High-rise Building Construction Site Research Articles

Green Building Rating of High-Rise Buildings in Sri Lanka


 
 
 As a result of urbanization, constructions of high-rise buildings become a major component of urban development. Constructing high-rise buildings contributes to social, economic and environmental development as well. There are many stages of construction including planning, designing, procurement and implementation. There is a wide range of sustainability practices which can be implemented in each stage of construction. In leading Sri Lanka to Sustainable Development, the green building rating system was introduced by National Green Building Council of Sri Lanka in 2002. This rating system has 100 total points and minimum of 40 points is required for green building certification. The rating system has different components. Among them sustainable sites category includes 25% of total points in green building rating system. This research study highlights the significance of sustainable sites category in order to award the green certification in green building rating system. For this research five major high-rise building construction sites in Colombo were selected and existing site selection practices of each site were investigated. Each site was visited and in-depth discussions were carried out with the planning engineer and other people in the construction site. The structured questionnaire was filled and scores were given accordingly where they have met the sustainable sites criteria. Two sites out of five could not earn single point as they did not fulfill the prerequisites of the site section category. The rest of the sites (three) earned 20, 19, and 18 respectively out of 25 points. In this study, lack of awareness in sustainable site selection practices has dropped the chances of being eligible for the green building certification. Since the minimum points required for green building certification is 40, buildings which are under planning or pre-construction stage have higher chances of obtaining silver, gold and platinum awards for green building certification. Therefore, sustainable sites category of the green building rating system contributes significantly to increase the score and therefore it is highly important in green certification & sustainable construction.
 Keywords: Green concept, High-rise buildings, Sustainable development, Sustainable site selection
 
 

High-Rise Building Construction Progress Measurement from Top View Based on Component Detection

The construction progress of a high-rise building is hidden by clutter such as formwork, wood slats, and rebar, making it difficult to measure its progress through existing automated techniques. In this paper, we propose a method to monitor the construction process of high-rise buildings. Specifically, by using the target detection technique, unfinished building components are identified from the top view, and then the identified components are registered to the BIM elements one by one. This is achieved by comparing the position relationship between the target detection results and the projection area of the BIM elements on the imaging plane. Finally, the overall construction progress is inferred by calculating the number of identified and registered components. The method was tested on a high-rise building construction site. The experimental results show that the method is promising and is expected to provide a solid basis for the successful automatic acquisition of the construction process. The use of top view reduces occlusion compared to similar methods, and the identification of the unfinished component makes the method more suitable for the actual construction sites of high-rise buildings. In addition, the combination of target detection and rough registration allows this method to take full advantage of the contextual information in the images and avoid errors caused by misidentification.

Autonomous construction hoist system based on deep reinforcement learning in high-rise building construction

Construction hoists at most building construction sites are manually controlled by human operators using their intuitions; as a result, unnecessary trips are often made when multiple hoists are operating simultaneously and/or when complicated hoist calls are requested. These trips increase a passenger's waiting time and lifting time, reducing the lifting performance of the hoists. To address this issue, the authors develop an autonomous hoist supported by a deep Q-network (DQN), a deep reinforcement learning method. The results show that the DQN algorithm can provide better control policy in complicated real-world hoist control situations than previous control algorithms, reducing the waiting time and lifting time of passengers by up to 86.7%. Such an automated hoist control system helps shorten the project schedule by increasing the lifting performance of multiple hoists at high-rise building construction sites.

