Construction Engineering Commons^™

Building Fabric Design : Thermal Performance Standards, Joseph Little

Articles

This is the first of a series of articles using content from the new RIAI Building Fabric Design CPD which explores a range of themes of central importance to designing buildings that are highly energy efficient, genuinely compliant and perform to their design intent and specification. As the articles are short and the themes are often complex, they can be at best a short introduction to the issues raised. In this article we will look at the new minimum building fabric standards: these are far more onerous than much of the Industry understands.

Contractors' Competition Strategies In Bidding: Hong Kong Study, Yongtao Tan, Liyin Shen, Craig Langston

Craig Langston

Selecting an appropriate competition strategy in bidding is the ambition of most contractors. The multiple requirements of clients encourage contractors to consider other strategies to deliver additional benefits besides offering a low-price bid. Offering low bids will reduce contractors' profits and potentially make development less attractive. Contractors need to understand their specific resources that generate competitive advantage and accordingly develop strategies to win contracts. This paper reports the findings from a recent survey on competition strategies in the Hong Kong construction industry. Thirteen typical bidding strategies, their used frequency in bidding, and their effectiveness for winning contracts of different types …

Construction Project Selection Using Fuzzy Topsis Approach, Young-Tao Tan, Li-Yin Shen, Craig Langston, Yan Liu

Craig Langston

Purpose - The purpose of this paper is to introduce a quantitative method for assisting contractors to select appropriate projects for bidding by considering multiple attributes and integrating decision group member opinions.

Design/methodology/approach - The fuzzy technique for order preference by similarity to ideal solution (TOPSIS) method is used to help contractors make decision on project selection and the linguistic terms are defined for representing the triangular fuzzy numbers for ratings of alternatives and weights of criteria.

Findings - The selection of appropriate projects for bidding is a multiple attribute group decision-making exercise. In a real decision process, there are …

Can We Teach Lean Construction Methods In Schools Of Architecture, Gary Graham

Fall 2012 Faculty Showcase

Traditionally, schools of architecture are not great laboratories to explore the collaborative processes and teamwork that are essential to integrated design and delivery practices as exemplified by Lean Construction. The pre-eminence of the “hero-architect” in the design studio is in direct conflict with methods that can reduce risk and improve the efficiency of the design and construction delivery process. Risk? Efficiency? Delivery Process?... not mention Cost Control, Schedule and Constructability, are foreign concepts to the predominant design studio culture.

Integrated practices and integrated project delivery are clearly “hot” topics in the design and construction industry today. They are a response …

Bond Between Self-Compacting Concrete And Reinforcement, Marian Sabau, Traian Onet, Ioan Pop

Marian Sabau

This paper study the bond behaviour of self-compacting concrete (SCC) in comparison to normal vibrated concrete (NVC). In this paper are presented the following parameters: the influence of bar diameter, the influence of concrete quality, the top-bar effect, the influence of active and passive confinement. In literature, different test results are found for the bond strength in SCC, which deliver contradictory results, but internationally it seems to be agreed that bond strength in SCC is slightly higher than NVC.

Hardened Properties Of Self-Compacting Concrete, Marian Sabau, Traian Onet, Ana Ioana Petean

Marian Sabau

This paper presents the properties of hardened self-compacting concrete (SCC) and compare them to those reported for normally vibrated concrete (NVC). The mechanical properties evaluated are: compressive strength, modulus of elasticity, tensile strength, creep, shrinkage and bond with reinforcement. The very wide range of materials and mixes already used for SCC produced a significant scatter of data, but clear conclusions have been obtained. The compressive strength of SCC was likely to be the same or greater than that of NVC by using the same content of cement and water. Modulus of elasticity of SCC was lower than that of NVC …

Bs News November/December

Building Services Engineering

No abstract provided.

