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

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Institution Title Type Date Author(s) Abstract Link
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.
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HKUST A financial decision making framework for construction projects based on 5D building information modeling (BIM) Journal 12/2015 Lu, Q., Won, J., and Cheng, J.C.P. Analyzing cash flows and undertaking project financing are important for contractors in managing construction projects. Traditional methods for cash flow analysis are based on the manual integration of time and cost information. However, the manual integration process can be automated by using five-dimensional building information modeling (5D BIM). Previous studies on 5D BIM have focused on estimating cash outflow rather than cash inflow analysis and project financing. This paper proposes a BIM-based methodology framework for cash flow analysis and project financing. The framework considers contract types and retainage to estimate cash inflow, and cash outflow patterns for equipment, manpower, and materials in order to more accurately measure cash outflow. Project financing scenarios can also be evaluated using the framework. Illustrative examples are demonstrated to validate the proposed framework by considering two what-if scenarios. Results show that the framework can help contractors analyze the cash flow and make appropriate decisions for different design and payment scheme alternatives in construction projects. Link
HKUST A framework for 3D traffic noise mapping using data from BIM and GIS integration Journal 01/2016 Deng, Y., Cheng, J.C.P., and Anumba, C.J. Traffic noise is a major health concern for people living in urban environments. Noise mapping can help evaluating the noise level for certain areas in a city. Traditionally, noise mapping is performed in 2D geographic information system (GIS). The use of 3D GIS is also emerging in noise mapping in recent years. However, the current noise-mapping platforms can only conduct noise evaluation for the outdoor environment and the indoor environment separately. In addition, related information about absorption coefficient and transmission loss (TL) in noise calculation is not properly retrieved and is often replaced with a single value. In this research, building information modelling (BIM) and 3D GIS are integrated in order to combine traffic noise evaluation in both outdoor environments and indoor environments in a single platform. In our developed BIM–GIS integration platform, the built environment is represented in a 3D GIS model that contains information at a high level of detail from BIM. With the integration with BIM, the 3D GIS model now has access to detailed indoor features such as interior walls and interior rooms. Noise evaluation could therefore be performed at a room level in the developed platform. Essential parameters such as absorption coefficient and TL can be extracted directly from BIM for noise calculation. The 3D GIS model is connected with detailed BIM so that any changes in the indoor and outdoor features can be reflected to each other. The Italian C.N.R model is modified and applied in the platform to conduct noise calculation. This paper presents the details for the development of the noise-mapping BIM–GIS platform based on ArcGIS. Two use cases were analysed to show the role of such platform in the decision-making process of both urban planning and interior design. Link
HKUST A framework for dimensional and surface quality assessment of precast concrete elements using BIM and 3D laser scanning Journal 08/2014 Kim, M.-K., Cheng, J.C.P., Sohn, H., and Chang, C.-C. This study presents a systematic and practical approach for dimensional and surface quality assessment of precast concrete elements using building information modeling (BIM) and 3D laser scanning technology. As precast concrete based rapid construction is becoming commonplace and standardized in the construction industry, checking the conformity of dimensional and surface qualities of precast concrete elements to the specified tolerances has become ever more important in order to prevent failure during construction. Moreover, as BIM gains popularity due to significant developments in information technology, an autonomous and intelligent quality assessment system that is interoperable with BIM is needed. The current methods for dimensional and surface quality assessment of precast concrete elements, however, rely largely on manual inspection and contact-type measurement devices, which are time demanding and costly. In addition, systematic data storage and delivery systems for dimensional and surface quality assessment are currently lacking. To overcome the limitations of the current methods for dimensional and surface quality assessment of precast concrete elements, this study aims to establish an end-to-end framework for dimensional and surface quality assessment of precast concrete elements based on BIM and 3D laser scanning. The proposed framework is composed of four parts: (1) the inspection checklists; (2) the inspection procedure; (3) the selection of an optimal scanner and scan parameters; and (4) the inspection data storage and delivery method. In order to investigate the feasibility of the proposed framework, case studies assessing the dimensional and surface qualities of actual precast concretes are conducted. The results of the case studies demonstrate that the proposed approach using BIM and 3D laser scanning has the potential to produce an automated and reliable dimensional and surface quality assessment for precast concrete elements. Link
HKU A Practical and Modern Approach to BIM Application for Quantity Surveying in Hong Kong Thesis 04/2016 TSE Tung -- N.A.
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