Tracking major resources for automated progress monitoring of construction activities: masonry work case

PurposeThe purpose of this study is to monitor the progress of construction activities in an automated way by using sensor-based technologies for tracking multiple resources that are used in building construction.Design/methodology/approachAn automated on-site progress monitoring approach was proposed and a proof-of-concept prototype was developed, followed by a field experimentation study at a high-rise building construction site. The developed approach was used to integrate sensor data collected from multiple resources used in different steps of an activity. It incorporated the domain-specific heuristics that were related to the site layout conditions and method of activity.FindingsThe prototype estimated the overall progress with 95% accuracy. More accurate and up-to-date progress measurement was achieved compared to the manual approach, and the need for visual inspections and manual data collection from the field was eliminated. Overall, the field experiments demonstrated that low-cost implementation is possible, if readily available or embedded sensors on equipment are used.Originality/valuePrevious studies either monitored one particular piece of equipment or the developed approaches were only applicable to limited activity types. This study demonstrated that it is technically feasible to determine progress at the site by fusing sensor data that are collected from multiple resources during the construction of building superstructure. The rule-based reasoning algorithms, which were developed based on a typical work practice of cranes and hoists, can be adapted to other activities that involve transferring bulk materials and use cranes and/or hoists for material handling.

Ambient Intelligence to Improve Construction Site Safety: Case of High-Rise Building in Thailand.

The relatively high rate of injuries in construction is not surprising, as site work by its very nature ranks highly on fundamental risk factors. Working at heights often magnifies these risk factors. The literature reveals that falls from heights accounts for a large percentage of injuries in construction worldwide. Thailand is no exception, where fall accidents constitute the majority of high-rise construction accidents despite preventive measures being implemented. This paper examines how the use of a simple Ambient Intelligence (AmI) system—a device comprising a microcontroller, microwave sensors, Light Emitting Diode (LED) and audio alarm—could help to affect safety behavioural change of on-site construction workers in order to decrease the potential for fall accidents. An experiment was conducted at a high-rise building construction site in Bangkok, Thailand to examine the effectiveness of the AmI in helping workers mitigate the risk of falling from heights. The analysis of the data collected over two work weeks from the pre- and post-AmI application using X-bar charts and one-way analysis of variance (ANOVA) revealed a significant reduction of about 78% in the number of workers passing through the fall hazard zones. The finding established the potential of a simple AmI for reducing the risk of fall accidents.

Investigating the Occupational Health and Safety Practices in High-Rise Building Construction Sites

Investigating the Occupational Health and Safety Practices in High-Rise Building Construction Sites

UAV Integration in Current Construction Safety Planning and Monitoring Processes: Case Study of a High-Rise Building Construction Project in Chile

The majority of construction fatalities and accidents in Chile occur in high-rise building construction projects that also suffer from an insufficient number of safety managers on-site. Unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) and their generated aerial visual contents have the potential to help the limited number of safety managers in such projects to quickly and properly inspect the inaccessible, hard-to-reach, or unsafe locations on the site and to enhance their safety assessment of those projects. In this study, a case study approach was adopted to investigate how UAV technology and their generated aerial visual contents might affect the current approach of conducting safety planning and monitoring in a high-rise building construction site in Chile with a limited number of safety managers. The case study involved three steps: (1) understanding the current safety planning and monitoring process in a high-rise construction project, (2) investigating how UAV-related tasks and generated visual contents could be integrated into the current process, and (3) assessment of how such UAV integration might affect the current safety planning and monitoring process. The outcome of the case study provided a detailed overview of the new steps required to integrate UAVs in the current safety planning and monitoring process and concluded that adoption of UAV technology had enhanced identification and assessment of hazards in the high-rise project. Hazards associated with unsafe acts and conditions at height (e.g., missing guardrails or safety nets around unprotected edges or openings and loose or unsecured material at height) were the most common types of hazards identified using the UAV in this case study. Safety managers in the project also rated aerial videos captured by the UAV as the most useful type of data for their safety planning and monitoring tasks. The UAV also significantly reduced the amount of time required for safety managers to conduct their site visit walkthroughs on the project site.

