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Topic Review
H-BIM Workflow for Interventions on Heritage Building Elements
Intervention projects for heritage buildings depend on the quality of multidisciplinary data sets; their collection, structure, and semantics. Building information model (BIM) based workflows for heritage buildings accumulate some of the data sets in a shared information model that contains the building’s geometry assemblies with associated attributes (such as material). A BIM model of any building can be a source of data for different engineering assessments, for example, solar and wind exposure and seismic vulnerability, but for historic buildings it is particularly important for interventions like conservation, rehabilitation, and improvements such as refurbishment and retrofitting. Semantic technologies, such as ontologies, enhance the quality of information on interventions in historical buildings. 
  • 1.4K
  • 31 Aug 2022
Topic Review
BIM, GPP for CDW Management
Information Modelling and Management (IMM) methods for Most Economically Advantageous Tender (MEAT) can promote the adoption of environmentally sustainable practices. Despite the wide regulatory framework and existing drivers, Construction and Demolition Waste (CDW) trend is still upward. The literature review regarding IMM and CDW management implementation during the design phases is mainly focused on studies and applications from the designer and contractor’s points of view, although few studies focused on Green Public Procurement (GPP) and CDW management integration from the Public Client’s point of view. This research aims at investigating the integration and efficiency of MEAT and IMM to promote the application of sustainable strategies focused on waste reduction and resource valorization. The study investigates the Public Client’s role in promoting sustainable practices, introducing digital material inventory and BIM during the design phases, and including environmental award criteria in the call for tender documents. A Design Build (DB) procurement model is considered in the case study of a brownfield renovation and the construction of a new school in northern Italy. The methodology provided the Public Client with a replicable method to evaluate the environmental impact of the bids, allowing for proper selective demolition planning, CDW decrease, and organization while promoting their integration in companies’ expertise and procedures.
  • 1.4K
  • 06 Sep 2021
Topic Review
Refurbishment of Vernacular Heritage
The refurbishment of traditional vernacular architecture is currently of interest for the conservation of heritage, historic landscape and cultural landscape, as well as for its potential benefits in the field of environmental sustainability. 
  • 1.4K
  • 14 Sep 2021
Topic Review
Passive Auto-Tactile Heuristic Tiles
Mobile service robots often have to work in dynamic and cluttered environments. Multiple safety hazards exist for robots in such work environments, which visual sensors may not detect in time before collisions or robotic damage. An alternative hazard alert system using tactile methods is explored to pre-emptively convey surrounding spatial information to robots working in complex environments or under poor lighting conditions.
  • 1.3K
  • 13 Oct 2023
Topic Review
Vision-Based Structural Vibration Tracking Using a Digital Camera
Computer-vision-based target tracking can be applied to structural vibration monitoring, but current target tracking methods suffer from noise in digital image processing. A new target-tracking method based on the sparse optical flow technique is introduced to improve the accuracy in tracking the target, especially when the target has a large displacement. The proposed method utilizes the ORB technique to maintain a variety of keypoints and combines the multi-level strategy with a sparse optical flow algorithm to search the keypoints with a large motion vector for tracking. Then, an outlier removal method based on Hamming distance and interquartile range (IQR) score is introduced to minimize the error. The proposed target tracking method is verified through a lab experiment---a three-story shear building structure subjected to various harmonic excitations. It is compared with existing sparse optical flow-based target tracking methods and target tracking methods based on three other types of techniques, i.e., feature matching, dense optical flow, and template matching. The results show that the performance of target tracking is greatly improved through the use of a multi-level strategy and the proposed outlier removal method. The proposed sparse optical flow-based target tracking method achieves the best accuracy compared to other existing target tracking methods.
  • 1.3K
  • 01 Dec 2022
Topic Review
Sustainable Project Governance
As efforts toward sustainable development have gained in popularity, green project governance is increasingly included in the area of engineering construction, with the creation and supervision of green engineering projects dominating numerous project industries. Sustainable projects aim to achieve a harmonious coexistence between humans and nature, creating genuinely comfortable and healthy living conditions for people. The three central variables affecting green engineering projects are the government, the consumer, and the project-monitoring organisation.
  • 1.3K
  • 09 Feb 2023
Topic Review
Bridge Information Modeling and Life Cycle Assessment
Construction 4.0 is a platform that combines digital and physical technologies to enhance the design and construction of the built environment. Bridge Information Modeling (BrIM), a component of Construction 4.0′s digital technologies, streamlines construction processes and promotes collaboration among project stakeholders. A comprehensive literature review and bibliometric and content analysis are conducted on building information modeling (BIM), life cycle assessment (LCA), life cycle cost (LCC), BrIM, and Bridge LCA. It investigates the potential integration of BrIM, LCA, and LCC as inputs for bridges’ LCA to enhance decision making by providing designers with detailed and interactive cost and environmental information throughout an asset’s lifecycle and explores the functionalities of Construction 4.0 and its potential influence on the economy and sustainability of bridge projects. The reviewed literature showed that the tools currently used to apply LCA and LCC methods for infrastructure assets lack the ability to identify possible integration with BrIM and hold limitations in their key functions for identifying the utmost features that need to be adopted in the creation of any tool to increase the general resilience of bridges and infrastructure.
