakob 2017

5. RESEARCH QUESTIONS OBJECTIVES METHODOLOGY CONCLUSIONS
PROJECT 1: THE EFFECT OF VIRGIN COCONUT OIL ON THE PERFORMANCE OF DIESEL ENGINES
RESEARCH QUESTIONS
Does VCO have an effect on engine performance?
What amount of VCO gives best engine performance?
OBJECTIVES
OBJ1 – To determine whether VCO has a positive effect on engine perfromance.
OBJ2 - To identify the optimum amount of VCO which gives best engine performance.
METHODOLOGY
Explain how to achieve objective 1.
Explain how to to achieve objective 2.
CONCLUSIONS
This research has shown that the use of VCO is beneficial because it increase engine efficiency by 8%....
The experiment using different amount of VCO found that the optimum amount of VCO is…..
©Omar Yaakob 2017

6. Problem Statement Purpose of research
PROJECT 2: THE LONG TERM EFFECT OF VEGETABLE OIL ON THE DURABILITY OF DIESEL ENGINES
Much work has been carried out in improving the efficiency of diesel engines . These work have been summarised in Mark et al. (2016) and Kawashima et al. (2015). Among the methods proposed are the use of additives in the fuel . The use of vegetable oil as additives has been presented by Tim & Wang (2008), Selamat (2013), Musa & Reza (2013), Lim et al. (2017). They have used jathropa, palm oil, soya oil and corn oil., with varying degree of success. The maximum improvement was reported by Lim et.al who used corn oil in a medium speed marine engine and found a 10 % increase in efficiency.
Although the use of vegetable oil has been proven to be effective in improving combustion, there are concerns about the long term effectiveness of the additives. Wong and Ahmad (2013) has shown that palm oil are effective on new engines but not so favourable in the long term. Kawarella (2015) presented experimental results showing the degradation of performance of injectors using soya oil, while Lindsey et al. (2014) in their field experimental study demonstrated that emissions characteristics get worse after 6 months using soya oil additives. Although Lim et al. (2017) has shown superior performance of corn oil, they did not study the long term effectiveness of the additive. There is thus a need to study the long term effectivenss of corn oil in diesel engines.
The purpose of this research is to study the long term effect of corn oil and other vegetable oils on the performance of diesel engines. The research will be carried out by carrying out long term experiments on a small 200 HP engine in the University Combustion laboratory as well as on an experimental vehicle in field tests. Various parameters will be investigated…..
Problem Statement
This paragraph is common/general similar to project 1
This paragraph is specific to project 2
Purpose of research
©Omar Yaakob 2017

7. PROJECT 2: THE LONG TERM EFFECT OF VEGETABLE OIL ON THE DURABILITY OF DIESEL ENGINES
RESEARCH QUESTIONS
What is the effect of corn oil on engine performance in the long run?
Is there any difference between the use of corn oil and other oils on durability of engines?
OBJECTIVES
OBJ1 – To determine whether Corn oil has a negative effect on engine performance in the long term.
OBJ2 - To assess the difference of long term durability of engines using different oil additives.
METHODOLOGY
Explain how to achieve objective 1.
Explain how to to achieve objective 2.
CONCLUSIONS
This research has shown, based on a one year engine test, the use of the use of corn oil has increase engine efficiency by 8%, but at the same time engine piston wear increases by nearly 10%....
The experiment using different types of oil indicates that all types of vegetable oils have similar effect on piston wear, with palm oil giving the highest wear…..
©Omar Yaakob 2017