The carbon emissions growth in the construction industry hinders the achievement of global carbon-neutral target, especially in China. Studies suggest that developing low-carbon technologies is an ...effective means of achieving the low-carbon transition (LCT) in the construction industry. However, these studies ignore the fact that the LCT is a complex and systemic issue that needs to consider the interaction of technical and non-technical factors. Thus, based on the socio-technical system transition theory, this study identified the influencing factors and constructs a dynamics model to simulate the dynamic changes of the LCT in China's construction industry under different scenarios. The results showed that multi-level factors coordinated to drive the LCT of the construction industry. Environmental factors played a weak role and the effectiveness of government intervention decreased with the transition process. On the contrary, technological and market factors were indispensable drivers and especially played a dominant role during the later stages of the transition. Finally, the LCT pathway of China's construction industry was proposed based on the results. These findings expand the boundary of theoretical research on industrial transition and provide a decision-making reference for the advancement of international carbon-neutral work.
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•Carbon emissions in the construction industry hinder China's carbon-neutral target.•The construction industry is characterized by socio-technical system transition.•The interaction mechanism of landscape, regime, and niche level is analyzed.•System dynamics model simulates the dynamics of the low-carbon transition.•The pathway of the low-carbon transition in the construction industry is proposed.
► There is significant evidence that buildings do not perform as well as predicted. ► This study aims to bridge this gap by using Post-Occupancy Evaluation data. ► Focus on electricity consumption ...for lighting and small power in office buildings. ► Results demonstrate predictions within 3% of actual electricity consumption. ► Validation exercise demonstrates 6% deviation from actual electricity consumption.
With the increasing demand for more energy efficient buildings, the construction industry is faced with the challenge to ensure that the energy performance predicted during the design stage is achieved once a building is in use. There is, however, significant evidence to suggest that buildings are not performing as well as expected and initiatives such as PROBE and CarbonBuzz aim to illustrate the extent of this so called ‘performance gap’. This paper discusses the underlying causes of discrepancies between energy modelling predictions and in-use performance of occupied buildings (after the twelve month liability period). Many of the causal factors relate to the use of unrealistic input parameters regarding occupancy behaviour and facilities management in building energy models. In turn, this is associated with the lack of feedback to designers once a building has been constructed and occupied.
The paper aims to demonstrate how knowledge acquired from Post-Occupancy Evaluation (POE) can be used to produce more accurate energy performance models. A case study focused specifically on lighting, small power and catering equipment in a high density office building is analysed and presented. Results show that by combining monitoring data with predictive energy modelling, it was possible to increase the accuracy of the model to within 3% of actual electricity consumption values. Future work will seek to use detailed POE data to develop a set of evidence based benchmarks for energy consumption in office buildings. It is envisioned that these benchmarks will inform designers on the impact of occupancy and management on the actual energy consumption of buildings. Moreover, it should enable the use of more realistic input parameters in energy models, bringing the predicted figures closer to reality.
Additive manufacturing (AM) technologies (also known as 3D printing - 3DP) have been rapidly advancing into various industrial sectors, including aerospace, automotive, medical, architecture, arts ...and design, food, and construction. Transitioning from the visualization and prototyping stages into functional and actual part replacement opens further design possibilities. Among the diverse applications of AM, construction applications have not yet seen a commercially available and widely used product in the market. Nevertheless, it has been a subject of interest to researchers in recent decades. There are evident challenges and risks for the integration of AM towards large-scale construction. Therefore, progress in their commercialization seems to proceed at a slow pace, as only a few 3DP trials for large-scale construction can be found in the literature. This paper aims to provide a comprehensive and evidence-based baseline along with progresses in relevant disciplines related to 3DP in construction, which will provide an opportunity to experts in all domains to understand the multi-dimensional constraints and to specify the future research directions in these sectors. The distinct merit of this article is that it provides, for the first time, a diverse review on literature in the field of construction 3D printing. It offers up-to-date and in-depth information of hindrances (from processes, materials, structural design and standards) which add up towards low pace of automation in construction sector, identify deficiencies in the current research and provides future research trends for researchers. The findings from intensive literature review will guide engineers, designers and investors from construction sector to grab research gaps and business opportunities. First of all, the development of different 3DP processes in built environment are presented to highlight the process constraints along with the commercial applications of these processes for industrialists and investors to identify the business opportunities. Secondly, process parameters and difficulties in optimization of material mixtures are presented as a guide to civil engineers following the discussion on materials urging the need for development of eco-efficient and environment friendly materials. Conclusions drawn from discussion in individual sections along with issues/constraints and challenges involved are explained separately.
