FYPs/Thesis/Journal from Higher Education Institutions in Hong Kong

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Institution Title Type Date Author(s) Abstract Link
HKUST Mapping BIM schema and 3D GIS schema semi-automatically utilizing linguistic and text mining techniques Journal 01/2015 Cheng, J.C.P., Deng, Y.C., and Anumba, C. The interoperability between BIM (Building Information Modeling) and 3D GIS (Geographic Information System) can enhance the functionality of both domains. BIM can serve as an information source for 3D GIS, while 3D GIS could provide neighboring information for BIM to perform view analysis, sustainable design and simulations. Data mapping is critical for seamless information sharing between BIM and GIS models. However, given the complexity of todayÕs BIM schemas and GIS schemas, the manual mapping between them is always time consuming and error prone. This paper presents a semi-automatic framework that we have developed to facilitate schema mapping between BIM schemas and GIS schemas using linguistic and text-mining techniques. Industry Foundation Classes (IFC) in the BIM domain and City Geography Markup Language (CityGML) in the GIS domain were used in this paper. Entity names and definitions from both schemas were used as the knowledge corpus, and text-mining techniques such as Cosine Similarity, Market Basket Model, Jaccard Coefficient, term frequency and inverse document frequency were applied to generate mapping candidates. Instance-based manual mapping between IFC and CityGML were used to evaluate the results from the linguistic-based mapping. The results show that our proposed name-to-definition comparison could achieve a high precision and recall. Results using different similarity measures were also compared and discussed. The framework proposed in this paper could serve as a semi-automatic way for schema mapping of other schemas and domains. Link
HKUST A framework for dimensional and surface quality assessment of precast concrete elements using BIM and 3D laser scanning Journal 08/2014 Kim, M.-K., Cheng, J.C.P., Sohn, H., and Chang, C.-C. This study presents a systematic and practical approach for dimensional and surface quality assessment of precast concrete elements using building information modeling (BIM) and 3D laser scanning technology. As precast concrete based rapid construction is becoming commonplace and standardized in the construction industry, checking the conformity of dimensional and surface qualities of precast concrete elements to the specified tolerances has become ever more important in order to prevent failure during construction. Moreover, as BIM gains popularity due to significant developments in information technology, an autonomous and intelligent quality assessment system that is interoperable with BIM is needed. The current methods for dimensional and surface quality assessment of precast concrete elements, however, rely largely on manual inspection and contact-type measurement devices, which are time demanding and costly. In addition, systematic data storage and delivery systems for dimensional and surface quality assessment are currently lacking. To overcome the limitations of the current methods for dimensional and surface quality assessment of precast concrete elements, this study aims to establish an end-to-end framework for dimensional and surface quality assessment of precast concrete elements based on BIM and 3D laser scanning. The proposed framework is composed of four parts: (1) the inspection checklists; (2) the inspection procedure; (3) the selection of an optimal scanner and scan parameters; and (4) the inspection data storage and delivery method. In order to investigate the feasibility of the proposed framework, case studies assessing the dimensional and surface qualities of actual precast concretes are conducted. The results of the case studies demonstrate that the proposed approach using BIM and 3D laser scanning has the potential to produce an automated and reliable dimensional and surface quality assessment for precast concrete elements. Link
HKUST A BIM-based web service framework for green building energy simulation and code checking Journal 06/2014 Cheng, J.C.P., and Das, M. Green building design has been a major trend in the last decade which has largely affected the AEC industry. As of 2013, for example, there were over 13,000 green buildings certified with LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environment Design) in the United States alone. Building Information Modeling (BIM) technolo- gy and computer simulations are adopted largely for green building design. However, while information sharing and automated, collaborative design review are important for the design of green buildings, the current way of BIM-based green building design relies mainly on individual file transfer and does not support collaboration in the distributed environment of construction projects. On the other hand, as the Internet becomes ubiquitous, the web provides convenient and cost-efficient means for multi-location cross-organizational collaboration. Energy analysis and validation against standard building codes are two major processes in green building design evaluation. This paper presents a modular web service based framework which integrates the information necessary for green building design, automates the building design evaluation processes, and facilitates simple updates on the building model on a common but distributed platform. This framework is based on BIM data models like gbXML (Green Building XML) which contain information for green building design like geometry of the building, material, and sensor information from more than one source. The BIM data models act as a single source of building information for all processes. Building design evaluation and updating are iterative in green building design and require information and inputs dispersed among various project participants. Since our framework follows a distributed architecture and is easily accessible from the Internet, it makes the information required to facilitate the iterative process and its results conveniently available to a multi-participant environment. The paper also presents an example scenario demonstrating the developed framework. Link
HKUST A BIM-based system for demolition and renovation waste estimation and planning Journal 03/2013 Cheng, J.C.P., and Ma, L.Y.H. Due to the rising worldwide awareness of green environment, both government and contractors have to consider effective construction and demolition (C&D) waste management practices. The last two decades have witnessed the growing importance of demolition and renovation (D&R) works and the growing amount of D&R waste disposed to landfills every day, especially in developed cities like Hong Kong. Quantitative waste prediction is crucial for waste management. It can enable contractors to pinpoint critical waste generation processes and to plan waste control strategies. In addition, waste estimation could also facilitate some government waste management policies, such as the waste disposal charging scheme in Hong Kong. Currently, tools that can accurately and conveniently estimate the amount of waste from construction, renovation, and demolition projects are lacking.

