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

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Institution Title Type Date Author(s) Abstract Link
HKUST Developing an evacuation evaluation model for offshore oil and gas platforms using BIM and agent-based model Journal 02/2018 Cheng, J.C.P., Tan, Y., Song, Y., Mei, Z., Gan, V.J.L., and Wang, X. Accidents on offshore oil and gas platforms (OOGPs) usually cause serious fatalities and financial losses considering the demanding environment where such platforms are located and the complicated topsides structure that the platforms have. Conducting evacuation planning on OOGPs is challenging. Computational tools are considered as a good way to plan evacuation by emergency simulation. However, the complex structure of OOGPs and various evacuation behaviors can weaken the advantages of computational simulation. Therefore, this study develops a simulation model for OOGPs to evaluate different evacuation plans to improve evacuation performance by integrating building information modeling (BIM) technology and agent-based model (ABM). The developed model consists of four parts: evacuation model input, simulation environment modeling, agent definition, and simulation and comparison. Necessary platform information is extracted from BIM and then used to model the simulation environment by integrating matrix model and network model. In addition to essential attributes, environment sensing and dynamic escape path planning functions are developed and assigned to agents in order to improve simulation performance. Total evacuation time for all agents on an offshore platform is used to evaluate the evacuation performance of each simulation. An example OOGP BIM topsides with different emergency scenarios is used to illustrate the developed evacuation evaluation model. The results show that the developed model can accurately simulate evacuation and improve evacuation performance on OOGPs. The developed model is also applicable to other industries such as the architecture, engineering, and construction industry, where there is an increasing demand for evacuation planning and simulation. Link
HKUST BIM-based framework for automatic scheduling of facility maintenance work orders Journal 03/2018 Chen, W., Chen, K., Cheng, J.C.P., Wang, Q., and Gan, V.J.L. Although more than 65% of the total cost in facility management (FM) comes from facility maintenance management (FMM), there is a lack of efficient maintenance strategies and right decision making approaches to reduce FMM costs. Building information modeling (BIM) has been developed as a potential technology for FMM in buildings. This study proposes an FMM framework based on BIM and facility management systems (FMSs), which can provide automatic scheduling of maintenance work orders (MWOs) to enhance good decision making in FMM. In this framework, data are mapped between BIM and FMSs according to the Industry Foundation Classes (IFC) extension of maintenance tasks and MWO information in order to achieve data integration. After bi-directional data transmission between the BIM models and FMSs, work order information is visualized in BIM via API to identify components that have failed. Second, geometric and semantic information of the failure components is extracted from the BIM models to calculate the sub-optimal maintenance path in the BIM environment. Third, the MWO schedule is automatically generated using a modified Dijkstra algorithm that considers four factors, namely, problem type, emergency level, distance among components, and location. Illustrative examples are given in the paper to validate the feasibility and effectiveness of the proposed framework in indoor and outdoor 3D environments. Link
HKUST Holistic BIM framework for sustainable low carbon design of high-rise buildings Journal 06/2018 Gan, V.J.L., Deng, M., Tse, K.T., Chan, C.M., Lo, I.M.C., and Cheng, J.C.P. In high-density, high-rise cities such as Hong Kong, buildings account for nearly 90% of energy consumption and 61% of the carbon emissions. Therefore, it is important to study the design of buildings, especially high-rise buildings, so as to achieve lower carbon emissions. The carbon emissions of a building consist of embodied carbon from the production of construction materials and operational carbon from energy consumption during daily operation (e.g., air-conditioning and lighting). While most of the previous studies concentrated mainly on either embodied or operational carbon, an integrated analysis of both types of carbon emissions can improve the sustainable design of buildings. Therefore, this paper presents a holistic framework using building information modeling (BIM) technology in order to enhance the sustainable low carbon design of high-rise buildings. BIM provides detailed physical and functional characteristics of buildings that can be integrated with various environmental modeling approaches to achieve a holistic design and assessment of low carbon buildings. In a case study, the proposed framework is examined to evaluate the embodied and operational carbon in a high-rise residential building due to various envelope designs. The results demonstrate how the BIM framework provides a decision support basis for evaluating the key carbon emission sources throughout a building's life cycle and exploring more environmentally sustainable measures to improve the built environment. Link
HKUST Optimizing lift operations and vessel transport schedules for disassembly of multiple offshore platforms using BIM and GIS Journal 06/2018 Tan, Y., Song, Y., Zhu, J., Long, Q., Wang, X., and Cheng, J.C.P. As the coming decades will witness a big trend in the decommissioning of offshore platforms, simultaneously disassembling topsides of multiple offshore platforms is getting increasingly common. Considering high risk and cost of offshore operations, module lift planning among multiple offshore platforms with transport vessels is required to be carefully conducted. The lift planning usually contains two main parts: module layout on vessels planning and vessel transport schedules arrangement. In contrast to the current experience-driven module lift planning, this paper formulates the lift planning optimization problem and develops a web system integrating building information modeling (BIM) and geographical information system (GIS) to efficiently disassemble topsides for multiple offshore platforms. BIM provides detailed information required for planning module layout on vessels and GIS contains the management and analysis of geospatial information for the vessel transport schedule arrangement. As for module layout optimization, three heuristic algorithms, namely genetic algorithm (GA), particle swarm optimization (PSO), and firefly algorithm (FA) are implemented and compared to obtain the module layout with the minimum total lift time. While for vessel transport schedule, graph search technique is integrated with a developed schedule clash detection function to obtain the transport schedule with the minimum sailing time. The proposed optimization algorithms and techniques are integrated into a developed BIM/GIS-based web system. An example of three offshore platforms with eighteen modules in total is used to illustrate the developed system. Results show that the developed system can significantly improve the efficiency of lift planning in multiple topsides disassembly. The developed BIM/GIS-based web system is also effective and practical in the resource allocation and task assignment among multiple locations, such as construction sites, buildings, and even cities. Link
HKUST Integrating 4D BIM and GIS for construction supply chain management Journal 02/2019 Deng, Y., Gan, V.J.L., Das, M., Cheng, J.C.P., and Anumba, C.J. Construction supply chain management (CSCM) requires the tracking of material logistics and construction activities, an integrated platform, and certain coordination mechanisms among CSCM participants. Researchers have suggested the use of building information modeling (BIM) technology to monitor construction activities and manage construction supply chains. However, because material warehousing and deliveries are mostly performed outside construction project sites, project information from a single BIM model is insufficient in meeting the needs of construction supply chain management. In this research, an integrated framework was developed based on four-dimensional (4D) BIM and a geographical information system (GIS) for coordination of construction supply chains between the construction project sites and other project related locations, such as supplier sites and material consolidation centers. The proposed integration was used to solve three common tasks in CSCM, namely (1) supplier selection, (2) determination of number of material deliveries, and (3) allocation of consolidation centers, using information from 4D BIM and GIS. The proposed 4D BIM-GIS framework was demonstrated via case studies. The results of the case studies indicated that determinations of supplier and number of deliveries need to take into account both the transportation distance and material unit price. Mathematical solutions were also generated to support decision making for the allocation of consolidation centers in congested regions with long transportation distances. The outcomes of this paper serve as a decision support base for a more efficient CSCM in the future. 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