Automation and robotics technology is expected to improve the productivity of the construction industry as well as to solve problems such as labor shortage and safety risks, especially for high-rise ...buildings. Substantial research efforts have been devoted to the field over the past decades, while the application rate at the construction sites is still limited. Although various reviews have summarized the research topics and future trends in this field, few research efforts have been made on a consideration of both academic research and practical application in the industry. Focusing on high-rise building construction, this study explores the development of both academic research and practical application of automation and robotics based on literature and market review. Scientometric and critical literature reviews were conducted to identify and analyze the development of key research areas based on academic publications from the 1980s to present. In the meantime, the development of basic technologies was summarized. The market review surveyed on existing products and developers of construction automation and robotics. By comparing the results of the literature review and market review, four development patterns of academic research and product application were identified, i.e., simultaneous development led by the same party, development at a similar pace with the two sides taking the lead in different aspects, academic research providing basic technologies for product development, and available technologies in academic research with no products found. Then three gaps in this field, i.e., the gap between academic research and products, the gap between products and application, and the gap between the construction industry and the robotics industry, were discussed with corresponding suggestions to narrow the gaps, followed by an outlook for future directions. This study contributes to the knowledge body by identifying and analyzing the key research areas and the development gaps systematically.
Construction and demolition waste (CDW) accounts for at least 30% of the total solid waste produced around the world. At around 924 million tons in the European Union in 2016 and 2.36 billion tons in ...China in 2018, the amount is expected to increase over the next few years. Dumping these wastes in sanitary landfills has always been the traditional approach to waste management but this will not be feasible in the years to come. To significantly reduce or eliminate the amount of CDW being dumped, circular economy is a possible solution to the increasing amounts of CDW. Circular economy is an economic system based on business models which replaces the end-of-life concept with reducing, reusing, recycling, and recovering materials. This paper discusses circular economy (CE) frameworks—specifically material recovery and production highlighting the reuse and recycling of CDW and reprocessing into new construction applications. Likewise, a literature review into recent studies of reuse and recycling of CDW and its feasibility is also discussed to possibly prove the effectivity of CE in reducing CDW. Findings such as effectivity of recycling CDW into new construction applications and its limitations in effective usage are discussed and research gaps such as reuse of construction materials are also undertaken. CE and recycling were also found to be emerging topics. Observed trends in published articles as well as the use of latent Dirichlet allocation in creating topic models have shown a rising awareness and increasing research in CE which focuses on recycling and reusing CDW.
Accelerated Carbonation curing (ACC) is an innovative curing procedure for precast concrete units, which results in sequestration of the carbon dioxide gas and its conversion into stable products. ...The effect of carbonation curing on mortar mixes incorporating cement kiln dust (CKD) as partial replacement of cement has been investigated in the present study. Carbonation curing was carried out for 12 h, followed by either sealed bag curing or water spray curing for 3 days. The effect of carbonation curing was studied in terms of compressive strength, porosity and pH of the mix, along with SEM to study the resultant morphology. It was observed that ACC led to better early age strength and lower porosity as compared to water cured mortars with at least 20% increase in the strength for each mix. The later age strength decreased slightly by ACC due to water loss, but could be compensated by adopting subsequent water spray. The microstructure analysis showed presence of C-S-H gel and CaCO3 for the carbonated mortars, contributing to the additional strength and reduced porosity. Stoichiometric analysis of the control mix at 3 days of casting also confirmed that carbonation curing enhances the compressive strength and decreases porosity of the mix. It was observed that the finer particle size of CKD particles and presence of alkali in CKD further promotes the carbonation reaction, and hence led to large improvement in the properties of the resultant mix.
•Accelerated carbonation curing (ACC) of cement kiln dust (CKD) mortars was performed.•The duration of ACC was kept 12 h after initial preconditioning.•ACC led to an increase in compressive strength of CKD mortars.•Porosity of CKD mortars decreased upon accelerated carbonation.
A Building Information Model (BIM) is at risk of being ‘blind and deaf’ if its contained information cannot be synchronized with ongoing building processes in a real-time manner. Previous studies ...have attempted to explore solutions to the problem, with a view to making BIM a more useful decision-support system. However, an integrated conceptual framework summarizing these studies and structuring future development in the area is missing. Based on an ex post facto critical review of 75 papers of this kind published over the past decade, this paper proposes a conceptual framework for bridging BIM and building (BBB), which highlights the importance of synchronizing information between BIM and real-life building processes. The framework is further illustrated through a case study of prefabricated housing construction in Hong Kong. With this integrated conceptual framework, future research on BBB can proceed on a more solid footing.
•This paper aims to develop a conceptual framework for bridging BIM and building (BBB).•The framework is developed based on a critical literature review.•The underlying notion of the framework is illustrated through a case study.•BBB technologies and information-exchange protocols are problems to be solved.•The study provides more solid footing for future research on BBB.