Building Capability For Disaster Resilience, Lynn Crawford, Craig Langston, Bhishna Bajracharya

Lynn Crawford

All levels of government recognise the widespread devastation of communities by natural or other disasters. They have responded with emergency management arrangements and policies to enhance government and community capacity to anticipate, withstand and recover from disastrous events. Although the construction industry has a significant role to play, particularly in recovery and reconstruction, it has not generally been considered as a key stakeholder in building capability for disaster resilience. One barrier to more active involvement of the construction industry in disaster response and management is that traditional methods of construction project management have been criticised as too time consuming and …

Building Capability For Disaster Resilience, Lynn Crawford, Craig Langston, Bhishna Bajracharya

Craig Langston

All levels of government recognise the widespread devastation of communities by natural or other disasters. They have responded with emergency management arrangements and policies to enhance government and community capacity to anticipate, withstand and recover from disastrous events. Although the construction industry has a significant role to play, particularly in recovery and reconstruction, it has not generally been considered as a key stakeholder in building capability for disaster resilience. One barrier to more active involvement of the construction industry in disaster response and management is that traditional methods of construction project management have been criticised as too time consuming and …

Building Capability For Disaster Resilience, Lynn Crawford, Craig Langston, Bhishna Bajracharya

Bhishna Bajracharya

All levels of government recognise the widespread devastation of communities by natural or other disasters. They have responded with emergency management arrangements and policies to enhance government and community capacity to anticipate, withstand and recover from disastrous events. Although the construction industry has a significant role to play, particularly in recovery and reconstruction, it has not generally been considered as a key stakeholder in building capability for disaster resilience. One barrier to more active involvement of the construction industry in disaster response and management is that traditional methods of construction project management have been criticised as too time consuming and …

Lifecycle Energy Consumption Prediction Of Residential Buildings By Incorporating Longitudinal Uncertainties, Endong Wang, Zhigang Shen

Durham School of Architectural Engineering and Construction: Faculty Publications

Accurate prediction of buildings’ lifecycle energy consumption is a critical part in lifecycle assessment of residential buildings. Longitudinal variations in building conditions, weather conditions and building’s service life can cause significant deviation of the prediction from the real lifecycle energy consumption. The objective is to improve the accuracy of lifecycle energy consumption prediction by properly modelling the longitudinal variations in residential energy consumption model using Markov chain based stochastic approach. A stochastic Markov model considering longitudinal uncertainties in building condition, degree days, and service life is developed: 1) Building’s service life is estimated through Markov deterioration curve derived from actual …

Systemic Rework Risk Classification For Offshore Projects, Peter Love, Jim Smith, Sangwon Han

Jim Smith

Rework arises due to errors and omissions, and significantly contributes to project cost and schedule overruns in offshore projects. To acquire an understanding of the causal nature of rework in offshore projects, twenty three in-depth interviews with leading oil and gas industry practitioners were undertaken. The dialogue and narratives obtained from the interviews enabled the underlying dynamics of rework to be determined. A risk classification matrix is developed that can be utilized as a frame of reference to mitigate future rework. If rework risks are not given due consideration then there is the potential for latent conditions to become embedded …

Extending The Project Management Skillset To Encompass Change Implementation, Lynn Crawford

Lynn Crawford

Project management standards address change control but are largely silent on change implementation. As the majority of projects involve some degree of organizational or behavioural change, and as project management is now applied to implementation of organisational changes as a specific project type, extension of coverage to recognise specific activities and competencies involved in effective change implementation should be considered in review of project management standards. As input to such a review, this paper presents results of research investigating the project and change implementation practices used, in practice, on projects requiring varying degrees of organizational and behavioural change.

Comparing Apples With Apples: Aligning Project Management Capability With Corporate Strategy, Lynn Crawford

Lynn Crawford

It makes little sense for an organization to invest in project management systems that are not directly suited to the nature of their business yet they need some form of guidance to tell them what good looks like. Generic project management maturity models can be a useful starting point but they take no account of differences in context and using them is like comparing apples with oranges. This paper presents results of research that investigates differences in strategic drivers and associated project management practices and outcomes between industries. Results of this research provide input to development of more compelling and …

A Vision For A Longer-Term Future: From Project Managers To “Synthesists”?, Alan Stretton, Lynn Crawford

Lynn Crawford

This paper first gives a snapshot of how some articulate contributors to a broader future-oriented non-management literature perceive the growth of specialization of avocations/ professions. A primary drawback is seen to be a resultant lack of people who are fluent in the language of many different disciplines, and who have the ability to expertly integrate them to achieve broader societal goals – i.e. “synthesists”.Project managers essentially integrate the contributions of many varied disciplines to achieve beneficial outcomes. Therefore project management appears to be extremely well placed to broaden its perspectives, and to develop and consolidate a role as “synthesists” in …