An Upgraded Sine Cosine Algorithm for Tower Crane Selection and Layout Problem

Tower crane is the core construction facility in the high-rise building construction sites. Proper selection and location of construction tower cranes not only can affect the expenses but also it can have impact on the material handling process of building construction. Tower crane selection and layout problem (TCSLP) is a type of construction site layout problem, which is considered as an NP-hard problem. In consequence, researchers have extensively used metaheuristics for their solution. The Sine Cosine Algorithm (SCA) is a newly developed metaheuristic which performs well for TCSLP, however, efficient use of this algorithm requires additional considerations. For this purpose, the present paper studies an upgraded sine cosine algorithm (USCA) that employs a harmony search based operator to improve the exploration and deal with variable constraints simultaneously and uses an archive to save the best solutions. Subsequently, the upgraded sine cosine algorithm is employed to optimize the locations to find the best tower crane layout. Several benchmark functions are studied to evaluate the performance of the USCA. A comparative study indicates that the USCA performs quite well in comparison to other recently developed metaheuristic algorithms.

Smartphone-Based Data Collection System for Repetitive Concrete Temperature Monitoring in High-Rise Building Construction

The systematic collection and management of on-site information in high-rise building construction are important factors in construction management. Recently, wireless sensor network (WSN) technology has been utilized to manage the various tasks involved in high-rise construction efficiently and in a timely manner. However, because of the repeated installation of sensors and repeaters along with the construction progress, the existing WSN technology is ineffective when applied to the temperature management of concrete in structural work. Here, we propose a new data collection method in which a worker uses a smartphone to repeatedly monitor concrete temperature. In field implementation, the proposed system enables concrete temperature management without a transmission gap for monitoring in 60-min intervals with smartphones provided to 20% of the structural workers. Next, a case study was performed on a high-rise building construction site to analyze the effectiveness of the proposed system in terms of cost savings by avoiding schedule delay. The results of the case study show that the proposed system can reduce the additional work costs resulting from delays in concrete curing and save up to $18,907 in labor costs. In addition, this system can reduce the temperature management time of the quality manager and enable more efficient management. It is also expected that this system will contribute to on-site waste management by reducing the number of embedded sensors.

Optimization of flexible lift processes on high-rise building construction sites

Abstract Timely delivery of materials and laborers to workface is critical to the smooth progression of a task on the construction site. This subject is of particular importance in high-rise building projects where the vertical transportation may turn into a bottleneck in the delivery process, if not precisely planned. In such contexts, lift cars represent a contested resource for movement of people and materials and any delayed lifting leads to disrupted tasks on the building floors. The available literature predominantly relies on predefined or rule-based scenarios in addressing the lifting problem which may result in suboptimal solutions to the operation of the lifts. Therefore, this research aims to develop a holistic mathematical model which identifies the optimum operational plan for the entire lift systems in high rise construction. The model has a mixed integer nature incorporating characteristics and constraints of lift cars, construction resources and activities, and site conditions. The optimality is targeted through minimum travel time both at the whole scale and for a single lift car. To improve generalizability, the model has been adapted to variant lift optimization problems under different construction scenarios. It is then integrated with the zoning problem in order to determine optimal zoning configuration for a given lift system. The model is tested on a hypothetical case replicating complexities and constraints of real-world situations. The results indicate that the model can efficiently find an optimal solution for the lift systems which imposes minimum vertical travel time to the project.

Integrity Testing of Pile Cover Using Distributed Fibre Optic Sensing

The integrity of cast-in-place foundation piles is a major concern in geotechnical engineering. In this study, distributed fibre optic sensing (DFOS) cables, embedded in a pile during concreting, are used to measure the changes in concrete curing temperature profile to infer concrete cover thickness through modelling of heat transfer processes within the concrete and adjacent ground. A field trial was conducted at a high-rise building construction site in London during the construction of a 51 m long test pile. DFOS cables were attached to the reinforcement cage of the pile at four different axial directions to obtain distributed temperature change data along the pile. The monitoring data shows a clear development of concrete hydration temperature with time and the pattern of the change varies due to small changes in concrete cover. A one-dimensional axisymmetric heat transfer finite element (FE) model is used to estimate the pile geometry with depth by back analysing the DFOS data. The results show that the estimated pile diameter varies with depth in the range between 1.40 and 1.56 m for this instrumented pile. This average pile diameter profile compares well to that obtained with the standard Thermal Integrity Profiling (TIP) method. A parametric study is conducted to examine the sensitivity of concrete and soil thermal properties on estimating the pile geometry.