Purpose Precast wall lifting during prefabricated building construction faces multiple non-lean problems, such as inaccurate lifting-time estimation, unreasonable resource allocation and improper ...process design. This study aims to identify the pathways for improving lifting performance to advance lean construction of prefabricated buildings. Design/methodology/approach This study developed a methodological framework that integrates the discrete event simulation method, the elimination, combination, rearrangement and simplification (ECRS) technique and intelligent optimization tool. Two schemes of precast wall lifting, namely, the enterprise's business as usual (BAU) and enterprise-leading (EL) schemes, were set to benchmark lifting performance. Furthermore, a best-practice (BP) scheme was modeled from the perspective of lifting activity ECRS and resource allocation for performance optimization. Findings A real project was selected to test the effect of the methodological framework. The results showed that compared with the EL scheme, the BP scheme reduced the total lifting time (TLT) by 6.3% and mitigated the TLT uncertainty (the gap between the maximum and minimum time values) by 20.6%. Under the BP scheme, increasing the resource inputs produces an insignificant effect in reducing TLT, i.e. increasing the number of component operators in the caulking subprocess from one to two only shortened the TLT by 3.6%, and no further time reduction was achieved as more component operators were added. Originality/value To solve non-lean problems associated with prefabricated building construction, this study provides a methodological framework that can separate a typical precast wall lifting process into fine-level activities. Besides, it also identifies the pathways (including the learning effect mitigation, labor and machinery resource adjustment and activities’ improvement) to reducing TLT and its uncertainty.
The recent development in information technology has huge opportunities to improve the architectural education in terms of methodologies, strategies and tools. Building construction courses taught in ...the College of Architecture and Design at Jordan University of Science and Technology mainly depend on the traditional_Teacher–centered_method of teaching. This research suggests a virtual environment technology as a tool to develop new educational approach for these courses.
This study developed computer software for this purpose to deal with building construction using virtual reality technology (BC\VR software). This software is designed by the authors for research purpose and presents 4D model (3D model and time dimension) for certain building construction phases using VR technology to do immersive and non-immersive virtual reality experience for the users. This research aims at evaluating the (BC\VR Software) in architectural education of building construction courses as a case study at Jordan University of Science and Technology (JUST) in terms of three axes: providing students with the building construction information, achieving enjoyment, and the integrating with other courses.
The study sample was selected from the population of building construction students at Jordan University of Science and Technology (JUST). A structured questionnaire was designed and distributed to the students of the abovementioned classes.
The results show that the VR software has the ability to achieve the three axes better than those of the traditional teaching method. As a conclusion, using the BC\VR software as a tool in building construction courses is very useful and effective for the students. The VR technology is also applicable on other architectural courses.
Building Information Modeling (BIM) has been recognized as an emerging technological innovation which can help transform the construction industry and it has been adopted broadly in the field of ...built environment. Due to the rapid development of BIM research, various stakeholders require a state-of-the-art review of the BIM research and implementation. The purpose of this paper is to provide an objective and accurate summary of BIM knowledge using 1874 published BIM-related papers. The results show that 60 key research areas, such as information systems, 3D modeling, design and sustainability and 10 key research clusters, such as architecture design studio, building information and lean construction, are extremely important for the development of BIM knowledge. The results are useful for the identification of research clusters and topics in the BIM community. More importantly, these results can help highlight how BIM-related research evolves over time, thus greatly contributing to understanding the underlying structure of BIM. This study offers useful and new insights to summarize the status quo of BIM knowledge and can be used as a dynamic platform to integrate future BIM developments.
•A bibliometric analysis of 1874 BIM-related articles is conducted.•The top three research topics include information system, 3D/nD modeling, and design.•The top three research clusters include architectural design studio, building information, and lean construction.•Four pillars, including culture, technology, management, and theory are identified.
•Reviews the literature highlighting the link between the construction industry, building materials and SDGs.•Generates sights to increase knowledge about the factors used to distinguish between ...various building materials categories.•Identifies new framework to support the realization of the 2030 agenda.•Reveals that building materials have a major role to achieve several SDGs and their relevant targets.•Emphasizes the need for a multi-criteria tool for selecting sustainable and green building materials.
The UN 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and the 169 targets have been considered in multidisciplinary approaches worldwide. Whereas, several environmental, economic and social development concerns have been covered by the UN 2030 Agenda. The aim of this research is to investigate the complexity of the interactions between building materials and the SDGs, in an attempt to establish a knowledge-based decision support system for policy-makers, designers and construction stakeholders regarding the implementation of 2030 agenda. A conceptual framework based on a systematic and comprehensive literature review, coupled with critical content analysis, was developed. This research proved that building materials can contribute significantly to the achievement of 13 goals and 25 targets of SDGs. The framework showed that direct positive contribution of building materials on the SDGs has been noticed in SDG 3, SDG 7, SDG 9, SDG 11, SDG 12, SDG 13, and SDG 15 while invisible contribution has been shown in SDG 2, SDG 5, SDG 10 and SDG 16. Additionally, indirect and negative contributions have been presented entirely in the framework. The present study offered a possibility to motivate future research and further critical discussions on the topic.
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