  • 1.3K
  • 01 Nov 2023
Topic Review
Novel Manufacturing Methods for Textile-Reinforced Concrete
Textile-reinforced concrete (TRC) is a composite material consisting of a concrete matrix with a high-performance reinforcement made of technical textiles. TRC offers unique mechanical properties for the construction industry, enabling the construction of lightweight, material-minimized structures with high load-bearing potential. In addition, compared with traditional concrete design, TRC offers unique possibilities to realize free-form, double-curved structures. 
  • 1.3K
  • 25 Oct 2023
Topic Review
Design for Additive Manufacturing in Construction
Design for additive manufacturing (DfAM) consists of two elements: (1) design for assembly (DfA) and (2) design for manufacture (DfM). DfMA indicates an overall transition from a sequential, conventional approach to a non-linear, iterative design technique.
  • 1.3K
  • 19 Apr 2023
Topic Review
Carbon Emissions from Construction in China
The construction industry’s high energy consumption and carbon emissions significantly burden the ecological environment. Numerous solid wastes and greenhouse gases (GHG) are generated as high-energy-consuming and high-emission products during the construction process. Thirty percent of China’s total energy consumption comes from construction projects.
  • 1.3K
  • 17 May 2022
Topic Review
Innovative Materials for Sustainable Buildings’ Energy Performance
In a broader context, sustainable materials refer to materials that are produced, used, and disposed of in a way that minimizes their impact on the environment, society, and economy. The concept of sustainability involves meeting present needs without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs. Therefore, sustainable materials support ecological balance, conserve resources, and contribute to long-term societal well-being. They could be synthesized by microorganisms (or part of them) under different/ specific environmental conditions known as bio-sourced material or Geo-materials inspired by geological systems originating from the billion years long history of the earth (having geological origin) or even green materials that have a negligible load on the earth's environment and are harmless to human health in the process of raw material collection, product manufacturing, the application process, and after use. In the presence of these materials, conventional materials will be outdated. Their application in novel ways, especially in the building sector, is merely popping out, calling to be explored and applied in research. Using sustainable building materials is a promising alternative in building envelope applications to improve in-use energy efficiency. These materials, having a low environmental impact, the advantage of being renewable, and low embodied energy, contribute to global sustainability. During the last decades, waste management and green energy have gained massive popularity as they act on preserving the environment, reducing waste treatment and disposal costs, and generating alternative materials vulnerable to many industrial applications. These materials are sustainable and will positively affect social well-being as they will be replenished by photosynthesis daily. These pragmatic materials are the unsurpassed alternative as they not only target the reduction in daily carbon dioxide emissions but also offer thermal comfort with less energy consumption for the functioning of the buildings. With everything happening around us, it is vital to take serious measures when moderating and controlling energy consumption everywhere.
  • 1.3K
  • 17 Nov 2023
Topic Review Peer Reviewed
Energy Efficiency in Buildings: Performance Gaps and Sustainable Materials
Real-world energy efficiency in the building sector is currently inadequate due to significant discrepancies between predicted and actual building energy performance. As operational energy is optimized through improved building envelopes, embodied energy typically increases, further exacerbating the problem. This gap underscores the critical need to re-evaluate current practices and materials used in energy-efficient building construction. It is well established that adopting a life cycle view of energy efficiency is essential to mitigate the building sector’s contribution to rising global energy consumption and CO2 emissions. Therefore, this study aims to examine existing research on sustainable building materials for life cycle energy efficiency. Specifically, it reviews recent research to identify key trends, challenges, and suggestions from tested novel materials. A combination of theoretical analysis and narrative synthesis is employed in a four-stage framework discussing the challenges, context, concepts, and the reviewed literature. Key trends include the growing adoption of sustainable materials, such as bio-fabricated and 3D printed materials, which offer improved insulation, thermal regulation, and energy management capabilities. Multifunctional materials with self-healing properties are also emerging as promising solutions for reducing energy loss and enhancing building durability. The focus on reusing materials from the agricultural, food production, and paper manufacturing industries in building construction highlights the opportunity to facilitate a circular economy. However, the challenges are substantial, with more research required to ascertain long-term performance, show opportunities to scale the implementation of these novel materials, and drive market acceptance.