CYCLONE 모델링 기법 개선을 통한 초고층 공사의 자재 양중 작업 프로세스 최적화 연구

초고층 건축공사에서 리프트카를 이용한 자재 양중 관리는 핵심적인 관리분야 중 하나이다. 기존 연구들은 양중계획의 기본 단위인 양중 사이클타임이나 리프트카의 운행효율은 기존 사례를 참고하여 적용하거나 관리목표로 설정하고 개략적으로 산정하는 한계가 있었다. 따라서 본 연구에서는 양중 사이클타임을 단축하고 가동율을 향상시키기 위하여 자재 양중작업 프로세스를 최적화하는 방법론 제안을 목표로 하였다. CYCLONE 모델을 변형하여 작업시간과 작업위치를 반영할 수 있도록 개선하고, 세부 작업을 조정하여 프로세스를 최적화 하는 방법론을 제안하였다. 이 방법론에 따라 양중작업 프로세스를 개선하고 민감도 분석과 현장 적용성 평가를 실시하였으며 초고층 현장에 적용하였다. 기존 작업 프로세스와 개선된 작업 프로세스를 양중 높이별로 시뮬레이션하고 이를 현장 적용 결과 데이터와 비교하여 양중작업 시간 단축과 가동율 향상 정도를 비교 분석하여 최적화 방법론의 효용성을 검증하였다. The planning for material lifting operations is one of the key processes in high-rise building construction. Several previous studies have used rough calculations by referring to existing practices or establishing a target value for lifting cycle time or operating rate. Therefore, the purpose of this study is to propose a material lifting process optimization method for reducing the lifting cycle time and increasing the operating rate. In this study, we improve the cyclic operation network (CYCLONE) modeling method that considers the duration and zone information of each work task. This method can be used to hand over work tasks to another crew group in the work process. According to this methodology, this study optimizes the material lifting process, performs a sensitivity analysis, and evaluates the field applicability of the proposed material lifting process optimization method. Therefore, the optimized process was then applied to a high-rise building construction site. The lifting work process time and operating rate for the simulated as - is lifting process data, optimized process data, and field application result data were compared for each lifting height. From this comparison, the effectiveness of the optimization methodology was confirmed.

Construction worker hoisting simulation for sky-lobby lifting system

Abstract Effectively transporting construction workers to their workspaces located at height is crucial in high-rise building constructions because excessive hoisting time can lead to productivity loss and schedule delay. High-rise building constructions are characterized by a small number of hoisting equipment and a large amount of construction resources to be hoisted. Accordingly, a sky lobby system has been applied in high-rise building construction sites to increase the performance of lift systems. However, the performance of sky lobby systems can be significantly changed according to the configuration factors, such as the number of shuttle and local lift cars and the sky lobby floor location. Nevertheless, previous studies did not yet focus on the relationship between these factors and the performance of sky lobby systems. Therefore, we examined herein that relationship by using a discrete event simulation method. Through the simulation experiment, we found that the configuration parameters could have a significant influence on the system performance. The configuration parameters showed non-linear and complex patterns in the lifting performance, thereby making it difficult to find an effective configuration method to increase the performance of lift systems and even deteriorating the performance of lift systems in the commonly used range of configuration parameters. Therefore, the configuration parameters of the sky lobby system should be more carefully planned with quantitative methods before being applied to high-rise building constructions.