In the light of this research gap, this paper presents a building information modeling (BIM) based system that we have developed for estimation and planning of D&R waste. BIM allows multi-disciplinary information to be superimposed within one digital building model. Our system can extract material and volume information through the BIM model and integrate the information for detailed waste estimation and planning. Waste recycling and reuse are also considered in our system. Extracted material information can be provided to recyclers before demolition or renovation to make recycling stage more cooperative and more efficient. Pick-up truck requirements and waste disposal charging fee for different waste facilities will also be predicted through our system. The results could provide alerts to contractors ahead of time at project planning stage. This paper also presents an example scenario with a 47-floor residential building in Hong Kong to demonstrate our D&R waste estimation and planning system. As the BIM technology has been increasingly adopted in the architectural, engineering and construction industry and digital building information models will likely to be available for most buildings (including historical buildings) in the future, our system can be used in various demolition and renovation projects and be extended to facilitate project control.
Link
HKUST Optimization of HVAC Systems for Improved Indoor Air Quality and Occupant Thermal Comfort Using a BIM-Supported Computational Approach FYP 06/2020 CHEUNG, Hing
SO, Wai Hin
Air pollution problems are getting more serious and rapid in recent years. Its impacts affect us greatly in many aspects like climate changes, causing health problems and the consequences of increasing the economic burden. In 2016, there is an estimated 4.2 million premature deaths caused by bad air quality in the world. Instead of the long-term exposure effects, short term exposure to air pollutants such as PM10 and NOx will also be irritant to people which cause sneezing, headaches and dizziness, etc. Therefore, there is an urgent need to seek methods to alleviate the problems. However, the effects of air pollutions to the people cannot be determined simply since the amount of air pollutants will be different in different locations and time. To tackle this problem, it is suggested to analyze the data provided by the real-time estimation of people’s exposure to the air pollutants. Based on a given indoor environment with different HVAC components, the indoor air quality can be simulated by the aid of Building Information Technology (BIM) and Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD). Hence, the simulation result can be interpreted and used for the optimization of HVAC systems for a better indoor air quality (IAQ).

This report presents the research conducted on the application of BIM to HVAC systems for optimizing the IAQ. Analysis of the application of BIM and the detailed operation of HVAC systems to explore how BIM-supported computational approach can optimize HVAC systems for improved indoor and thermal occupant comfort (Aktiengesellschaft). TAL building in Jordan was selected as the target area of this report and act as an example. The site visit of the building is conducted and its daily operation and building systems are analyzed and evaluated. After that, building of BIM model of TAL building has started. With the usage of Autodesk Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD), we tried to simulate the actual indoor environment of TAL building. Before running the simulation, the calculating of different boundary conditions of the model and the construction of BIM model in CFD are conducted. The process of them will be described in this report. After reporting the progress, the result of simulation will be shown and further analysis and evaluation will be conducted through the interpretation of the simulation results.
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HKUST Creating a Connected Digital Twin of HKUST Campus for Smart Campus Facility Management FYP 06/2020 FONG, Tsz Yan
KONG, Yu Hin
Experts in engineering defines BIM as a representation of a digital twin which is a virtual replica of a physical system (Marr 2017). A digital twin provides rich semantic and geometric information for facilitating construction and FM processes. Through Facility Management Systems (FMSs) and Building Management Systems (BMSs) linked with sensors, information can be garnered to support building FM. FMS or BMS is a computer-based system installed in offices or buildings ensuring that all buildings are structurally sound and serviceable.

In this research, we initially plan to incorporate two common FM software, namely ArchiBUS and Maximo with the HKUST FM system for the sake of maximizing the FM effectiveness and facilitating FM process. However, we did not get either one of the licenses of both software, so it turns out that we have to use other machine learning set of tools to do predictions for our library. The specific goals were (1) to build a machine learning model to perform temperature forecasting; (2) to make suggestion on the operative temperature of AC in library to ensure thermal comfort; (3) to provide common campus FM capabilities by setting up and demonstrating tailor-made user interfaces by using Power BI.
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