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

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Institution Title Type Date Author(s) Abstract Link
HKUST A BIM-based automated site layout planning framework for congested construction sites Journal 08/2015 Kumar, S., and Cheng, J.C.P. Site layout planning is often performed on construction sites to find the best arrangement of temporary facilities so that transportation distances of on-site personnel and equipment are minimized. It could be achieved by creating dynamic layout models, which capture the changing requirements of construction sites. However, formulating such models is extremely tedious because it requires much manual data input and changes to design and construction plans are manually updated by layout planners. This study presents an automated framework of creating dynamic site layout models by utilizing information from BIM. The A* algorithm is used in conjunction with genetic algorithms to develop an optimization framework that considers the actual travel paths of on-site personnel and equipment. To address the space limitation on site, our model optimizes the dimensions of facilities and also considers interior storage within buildings under construction. A case example is demonstrated to validate this framework and shows a 13.5% reduction in total travel distance compared with conventional methods. Link
HKUST A BIM-based framework for lift planning in topsides disassembly of offshore oil and gas platforms Journal 03/2017 Tan, Y., Song, Y., Liu, X., Wang, X., and Cheng, J.C.P. Offshore oil and gas platforms (OOGPs) usually have a lifetime of 30–40 years. An increasing number of OOGPs across the world will be retired and decommissioned in the coming decade. Therefore, a safe and efficient approach in planning the disassembly of the topsides of OOGPs is required. One commonly applied disassembly method is reverse installation, which moves the OOGP modules from the platform deck to a heavy lift vessel (HLV) in reverse order of their installation. Considering the high risk and cost of working offshore, shortening the lift time is crucial. In contrast to the traditional experience-driven lift operations, this paper describes minimizing the lift path for each OOGP module during disassembly, leveraging building information modeling (BIM) technology and an improved A* algorithm. BIM models provide accurate component-based geometric and semantic information that can be used for planning and optimization. However, there has been no previous study on the use of BIM for offshore disassembly. Industry Foundation Classes (IFC), which is a neutral data model of BIM, is used in this study to represent OOGP models. In particular, the IfcBuildingElementProxy entity is used to represent the OOGP components, and the information in IfcBuildingElementProxy is automatically extracted to obtain the location and dimension information of each OOGP module. Then, for a given layout of modules on the removal vessel, the lift path and removal sequence of different modules, with the shortest lift path distance, are obtained. The lift path distance is calculated using the A* algorithm, which has been widely applied in 2D environments and is modified in this study to suit the 3D environment. Finally, the genetic algorithm (GA) technique is applied to optimize the layout plan on the removal vessel by minimizing the total lift path distance. The developed BIM-based framework is illustrated and evaluated through an illustrative example. The results show that the proposed framework can generate and visualize the shortest lift path for each OOGP module directly and automatically, and significantly improve the efficiency of OOGP disassembly. Link
HKUST A BIM-based Framework for Site Layout Optimization and Material Logistics Planning on Congested Construction Sites Thesis 08/2015 Srinath KUMAR Urban construction projects are characterized by the lack of available space on construction sites. Due to the confined nature of such sites, construction materials, equipment and manpower must be managed within the same area, leading to frequent conflicts. As a result, the construction site layout and material logistics plans should be carefully coordinated to ensure a seamless flow of materials, equipment and labor. Existing studies focus on developing systems to address construction site layout planning (CSLP) and material logistics planning (MLP). However, such systems fail to address the mutual impacts and inter-dependencies between the site layout and material logistics plans. Furthermore, existing systems suffer from a lack of automation and inability to address construction delays. Therefore, this research aims to develop a framework for planning the site layout and material logistics on construction sites making use of building information modeling (BIM) technology. BIM has been used in the construction industry for over a decade, but its use in construction planning is still limited to clash detection and 4D simulation. BIM models however, are rich information sources and can be used for construction site layout and material logistics planning as well.

This research presents an automated CSLP framework and a MLP framework that are developed based on BIM technology. The first framework utilizes information stored in BIM models to estimate the size, type and number of temporary facilities required by a construction project during different time intervals. By leveraging the functionality offered by the Autodesk Revit application programming interface (API), several of the computations are automated, significantly reducing manual effort. The second framework is designed to integrate material quantity information from BIM models with construction progress data and material delivery information. This framework coordinates material logistics along with the site layout, giving special emphasis on responding to construction delays. The two frameworks together can be used to facilitate CSLP and MLP on congested construction sites.
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HKUST A BIM-based location aware AR collaborative framework for facility maintenance management Journal 07/2019 Chen, K., Chen, W., Li, C.T., and Cheng, J.C.P. Facility maintenance management (FMM) accounts for a large amount of the total cost of facilities’ lifecycle, illustrating the importance of improving FMM efficiency. Many mechanical facilities, like ventilation ducts above ceilings, are normally hidden, indicating the necessity of applying certain technology that can enable users to visualize and update the information of hidden facilities. Real-time location information is also needed so
that users can be aware of their current location and the surrounding facility can be displayed accordingly. Therefore, this paper aims to develop location aware augmented reality (AR) framework for FMM, with building information modeling (BIM) as the data source, AR for the interaction between users and facilities, and Wi-Fi fingerprinting for providing real-time location information. The developed framework has the following features: (1) a proposed softmax-based weighted K nearest neighbour (S-WKNN) algorithm is used for Wi-Fi fingerprinting to obtain the current location of users; (2) a room identification method, based on BIM, the obtained location, and ray casting algorithm, is proposed to identify which room the user is currently in; (3) according to the obtained location and the identified room, users can visualize and interact with their surrounding facilities through the AR devices; and (4) users in a remote location can visualize site situation and interact with site facilities in real time through video streaming and the shared database. At the end of the paper, an experiment was designed to evaluate the effectiveness of the developed system. As shown by the experiment, the developed AR collaborative system can reduce the completion time of the designed task by around 65% compared with traditional 2D drawing-based method, and can provide a localization accuracy of around 1m
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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.
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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