Identifier

etd-04122016-134804

Degree

Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)

Department

Engineering Science (Interdepartmental Program)

Document Type

Dissertation

Abstract

Recent advances in digital technology have had a significant influence on the quality and speed of sharing and communicating project information in the architecture, engineering, and construction (AEC) industry. The process of acquiring the design intent in order to develop and communicate project schedules, as critical components of project delivery, have similarly been benefitting from such progress. With the relatively recent techniques of Building Information Modeling (BIM) and its capability to integrate the facility design with its construction schedule, meaningul strides have been made in improving the information flow and eventually visualizing the final schedule in 4D. However, the need for faster and more efficient ways of generating both the schedule and its 4D visualization has been growing as it directly impacts the overhead cost, and hence the bottomline, of projects. Lack of direct integration and logical interoperability between the various computer systems used for these processes deprives the industry of the power of synergy that could have resulted from such explicit assimilation of the product and process models and their respective sub-processes. This research develops an approach that interprets 3D building information models into a source of direct input information to generate initial construction schedules for commercial building projects, which ultimately leads to automated visualization of the produced schedule in 4D BIM. By integrating an intermediate product model and generically predefined activities at domains level, it generates initial activities that capture the scope of the work in the design. The method also incorporates semi-automated sequencing algorithms that take into account the logic of support in structural construction and other factors related to work access and user preferences. The methodology has been implemented in a computer application built to substantiate its feasibility and then evaluated with the help of volunteer professionals in the industry by using test cases. The implementation and the tests conducted demonstrated that the developed methodology is feasible and can be considered as a step forward towards complete automation in the industry, while there are still various aspects open for improvement.

Date

2016

Document Availability at the Time of Submission

Student has submitted appropriate documentation to restrict access to LSU for 365 days after which the document will be released for worldwide access.

Committee Chair

Knapp, Gerald

DOI

10.31390/gradschool_dissertations.175

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