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

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Institution Title Type Date Author(s) Abstract Link
HKUST BIM-supported 4D acoustics simulation approach to mitigating noise impact on maintenance workers on offshore oil and gas platforms Journal 12/2018 Tan, Y., Fang, Y., Zhou, T., Gan, V.J.L., and Cheng, J.C.P. Maintenance workers on offshore platforms are usually exposed to a high level of noise from the working environment as most of the daily operations of oil and gas process machines generate noise over 85 dBA, causing substantial health and safety issues. Avoiding exposure of workers to the modules that generate high sound power during maintenance activities can significantly mitigate the noise impact on human health and safety. Noise simulation and noise mapping methodologies can be used to evaluate and quantify the noise impact on offshore platforms. However, limited digital information of offshore platforms makes noise simulation setup challenging as modules on topsides have a high level of details. In addition, current noise mapping studies are usually conducted in a 3D static manner, which only reflects noise impact at a certain time. Building information modeling (BIM) provides detailed physical and functional characteristics of a facility that can be applied to support the noise simulation on offshore platforms. In this study, attempts have been made to develop a BIM-supported 4D acoustics simulation approach to mitigating the noise impact on maintenance workers of offshore platforms. BIM is utilized to automatically provide required information to facilitate noise simulation setup. 4D acoustics simulation approach is used to obtain the spatio-temporary sound pressure level (SPL) distribution of the noise generated by the functional modules on offshore platforms. Acoustic diffusion equation (ADE) is selected as noise SPL prediction model. To evaluate noise impact on maintenance workers, an equation based on daily noise dose is then newly derived to quantify the noise impact. Optimization algorithm is used to determine the maintenance schedule with the minimum daily noise dose. Finally, optimized maintenance schedule that has considered noise impact is used to update the daily maintenance plan on offshore platforms. An example of a fixed offshore platform with maintenance daily activity information is used to illustrate the proposed BIM-supported 4D acoustics simulation approach. The results show that the developed approach can well mitigate noise impact on maintenance workers on offshore platforms, resulting in health and safety management improvement. Link
HKUST BIM-based Automatic Generation of Fabrication Drawings for Building Facades Thesis 08/2018 Min DENG Many modern commercial buildings involve complex shaped façades, resulting in increasing complexity as well as challenges in façade fabrication and assembly processes. Currently, fabrication drawings are essential for fabrication, design evaluation and inspection of building components. Computer-aided automation, which can significantly improve the efficiency and accuracy of the fabrication and assembly process, is thus essential for the generation of façade fabrication drawings, thereby supporting the fabrication and assembly of the building façade components. Among current computer-aided technologies, building information modeling (BIM) has been widely applied to many sophisticated building projects due to its comprehensive ability in digital representation of building models. BIM has demonstrated its advantages over generating different types of drawings. However, generating fabrication drawings for façade panels using conventional approaches is time-consuming and error prone, especially when the number of façade components become huge. Therefore, this thesis aims to develop BIM-based methodologies to automate the generation of fabrication drawings for façade components, thereby facilitating the whole construction process.

For façade panels, a BIM-based framework is proposed for the automatic generation of fabrication drawings for façade panels. The framework integrates both graphical and non-graphical information from BIM models and other external data sources. Specific algorithms are applied to automatically generate the graphical information on the drawing templates based on the BIM geometric models. Title blocks of the drawing templates are also automatically filled in with corresponding non-graphical information. Complete fabrication drawings as well as a tabulated file with essential graphical information on similar components are then generated automatically.

For structural components such as mullions and transoms, it is important to represent their physical characteristics clearly, thus a large number of section views need to be produced, which is a time-consuming process and very labor intensive. Therefore, automatic generation of fabrication drawings for building façade components (such as mullions and transoms) is of paramount importance. In this thesis, attempts have been made to develop an efficient framework in order to automatically generate fabrication drawings for building façade structural components, including mullions and transoms. To represent the complex physical characteristics (such as holes and notches) on mullions and transoms using minimum number of drawing views, a computational algorithm based on graph theory is developed to eliminate duplicated section views. Another methodology regarding the generation of breaks for front views is also proposed to further improve the quality of drawing layouts. The obtained drawing views are then automatically arranged using a developed approach. In addition, primary dimensions of the drawing views focusing on the physical features are also generated. Furthermore, in order to maintain the consistency of the drawing formats, a methodology is proposed to simulate the scales of the drawings by using clustering technique.