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•Review of the development and adaptation of AM processes in construction.•Processes involved in 3DP of construction materials along with commercial 3D printing projects.•Process parameters affecting print quality and discussion on construction materials.•The sustainability aspects of AM processes with a brief account of recommendations for future work.
The construction industry has one of the most hazardous working environments worldwide, which accounts for about 1 in every 5 occupational fatalities. The high rates of workplace injuries, illnesses ...and fatalities cause irreversible harm to workers and are often the source of delays and additional project costs. Improvements in sensor technologies, wireless communication, the processing power of computers, and advancements in machine learning and computer vision are now enabling the development of sensor-based safety management systems. The rapid growth of Building Information Modelling (BIM) has also created opportunities for improving safety management. While considerable progress has been made to improve construction safety, few studies have focused on the integration of sensor-based systems and BIM. This research, which is motivated by the development of such integrated methods, carries out a systematic review of the relevant literature, summarising recent developments of sensor-based safety management systems and advancements in safety management through BIM. The research gaps are identified and an outline for potential future research is provided. The results of the review reveal the potential of combining sensor-driven systems with BIM for improving safety management in construction.
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•Sensor-based techniques for safety management were reviewed.•Integration of safety management with BIM was investigated.•Research gaps and future opportunities for research were indentified.
This article analyzes the measures to improve the business climate in the construction sector (roadmap), implemented in Russia in recent years. The indicators of Russia in the international Doing ...Business rating are analyzed; an improvement in Russia's position in the field of favorable conditions for doing business, despite the difficult economic situation in the country is revealed. The main indicators of the effectiveness of optimizing the completion of procedures were the introduction of an exhaustive list of procedures with a description, the elimination of redundant (duplicate) procedures, a reduction in the duration of the procedure, and the introduction of digital technologies during the completion of procedures. Despite the reforms carried out in Russia, depending on the region, there are a number of problems of a different nature when going through the procedures at the stages of pre-design and project preparation, which entail an increase in time and financial costs. Because of this, it becomes necessary to develop additional measures to optimize procedures related to getting building permission.
Woven fiber composites have been increasingly employed as light-weight materials in aerospace, construction, and transportation industries due to their superior properties. These materials possess a ...hierarchical structure that necessitates the use of multiscale simulations in their modeling. To account for the inherent uncertainty in materials, such simulations must be integrated with statistical uncertainty quantification (UQ) and propagation (UP) methods. However, limited advancement has been made in this regard due to the significant computational costs and complexities in modeling spatially correlated structural variations coupled at different scales. In this work, a non-intrusive approach is proposed for multiscale UQ and UP to address these limitations. We introduce the top-down sampling method that allows to model non-stationary and continuous (but not differentiable) spatial variations of uncertainty sources by creating nested random fields (RFs) where the hyperparameters of an ensemble of RFs is characterized by yet another RF. We employ multi-response Gaussian RFs in top-down sampling and leverage statistical techniques (such as metamodeling and dimensionality reduction) to address the considerable computational costs of multiscale simulations. We apply our approach to quantify the uncertainty in a cured woven composite due to spatial variations of yarn angle, fiber volume fraction, and fiber misalignment angle. Our results indicate that, even in linear analysis, the effect of uncertainty sources on the material’s response could be significant.
Abstract Indonesia’s construction industry is still expanding. The construction sector is a major contributor to global waste production. Over 30% of construction waste is disposed of in landfills, ...leading to a detrimental impact on the environment. This study aims to identify the causes of construction waste in East Java’s Construction industry. The causes of construction waste were divided into two categories: causes of natural material waste and causes of fabricated material waste. Data for this study were collected using the questionnaire. The sample consisted of 32 respondents from medium-to large-scale construction enterprises involved in 4 building construction projects. The method used to identify the dominant waste is mean analysis, meanwhile the causes of construction waste is analyzed using Relative Importance Index (RII) method. The results show that the main cause of natural material waste is inaccurate field measurements resulting in excess volume, and the main cause of fabricated material waste is the cutting of leftover materials that cannot be used anymore. Through the findings the prevention or minimization of construction waste can be carried out according to the causes.
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