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

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Institution Title Type Date Author(s) Abstract Link
HKUST Automatic transformation of different levels of detail in 3D GIS city models in CityGML Journal 07/2015 Deng, Y., and Cheng, J.C.P. 3D Geographic Information System (GIS) models are increasingly used for planning and analyses on a city level. Defining 3D GIS city models in different levels of detail (LoD) is often needed to browse and handle large models more efficiently. In this paper, a methodology framework for automatic transformation of different LoDs in CityGML is presented and illustrated. A new exterior shell extraction algorithm was developed from the Ray Tracing algorithm for classifying building surfaces as interior or exterior. A transformation framework among each LoD was developed based on the new exterior shell extraction algorithm. The transformation framework also includes an additional LoD called LoD3.5 that the authors proposed in this paper. The new LoD can satisfy the needs of applications which require information about interior rooms while maintaining a small data storage. The results show that the new exterior shell extraction algorithm can help achieve an automatic derivation of LoDs in CityGML. Link
HKUST A review of the efforts and roles of the public sector for BIM adoption worldwide Journal 07/2015 Cheng, J.C.P., and Lu, Q. Building Information Modeling (BIM) adoption is spreading through the public sector (including government bodies and non-profit organizations) around the globe in the architecture, engineering and construction (AEC) industry. The public sector plays a key role in supporting and encouraging the adoption of BIM in the industry. Currently there is no comprehensive study on the efforts and roles of the public sector for BIM adoption. In this paper, different kinds of the efforts that the public sector has put for BIM adoption worldwide are reviewed to highlight the successful implementations of BIM and to identify the gaps in some countries. The countries covered in this paper are grouped into four regions - the United States, Europe, Asia, and Australasia. In each region, efforts of the public sector in different countries to BIM implementations including establishment of BIM programs and committees, organization of BIM activities and seminars, setting up of different BIM goals and promises, and preparation of BIM guidelines and standards are described and compared. This paper also identifies six major possible roles of the public sector for BIM adoption. The roles played by the public sector in each selected country are summarized and evaluated. 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 Evaluation of the BIM Adoption for Civil Infrastructure and Development of a 5D BIM Financial Decision Making Framework Thesis 08/2015 Qiqi LU Building Information Modeling (BIM) has been widely adopted in the building industry. However, the application of BIM in civil infrastructure facilities, sometimes referred to Civil Information Modeling (CIM), is relatively lacking and slow. Researchers and practitioners are increasingly putting efforts into CIM study and implementation, but so far there is no comprehensive review of their efforts in this regard. Such study can help the academia and industry find the gaps and identify future research direction. Therefore, this work firstly presents a framework to evaluate the current practices of CIM adoption for various civil infrastructure facilities. In this study, civil infrastructure facilities were divided into nine categories for evaluation and the efforts with regard to CIM adoption for each infrastructure category were evaluated in six aspects. This study summarizes the results of 171 case studies and 62 academic papers on CIM. Based on the evaluation and comparison results, research gaps and future direction are identified. For example, CIM uses for detailed design and documentation phase and O&M phase like 5D cost estimation, are seldom conducted and studied.

5D BIM has been studied in academic research and implemented in industry. However, existing studies on 5D BIM focus on cash outflow estimation rather than cash inflow analysis and project financing. This thesis proposes a 5D BIM-based framework for cash flow analysis and project financing. This framework considers contract types and retainage to estimate cash inflow, and cash outflow patterns for equipment, manpower and materials to accurately estimate cash outflow. Project financing scenarios can also be evaluated using the framework. One building case and one bridge case are demonstrated to validate the proposed framework by considering various what-if scenarios. The framework can help contractors analyze the cash flow and make appropriate decisions for different design and payment scheme alternatives in various types of construction projects.
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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 Mapping of BIM and GIS for Interoperable Geospatial Data Management and Analysis for the Built Environment Thesis 08/2015 Yichuan DENG The Building Information Modeling (BIM) domain and the Geographic Information System (GIS) domain share a mutual need for information from each other. Information from GIS can facilitate BIM applications such as site selection and onsite material layout, while models from BIM help generate detailed models in GIS and achieve better utility management. The mapping between the key schemas in the BIM domain and the GIS domain is the most critical step towards interoperability between the two domains. In this research, Industry Foundation Classes (IFC) and City Geography Markup Language (CityGML) were chosen as the key schemas due to their wide applications in the BIM domain and the GIS domain, respectively. A review of previous studies on the integration between BIM and GIS reveals that so far there is no bi-directional mapping considering both geometric and semantic information between IFC and CityGML. Moreover, the transformation between different Levels of Detail (LoDs) in 3D GIS models has not been fully studied. The objective of this research is to develop techniques and tools to allow bi-directional mapping between key schemas in the BIM domain and the GIS domain considering transformation of geometry, semantic information and LoDs. Three use cases based on the integration between BIM and GIS are presented to show how the integration can facilitate problem solving in the architecture, engineering and construction (AEC) industry.

First, the sufficiency of the IFC schema for storing GIS data was evaluated using text analysis techniques and version different analysis. An extension for IFC 4 was developed to store data from CityGML. Then a linguistic-based semi-automatic mapping framework for IFC and CityGML was developed and evaluated, which showed promising results. The bi-directional mapping between IFC and CityGML was developed using instance-based mapping with reference ontology. The mapping framework was compared to previous studies to show its effectiveness.

Second, the transformation between LoDs in 3D GIS models was developed based on the LoD definitions in CityGML. This is a critical step for mapping between BIM and GIS as 3D GIS models are usually represented in different LoDs. An exterior shell extraction algorithm was proposed to facilitate the transformation between LoDs in CityGML. The algorithms of transformation from higher LoDs to lower LoDs were developed and validated using complex and large-scale 3D GIS models.

Finally, three use cases were developed to show how BIM and GIS can facilitate problem solving in the AEC industry. The first use case aimed to build 3D noise maps for urban environments using data from BIM and GIS. The Italian C.N.R. model was used for noise prediction. The highlight of this use case study is that by using BIM and GIS integration, the noise mapping can be performed at room level and the design models can be flexibly updated. The second use case considered construction supply chain management (CSCM) using BIM and GIS integration. The allocation of consolidation centers for multiple construction sites, which is a problem seldom studied by previous literature, is formulated and solved by integrating BIM and GIS. The third case aimed to develop a 3D underground utility management system for urban environments. The system uses modeling functions in BIM as data sources for utility management. Moreover, an algorithm was developed to allow transforming 2D CAD drawings into 3D utility lines.
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