  • 1.3K
  • 30 Sep 2024
Topic Review
Optimizing Buildings’ Life Cycle Performance
The main considerations in the early stage of architectural design are usually related to form and function. At the same time, with the growing concern regarding energy saving and carbon emission reduction, the parameters for the construction and physical quality of buildings are receiving more attention at the conceptual and schematic design stages. Diverse design options can emerge with the large number of variables to be considered in these stages. Moreover, the combined efforts to reduce buildings’ life cycle environmental impacts and cost, as well as the non-linear and often tradeoff relationship between the two objectives, make finding optimal design solutions for buildings’ life cycle performance complicated. Previous studies have established workflows to optimize buildings’ life cycle energy consumption, GWP and/or cost; however, architectural design diversity has not been sufficiently discussed at the same time. A parametric optimization design process is established, aiming at minimizing the building’s operational energy consumption, life cycle environmental impacts, and life cycle cost here. The setting of variables, as well as the workflows of the optimization process, is discussed from the perspective of both life cycle performance and architectural design diversity.
  • 1.2K
  • 22 Jul 2022
Topic Review
3D Printing in Construction
Using 3D printing in the construction industry is gaining attention as a high-potential means of digitalization and automation of the construction process. Digital fabrication in construction would help reduce the environmental and economic impact of the building industry, allowing to realize efficient and sustainable structures for the future. Various types of large-scale 3D printing techniques and construction materials can be used. 
  • 1.2K
  • 02 Dec 2022
Topic Review
Concrete from Construction Solid Waste
With the development of human society and urban modernization, a large amount of construction waste is generated every year due to the demolition of buildings. The annual output of these construction wastes can reach 4 billion tons, and the output is increasing year by year. Most of these construction wastes are directly dumped or landfilled, and the recycling rate is extremely low; pollution of the environment is increasingly serious. In recent years, with the awakening of human environmental awareness, coupled with natural aggregates and cementing material in short supply, people have gradually turned their attention to this part of construction waste. Various technical means to prepare it into RCA, RFA, and RP, and recycled concrete. However, the performance of these recycled materials is generally inferior to that of natural materials.
  • 1.2K
  • 24 Nov 2021
Topic Review
Integrated Off-Site Construction Design Process
Off-site construction (OSC) offers a promising means to improve the efficiency of construction projects. However, the lack of experience and knowledge regarding its use results in errors in design owing to conflicts and omissions of considerations for OSC projects. To mitigate these problems, the design for manufacturing and assembly (DfMA) is widely used to include the considerations in the OSC design process.
  • 1.2K
  • 14 Apr 2022
Topic Review
Modular Construction in the UK
Offsite modular construction has emerged as a popular solution to tackle the chronic housing shortage and attain net-zero carbon targets in the UK. This technique involves the prefabrication of building components, sub-assemblies, and parts in off-site factories, which are then transferred and assembled on site as integral parts of a larger structure. These modular units may either constitute a small fraction of the overall project or form the entire building. Accordingly, the proliferation of modular construction is frequently justified by the promise of superior quality and precision in manufacturing, as well as economies of scale in mass-producing numerous standardised units, leading to enhanced productivity, rapid production, reduction of waste, and efficient allocation of resources.
  • 1.2K
  • 26 May 2023
Topic Review
Degradation of Concrete Structures in Nuclear Power Plants
Concrete, an integral part of a nuclear power plant (NPP), experiences degradation during their operational lifetime of the plant. The damage mechanism could be chemical or physical. The major causes of chemical degradation include alkali–aggregate reactions, leaching, sulfate attack, bases and acids attack, and carbonation. Physical degradation is a consequence of both environmental and mechanical factors combined. These factors are mainly elevated temperature, radiation, abrasion and erosion, salt crystallization, freeze–thaw distortions, fatigue and vibration. Additionally, steel reinforcements, prestressing steels, liner plates, and structural steel also experience degradation. 
  • 1.2K
  • 14 Nov 2022
Topic Review
Earth Observation for Sustainable Infrastructure
Infrastructure is a fundamental sector for sustainable development and Earth observation has great potentials for sustainable infrastructure development (SID). However, implementations of the timely, large–scale and multi–source Earth observation are still limited in satisfying the huge global requirements of SID. This review demonstrates that Earth observation has great potentials for sustainable infrastructure development. EOSI can benefit about 85% of infrastructure influenced SDGs and 61% of all SDGs, but Earth observation has been implemented in only 15% of infrastructure influenced SDG targets, and 70% of the infrastructure influenced targets that can be directly or indirectly derived from Earth observation data have not been included in current SDG indicators.
  • 1.2K
  • 21 Apr 2021
Topic Review
Sustainable Development through the Perspective of Construction 4.0
The construction industry utilizes a substantial number of resources, which has negative impacts on both environmental and socioeconomic aspects. Therefore, it is important to reduce these negative impacts and maintain sustainable development (SD). Studies suggest that integrating Industry 4.0 (also called Construction 4.0 (C4.0) in the construction industry) and SD may help address these concerns, which is a new and ever-evolving field.
  • 1.2K
  • 31 Oct 2022
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