Quantifying weather impact on formwork shuttering and removal operation using system dynamics

Abstract

Weather condition is a significant factor that influences the activities of construction projects. This paper presents a framework that forecasts the losses on productivity due to the impact of weather conditions. The framework consists of three components; historical records database, analytical fuzzy model, and system dynamic model. The productivity of formwork shuttering and removal is directly impacted by two weather aspects; level of rain and temperature degree. The loss in productivity is modeled via analytical fuzzy model and system dynamic model. The proposed framework incorporates historical weather records, expert experiences, and fuzzy-set techniques in productivity losses forecasting. It provides more realistic forecast for productivity losses considering the impact of rain and temperature rises. Construction contractors benefit from the framework by assigning appropriate crew size for formwork shuttering and removal to meet project requirements with respect to total duration of project execution. A numerical example is presented to demonstrate the use of the proposed framework.