Accidents Preventive Practice for High-Rise Construction

The demand of high-rise projects continues to grow due to the reducing of usable land area in Klang Valley, Malaysia. The rapidly development of high-rise projects has leaded to the rise of fatalities and accidents. An accident that happened in a construction site can cause serious physical injury. The accidents such as people falling from height and struck by falling object were the most frequent accidents happened in Malaysian construction industry. The continuous growth of high-rise buildings indicates that there is a need of an effective safety and health management. Hence, this research aims to identify the causes of accidents and the ways to prevent accidents that occur at high-rise building construction site. Qualitative method was employed in this research. Interview surveying with safety officers who are involved in highrise building project in Kuala Lumpur were conducted in this research. Accidents were caused by man-made factors, environment factors or machinery factors. The accidents prevention methods were provide sufficient Personal Protective Equipment (PPE), have a good housekeeping, execute safety inspection, provide safety training and execute accidents investigation. In the meanwhile, interviewees have suggested the new prevention methods that were develop a proper site layout planning and de-merit and merit system among sub-contractors, suppliers and even employees regarding safety at workplace matters. This research helps in explaining the causes of accidents and identifying area where prevention action should be implemented, so that workers and top management will increase awareness in preventing site accidents.

고층 건물에서 시공성 요인이 생산성에 미치는 영향 분석 -철골 공사를 중심으로-

시공성에 대한 연구는 활발히 진행되어 왔으며 시공성이 공기, 원가, 품질, 생산성을 높인다고 다양한 연구에서 언급하고 있다. 그러나 실제 시공성이 생산성에 미치는 영향을 정량적으로 분석한 연구는 사례조사나 설문을 통한 결과가 대부분이여서 미흡한 실정이다. 또한 시공성에 관한 연구가 세부 특정 공정의 시공성을 높이기 위한 것들이 대부분이여서 다양한 공종에 적용하기에는 다소 hard하다고 할 수 있다. 따라서 본 논문은 시공성에 영향을 주는 인자들을 도출하고 이 요인들이 각 공종의 시공성에 미치는 영향도를 분석한 후 실제 공사 데이터를 가지고 시공성 요인이 생산성에 미치는 영향을 검증하여 기존 연구에 대한 뒷받침이 되고자 한다. Achieving high productivity and constructability are very important issues in construction industry. Study on constructability have been conducted actively, and many researches referred that improving constructability can enhance cost, quality, schedule, productivity and so on. However, there are lack of quantitative analysis, since most studies have proved correlation between productivity and constructability using questionaries and by case studies. Also, researches are mostly about specific detail scope of work to improve constructability, thus it is hard to apply constructability factors on various work in construction. In this paper, will deduct general factors affecting on constructability and evaluate effects of factors affecting on each work. Furthermore this paper will verify impact of factors affecting on productivity by multi regression anlaysis using actual data sets of high-rise building construction site.

Development of 3D camera-based robust bolt-hole detection system for bolting cabin

Abstract At high-rise building construction sites, construction workers still climb dangerous vertical steel beams. Hence, the bolting cabin helps construction workers to assemble bolts safely. In order to automatically assemble bolts to steel frame, the bolting cabin must estimate bolt-hole location. To do this, precise bolt-hole detection algorithms are important. Generally, a 2D camera is used for visual servoing in industrial fields. However, a construction site is an outdoor environment that does not have constant illumination. Recently, a 3D camera that provides depth images has been used in industrial fields. However, this 3D camera provides a low resolution image with strong noise around the edges. To overcome these problems, an edge detection filter that is robust to strong noise is needed for precise bolt-hole detection. Therefore, we propose a Modified Discrete Gaussian-Hermite Moments (MDGHM) filter based on moment information to detect edges precisely. Using the MDGHM filter, the results show that the proposed method can be effectively applied to bolt-hole detection better than wavelet filter and mixed matching method.