With the adoption of the proposed BIM-based methodologies, time and human effort in the generation of fabrication drawings for façade components can be significantly reduced, and all the fabrication drawings for similar components will follow a consistent drawing format with explicit layout, thereby enhancing their readability.
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HKUST Minimization of Construction Waste through BIM-based Clash Detection and Quantification Report 06/2016 Baoshan KUANG
Pik Kei LAM
Nowadays the construction industry is under pressure to explore effective and efficient techniques and tools to decrease its escalating waste generation. However, the current approaches, techniques and tools focus on separate projects on site and limited effort is invested to put attention on pre-construction waste generation related to design stages. Waste that is induced by improper design accounts for a major proportion of the total construction waste. Therefore, this report aims to develop a BIM-based approach in the aspect of waste minimization.

With the clash detection tool in Navisworks, this report demonstrates the clash classification, resolution and the corresponding waste generation of 3 pairs of general component models of a villa, which are architectural model vs. structural model, structural model vs. mechanical model and mechanical vs. plumbing model. Then, compare the result obtained with BIM and that estimated with the current waste factor approach and find out whether the BIM-based waste minimization can be better realized. Consequently, coordinating the models of each building components with clash detection enables efficient management of construction waste.
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HKUST BIM Application for Construction and Demolition Waste Minimization Report 06/2015 TAO Jiali Nowadays the construction industry is under pressure to explore effective and efficient techniques and tools to decrease its escalating waste production. Many countries have taken initiatives to reduce the construction and demolition waste. However, the current approaches, techniques and tools focus on separate projects onsite and limited effort is invested to put attention on pre-construction waste generation related to supply chain management issues and procurement, design and tender stages.

Therefore this study aims to develop the BIM-based approaches for C&D waste in the aspect of waste estimation, 3R, prefabrication and clash detection. Besides, this study will also demonstrate and validate the developed approaches for C&D waste minimization using example scenarios. All in all, the application of BIM in C&D waste minimization can be better realized. C&D Waste estimation via the quantity takeoff tool and waste index can clearly show the accurate amount of the waste before the commencement of the works. Classifying the different construction material in BIM model and set up suitable C&D waste management planning definitely improve the efficiency of the waste management. Providing accurate information of precast units ahead of time and assisting the supply chain management can be achieved in BIM model. Visual clash detection reduces rework to some extent.
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HKUST Developing a BIM- and GIS-based Facility Management Framework for Underground Utilities Report 06/2017 Starry Xing LI
Liu YANG
Nowadays there is a trend of integrating Building Information Modeling (BIM) and Geographic Information System (GIS) to develop the construction projects, including the projects of underground utilities. Compared with BIM and GIS, traditional utility management has plenty of limitations. Traditional utility management keeps 2D CAD drawings, which are separated by utility type and lack of surrounding information. Besides, it is difficult to find the specific utility pipe in 2D drawings under special situation. The working sequence arrangement for those pipes are sometimes not effective.

This study aims to improve underground utility management in Hong Kong by using ArcGIS. The improvements consist of 3D visualization, querying and working sequence arrangement. 3D visualization of underground pipes and geological layers is created with reference to relevant Hong Kong standards and researches. Three cases are described to demonstrate the practical application of querying function. Working sequence of project in case 3 is analyzed through Excel.
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HKUST Semi-automatic Generation of BIM models from Point Cloud Data for Facility Management Report 06/2018 Duan Feiran
Siyu SHEN
Nowadays, BIM has transformed architecture, engineering and construction. However, the great potential of BIM is to provide accurate, timely, and relevant information not just during design and construction for a single building, but also throughout the lifecycle of an entire portfolio of facilities, such as the facility management. It has many competencies and plays an important role in the total life cycle of the building. The process of facility management need the support of lots of information which could then be provided by BIM model. Therefore, BIM model plays an important role in facility management.

BIM models are usually created from designed information which is called as-designed BIM model. However, there are lots of existing buildings do not have BIM model when they are built. For new buildings, there are also many changes may occur during construction, and the as-designed models could not present the real conditions. Therefore, an as-build BIM model may be needed to help the visualize and renovation of the project. What’s more, the current method for creating BIM models are mainly concentrated on regular buildings. However, more and more architect would like to design building with irregular buildings. Therefore, a new method should be used to create BIM model for irregular buildings.

This project aims to find a semi-automatic method to create BIM models for irregular building which could be applied for facility management. It takes a real project in industry as example and try to build the BIM model for a sky light bridge located in Hong Kong Airport by a combination of different software. This method firstly extracts the geometry information for each member from the point cloud data that gain from laser scanning. Then, it convert those conditions into BIM model with the help of Dynamo and Revit.
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