An integrated simulation model for site layout planning of tunnelling projects

Overlooking site layout in the planning phase of construction projects leads to loss of productivity and incurs extra costs. In tunneling projects, site layout has a significant impact on material flow and tunneling operations, particularly on congested sites. In addition, construction planning decisions can influence the efficiency of the layout. This paper proposes simulation as a decision making tool to model tunnel construction operations and site layout, and capture their mutual influences. To facilitate building the simulation model, even for users with limited simulation knowledge, a special purpose simulation (SPS) tool was customized and developed. This simulation tool provides an integrated environment to model the parameters of different disciplines including site layout, material procurement, tunnel operations and logistics. The developed tool is of great assistance for the planners to make decisions simultaneously on site layout and other construction planning parameters, and find the most cost-efficient plan

A simulation-based decision support tool for integrating site layout and construction planning of tunneling projects

Purpose Integrating construction and site layout planning in mechanized tunnel infrastructure projects is essential due to the mutual impacts of construction planning and site layout decisions. Simulation can incorporate site layout planning and construction planning of tunneling projects in a unified environment. However, simulation adoption by industry practitioners has remained relatively limited due to the special skills required for building and using simulation models. Therefore, this paper aims to create a simple-to-use simulation tool that supports site layout and construction operation planning of tunneling projects. This tool intends to promote the simulation application in site layout planning. Design/methodology/approach The current paper proposes simulation as a decision support tool (DST) to provide an integrated environment for modeling tunnel construction operations, site layout and capturing the mutual impacts. A special purpose simulation (SPS) tool was customized and developed for typical mechanized tunneling projects, by tunnel boring machines, to facilitate building the model and allow access to users with limited simulation knowledge. Findings The results show that the developed SPS tool is of great assistance to construction industry practitioners to analyze a variety of site layout and construction plan scenarios and make informed decisions based on its comprehensive and intuitive outputs. Originality/value The main contribution of this research is to promote simulation application in site layout planning of tunneling projects through the development of a simple-to-use tool, which has sufficient details for site layout planning and constraints. The developed DST enables planners to make decisions simultaneously on the site layout, other construction planning variables and identify the most efficient plan

Construction Site Layout Planning Using a Simulation-Based Decision Support Tool

Background: Site layout plan is one of the important decisions to be made in the planning phase of each construction project as it can significantly impact on-site transportation, construction logistics and safety. This decision could be complicated due to the uncertainties inherent in construction projects and the complex relationships between the influencing factors and decision variables. Methods: To improve site layout planning, this study aims to develop a simulation-based decision support tool (DST) that enables planners to consider: 1) construction uncertainties, 2) construction resources (i.e., material, equipment and workers), 3) site layout constraints, and 4) mutual impacts between site layout and construction plan variables, for site layout planning of construction projects. Results: The developed DST visualizes the site layout plan within a simulation environment, and provides seamless interactions between the site layout model and the simulation model. These capabilities facilitate planning construction site layout using simulation by establishing two-way information flows between the site layout and simulation components, which can further promote application of simulation in construction site layout planning. Usefulness and practicality of the proposed DST is demonstrated in site layout planning of a steel erection project. Conclusions: Using this DST can reduce some common wastes in construction projects and the cost associated with them, including on-site transportation, material handling and storage, and waiting time for the material arrival

Determination of process durations on virtual construction sites

The paper analyses the application of 3D gaming technologies in the simulation of processes associated with human resources and machinery on construction sites in order to determine process costs. It addresses the problem of detailing in process simulation. The authors outline special boundary conditions for the simulation of cost-relevant resource processes on virtual construction sites. The approach considers different needs for detailing in process simulation during the planning and building phase. For simulation of process costs on a construction site (contractors view) the level of detail has to be set to high. A prototype for determination of process durations (and hereby process costs) developed at the Bauhaus University Weimar is presented as a result of ongoing researches on detailing in process simulation. It shows the method of process cost determination on a high level of detail (game between excavator and truck) through interaction with the virtual environment of the site

Determination of process durations on virtual construction sites

The paper analyses the application of 3D gaming technologies in the simulation of processes associated with human resources and machinery on construction sites in order to determine process costs. It addresses the problem of detailing in process simulation. The authors outline special boundary conditions for the simulation of cost-relevant resource processes on virtual construction sites. The approach considers different needs for detailing in process simulation during the planning and building phase. For simulation of process costs on a construction site (contractors view) the level of detail has to be set to high. A prototype for determination of process durations (and hereby process costs) developed at the Bauhaus University Weimar is presented as a result of ongoing researches on detailing in process simulation. It shows the method of process cost determination on a high level of detail (game between excavator and truck) through interaction with the virtual environment of the site