초고층 건축공사의 특수성을 고려한 최적 자재 재고 관리 방안에 관한 연구 -철근공사를 중심으로-

Since high-rise building construction sites are usually located in crowded city areas, sufficient spaces for the inventories of key materials are rarely available. This spatial constraints have been one of the critical challenge that may cause productivity loss and increasing costs of the high-rise building construction projects. The proper material inventory management is certaing a key to the success of high-rise building construction projects as it handles difficulty of securing material stock yards, changes in demands, uncertain delivery time through integrating the construction schedules and actively responding to the key materials attributes. In this light, this research analyzes the latest inventory model, (Q,r) model, in accordance with the high rise building characteristics. This research suggests an optimal inventory management of re-bar considering various demands and lead times. The case study is also presented with regard to the re-bar inventory management.

Double Sensor Type 감지장치를 통한 리프트 정지위치 오차누적 개선 방안 제안

초고층 건축물의 수요가 늘어나면서 수직 양중 계획과 장비에 대한 중요성이 증대되고 있으며, 경제적이고 효율적인 리프트 사용을 위하여 무인 리프트의 사용 비중이 늘어나고 있다. 하지만 리프트의 정지위치 에러가 발생하거나 누적되는 경우 작업 효율성이 떨어지고, 문제 해결을 위해 리프트 업체가 리프트를 재 세팅 하는 동안 리프트 사용이 불가하게 되어 공사 진행에 장애가 된다. 본 연구에서는 리프트 정지위치 에러에 의한 시간 및 비용 손실을 방지하기 위해 리프트 정지위치 감지장치를 개발하였다. 실험을 통해, 정지위치 에러 발생 시 이를 보정하는 기능을 검증하였고, 정확도도 약 9.75mm 증가하는 것을 확인하였다. The Plan and equipment of vertical lifting are very important in high-rise building construction site, and unmanned lifts usage is increasing for financial and efficient reason. However if lift stop position error occur, It can be accumulated. And the lift can not be available during an engineer fix the problem. So loss of time and cost will occur when lifts have problems. This paper reports an improved lift stop position sensing device for preventing loss of time and cost from lift stop position error. The result of tests showed that the system has a correction function of lift stop position error, and the accuracy of device which was developed in this paper was about 9.75mm better than existing equipment.

Work fatigue and physiological symptoms in different occupations of high-elevation construction workers

The objective of this study is to investigate whether work fatigue and physiological symptoms that high-elevation construction workers experience would be affected by the occupations. Questionnaires of demographic data and subjective fatigue symptoms as well as some physiological measurements were carried out, pre- and post-shift, on scaffolders, steel fixers, formworkers, electrician-plumbers, concreters and miscellaneous workers at a high-rise building construction site. This study found that some subjective fatigue symptoms coincide with the life style of some workers and that the extent of fatigue symptoms and physiological strains varies among different occupations of construction workers. Scaffolders, steel fixers and formworkers are categorized as physically demanding fatigue type of workers, while concreters, electrician-plumbers and miscellaneous workers as general type. The prevalence and occurrence of subjective fatigue symptoms indicate high-elevation workers have more complaints of “projection of physical impairment” than “drowsiness and dullness” and “difficulty in concentration”. Some unexpected changes (i.e., post-shift measurements are greater than pre-shift ones) in some strength tests in scaffolders and concreters were consistent with the observations of how they exercised their bodies during work shift. Considerable variation of average heart rate among occupations was found, with scaffolders the highest and concreters the lowest. This study concludes that questionnaires of subjective fatigue symptoms and some physiological measurements can be used as indicators to predict the extent of strains or hazards which construction workers encounter. In terms of management program of safety and health, more attention should be paid to those physically demanding workers, such as scaffolders, workers with lower sense of safety and health, such as miscellaneous workers, and workers with older age, such as concreters.

ユニットフロアー工法における半乾式耐火被覆先付と製作ヤードのサイトオートメーション化

Unitization of members is being carried out at a high rise building construction site to enhance work safety and tower cran's lifting efficiency. This paper focuses on the improvement of one such system, unit floor method. Main subjects include development of pre-application of semi-dry fireproofing and site automation of unit floor fabrication yard. These improvements considerably enhance efficiency of unit floor fabrication and of work at each floor after installation compared with the conventional unit floor method.