HKUST |
Incorporating Project Management Techniques in BIM Projects |
Report |
06/2019 |
Ziwei YU Luo Yanfang |
In order to manage a project seamlessly, there is a need to establish effective communication between different departments and identify the risks in the project, determine the affected or influencing stakeholders, provide timely resources and logistics, and manage the available resources to make a framework for project implementation. There are several standards and one of the most recognized standards is the Project Management Knowledge Facility (PMBOK). PMBOK is not just a guideline and a methodology for project management, but also can help projects for professional, targeted and comprehensive management. Building Information Modeling (BIM), a project management methodology has been adopted in recent years to design a project integrated as a 3-D information model, which adds all project information in the various phases of the project to a 3-D information model. For a correct BIM implementation in a project, BIM must be integrated into the overall management of the project and must have a BIM Execution Plan (BEP) adapted to the needs of the client and which in turn is integrated into the project management plan. To review BIM/BEP and project management comprehensively, this research consists of three main stages: (1) select of target database examining both academic and applied publications to analyses the situation between BIM/BEP and PMBOK; (2) conducts two surveys about “BIM/BEP with PMBOK” and “BIM project with Risk Management” to have deep understanding of the industry status; (3)select integration, stakeholder and risk management as specific aspects to analyze, and develop a preliminary framework of process guide for BEP. |
N.A. |
HKUST |
Developing a BIM-Based Facility Management Framework for Building Operations |
Report |
06/2017 |
Zhang Zhongkuang Xin XIA |
Indoor air quality affects human comfort in several aspects such as temperature, humidity, CO2 and CO. With BIM and sensor technologies, the real-time indoor air quality data can be collected by sensors, transmitted and displayed in the BIM model, therefore the building control system can make appropriate adjustments to improve the indoor air quality. For BIM models, the model-based approach increases efficiency within individual organizations and truly shines during coordinated project delivery. Building information modeling can drive time and budget savings for building and infrastructure projects. For sensors, the data gathered is converted to a digital form and is processed at high speed. Sensor technology can store the data in memory, from where it can be retrieved later for processing, analysis and presentation.
In this research, a plugin for grading the indoor air quality was designed, which can grade the indoor air quality at current or a specified past time as “good”, “fair” or “bad” showing in the BIM model. With the grading level, proper regulate and control could be made from the building control system to improve the indoor air quality. This designed plugin was used in a real case of seafront sport center in HKUST. Moreover, to efficiently manage sensors in a building, to reduce the energy consumption thus reduce the budget, linking facility and energy management to human comfort are also necessary and should be completed in the future work. |
N.A. |
HKU |
A Study to Review and Redefine the QS Core Competencies in a BIM Environment in Hong Kong |
Thesis |
04/2018 |
YU Kin Kwan |
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N.A. |
HKUST |
A Building Information Modeling Framework for Waste Estimation and Embodied Carbon Calculation of Buildings |
Thesis |
08/2012 |
Yinghui MA |
The construction industry is a major consumer of natural resources and energy, and a major contributor of waste and carbon emissions. Many countries have taken initiatives to reduce the negative environmental impacts in terms of waste and carbon emissions caused by construction activities; however, implementations of those strategies are often based on experience and heuristics rather than quantitative data. The value of estimating and evaluating construction and demolition (C&D) waste and carbon emissions in the construction industry has been indicated in literature. Nevertheless, tools that can accurately and conveniently estimate the amount of the waste from construction projects are lacking. On the other hand, current carbon emission analysis tools mostly focus on the estimation of operational carbon. Although embodied carbon (EC) of building materials has shown increasingly important in carbon emission analysis of buildings, the current tools that estimate EC are still primitive and not automated.
Therefore, this study aims to develop a framework for a lifecycle evaluation of waste and carbon emissions of buildings leveraging the building information modeling (BIM) technology. BIM represents the process of development and use of a computer generated model to simulate the planning, design, construction and operation of a building facility. BIM has been increasingly used in the architectural, engineering and construction industry for building performance analysis and construction planning. However, the use of BIM for estimation and planning of C&D waste and EC is still lacking. This thesis presents the automated BIM-based C&D waste estimation system and the automated BIM-based EC estimation system that the author has developed. The first system was designed to extract material and volume information through the BIM model and integrate the information for detailed waste estimation and planning. The second system was designed to integrate extracted material and element information with external carbon inventory databases for embodied carbon and energy estimation. With the two systems, decision making could be facilitated among clients, architects, engineers, and other stakeholders. The systems can also be used combined with current tools to perform a lifecycle analysis. As the BIM technology has been increasingly adopted and digital building information models will likely to be available for most buildings and even infrastructures in the future, our systems can be applied in various projects. |
N.A. |
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. |
N.A. |
HKUST |
Application of Building Information Modeling Technology for Safe Operations and Decommissioning of Offshore Oil and Gas Platforms |
Thesis |
08/2018 |
Yi TAN |
Offshore oil and gas platforms (OOGPs) usually have a lifetime of 30-40 years. The operation and maintenance stage takes up the most percentage of the whole lifetime of OOGPs. During the operations and maintenance, there are several safety issues. Emergent accidents and exposure to high level of noise are two main issues. Traditional emergency responses include 2D escape plan guidance and real drill exercises. 2D escape plan usually causes different understanding, while real drill exercises require extra time and workforce. As for current noise controls, only personal protective equipment has been commonly employed, which is the least effective noise control. In addition, as increasing number of OOGPs will be retired and decommissioned in the coming decade, disassembling offshore platforms is an unavoidable activity. During OOGP decommissioning stage, there are also several safety issues such as potential clashes when conducting heavy lift operations and lift vessel capsize. Besides, when multiple lift vessels are working together to disassemble multiple offshore platforms, more than one vessel working at the same platform, which can significantly increase lift clashes, is another safety issues. Current approaches to addressing these safety issues at the decommissioning stage are usually based on experience, and manually planned. Considering all these safety issues mentioned above, automated, efficient, and accurate approaches to improving safety management of OOGPs at both operation and decommissioning stages are desired. However, limited researches have been conducted to tackle these safety issues. Therefore, this research aims to develop automated, efficient, and accurate techniques and approaches for safer operations and decommissioning of OOGPs.
Building information modeling (BIM) technology is widely used in the building and infrastructure industries for the past decade considering the rich geometric and semantic information BIM contains. Therefore, this research applies BIM technology to efficiently provide required information of OOGPs when developing new approaches to addressing safety issues.
For the operation and maintenance stage of an offshore platform, to better respond to emergent accidents, a BIM-based evacuation evaluation model is developed to efficiently simulate and evaluate different emergency scenarios, and improve evacuation performance on offshore platforms. As for the noise control, this research proposes a BIM-supported 4D acoustics simulation approach. The proposed approach can automatically conduct noise simulation for offshore platforms using the information extracted from BIM models. Maintenance schedules can then be optimized based on simulated results. By minimizing the time of exposing to a high level of noise, the noise impact on maintenance workers is well mitigated.
For the decommissioning stage, first, a semi-automated approach to generate 4D/5D BIM models to evaluate different OOGP decommissioning option is developed. Second, automated topsides disassembly planning approach based on BIM is developed. Clash-free lift paths can be generated to avoid clashes during heavy lifts. Module layouts on vessels are optimized to minimize the total heavy lift time and to guarantee the stability of lift vessels. Besides, a schedule clash detection method is also developed to make sure that no more than one vessel is working at one offshore platform simultaneously.
All developed BIM-based approaches are illustrated with related examples. Compared to current practices, these proposed approaches improve the safety management performance of offshore platforms. |
N.A. |