Effectiveness of Construction Safety Hazards Identification in Virtual Reality Learning Environment

Occupational Safety and Health Act (1994) and efforts taken to ensure the safety of workers in the construction industry. Despite these, accident rates are still alarming. One of the reasons is due to the weak pedagogy, lack of technology integration, and hazardous learning environment that lead towards low learning performance and practicing safety procedures. This study aims to discover the effectiveness of virtual reality simulation learning environment. Results show that there is a significant difference in trainee's achievements in a traditional construction site visit and virtual construction environment. To conclude, virtual reality learning environment offers effective learning platforms for millennials.Keywords: safety hazards; occupational safety and health; virtual reality;eISSN: 2398-4287 © 2019. The Authors. Published for AMER ABRA CE-Bs by E-International Publishing House, Ltd., UK. This is an open-access article under the CC BY-NC-ND license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/). Peer-review under responsibility of AMER (Association of Malaysian Environment-Behaviour Researchers), ABRA (Association of Behavioural Researchers on Asians) and cE-Bs (Centre for Environment-Behaviour Studies), Faculty of Architecture, Planning & Surveying, Universiti Teknologi MARA, Malaysia.DOI: https://doi.org/10.21834/e-bpj.v4i12.180

Dispatching concrete trucks using simulation method

Ready mixed concrete (RMC) is the primary material required for buildings and public infrastructure work. RMC is produced to meet customer’s demands and its deliveries must conform to construction site and technological operating constraints – the material cannot be prepared in advance and stored. Concrete production scheduling and truck dispatching is mainly handled manually by experienced RMC batching plants staff. The paper presents simulation model which can be used to asses alternative strategies for truck allocation and production planning in stochastic environment. The models’ operation is illustrated by a notional case – the model prompted solutions of improved transhipment efficiency and reduced plant operating cost under assumed operating constraints

A combination of cyclone and vert techniques for the management of construction projects

Many planning and control tools, especially network analysis, have been developed in the last four decades. The majority of them were created in military organization to solve the problem of planning and controlling research and development projects. The original version of the network model (i.e. C.P.M/PERT) was transplanted to the construction industry without the consideration of the special nature and environment of construction projects. It suited the purpose of setting up targets and defining objectives, but it failed in satisfying the requirement of detailed planning and control at the site level. Several analytical and heuristic rules based methods were designed and combined with the structure of C.P.M. to eliminate its deficiencies. None of them provides a complete solution to the problem of resource, time and cost control. VERT was designed to deal with new ventures. It is suitable for project evaluation at the development stage. CYCLONE, on the other hand, is concerned with the design and micro-analysis of the production process. This work introduces an extensive critical review of the available planning techniques and addresses the problem of planning for site operation and control. Based on the outline of the nature of site control, this research developed a simulation based network model which combines part of the logics of both VERT and CYCLONE. Several new nodes were designed to model the availability and flow of resources, the overhead and operating cost and special nodes for evaluating time and cost. A large software package is written to handle the input, the simulation process and the output of the model. This package is designed to be used on any microcomputer using MS-DOS operating system. Data from real life projects were used to demonstrate the capability of the technique. Finally, a set of conclusions are drawn regarding the features and limitations of the proposed model, and recommendations for future work are outlined at the end of this thesis

A virtual environment for the design and simulated construction of prefabricated buildings

The construction industry has acknowledged that its current working practices are in need of substantial improvements in quality and efficiency and has identified that computer modelling techniques and the use of prefabricated components can help reduce times, costs, and minimise defects and problems of on-site construction. This paper describes a virtual environment to support the design and construction processes of buildings from prefabricated components and the simulation of their construction sequence according to a project schedule. The design environment can import a library of 3-D models of prefabricated modules that can be used to interactively design a building. Using Microsoft Project, the construction schedule of the designed building can be altered, with this information feeding back to the construction simulation environment. Within this environment the order of construction can be visualised using virtual machines. Novel aspects of the system are that it provides a single 3-D environment where the user can construct their design with minimal user interaction through automatic constraint recognition and view the real-time simulation of the construction process within the environment. This takes this area of research a step forward from other systems that only allow the planner to view the construction at certain stages, and do not provide an animated view of the construction process