Fitting Project Management Capability To Strategy, Lynn Crawford

Lynn Crawford

Project management is now recognized as an organizational capability and there are numerous generic maturity models providing one size fits all approaches to what is considered to be best practice. Both maturity models and best practices are problematic. Maturity models typically suggest that all firms must strive to progressively achieve prescribed levels of practice across the same range of best practices. But what constitutes best practice for whom and under what circumstances? If we look at an organization’s project management systems, although they may have similarities across firms, they are operating in different contexts, driven by different strategies. What may …

Exploring The Intersection Of Project And Change Management, Lynn Crawford, Alicia Aitken, Anat Hassner-Nahmias

Lynn Crawford

The intersection of change and project management is attracting interest from both practitioners and researchers because, in a rapidly changing and evolving environment, an organization’s ability to change itself has become critical to strategic performance. Much of the responsibility for organizational change rests in the hands of general management but devolution of parts of this responsibility to specific change management roles is occurring and there is widespread acceptance of projects and programs as organizing frameworks for change initiatives. However, the fields of project and change management rest on different foundations and have developed in different directions. Although project and program …

The Current State Of Wireless Information Technology Among Employers Of Bowling Green State University Construction Management Students, Aaron Seymour

Master of Technology Management Plan II Graduate Projects

Successful implementation of wireless technology in the construction industry has the potential to streamline the building process and improve the service that is delivered to the owners of projects. A need exists for improving access and transfer of digital communication and documentation, regardless of the time or location. Recent developing trends in technology promise to introduce efficiencies that were not previously available within the industry. This study seeks to identify the current state of wireless information technology among employers of Bowling Green State University Construction Management students. The research design analyzed quantitative data from a web-based survey that presented results …

Investigating Self-Cooling Effects Of Ventilated Attics Under Different Roof And Ambient Temperatures In Summer, Zhigang Shen, Shimin Wang

Durham School of Architectural Engineering and Construction: Faculty Publications

An unsteady computational fluid dynamics model is employed to simulate summer-time buoyancy-driven turbulent ventilation in gable-roof attics of residential buildings. The energy performance of vented attics is assessed by comparing their performance to sealed attics with the same geometry and insulation configurations. The simulated boundary conditions of the roof-top temperature ranging between 295.15 K and 345.15 K, coupled with an ambient temperature ranging between 295.15 K and 315.15 K, resemble the summer attic conditions with effects of solar irradiance on the roofs. Simulation results indicate that both the vented and sealed attics are dominated by thermal stratification. The cooling load …

Bs News September/October

Building Services Engineering

No abstract provided.

Implementing Building Information Modeling In Public Works Projects In Ireland, Barry Mcauley, Alan V. Hore, Roger West

Conference papers

The Irish State in recent years has suffered huge financial losses in the public works sector, which has now pushed the Irish Government to explore new ways of controlling cost. This background lead to the introduction of the Capital Works Management Framework in 2007 which aimed to support the certainty of outcome in terms of cost and quality, as well as improved risk management, through the implementation of fixed price contracts. In order to successfully compete within this framework it is recommended by the authors, that Irish Government moves towards the legal mandating of BIM. This can ensure a greater …

Portfolio Management: Roles, Responsibilities And Practices - A Qualitative Study, Aileen Koh

Aileen Koh

The increasing use of project and programs by organizations to achieve business strategy has led to the need to understand portfolio management. Along with the increasing diffusion of portfolio management a new managerial role evolves: the portfolio manager. This new role is pivotal in planning and controlling complex project landscapes more effectively and more efficiently, in implementing portfolio management practices as a management innovation.The practices of portfolio management, together with the associated roles, responsibilities of portfolio managers were investigated. This paper presents the first stage qualitative study, using an inductive interview based approach with six portfolio managers from six organizations …

Cross-Cultural Training: The Importance Of Investing In People, Sabina Cerimagic, Jim Smith

Jim Smith

Major international companies have established themselves in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) market by setting up their regional headquarters in Dubai. These international companies want to be in a growing market in a country where their companies are recognised and affiliated with a positive image. In addition, many companies have moved to the UAE for financial reasons as well. The UAE is an expanding regional market with the potential for future growth. However, there are cultural differences between Australia (and western countries generally) and the UAE (Middle Eastern). It is easy to have genuine and honest misunderstandings and, hence, it …

Screening And Selecting Project Managers For The Middle East, Sabina Cerimagic, Jim Smith

Jim Smith

Cross-cultural training is of prime importance if the expatriates are to adjust speedily to the new environment and do well in the United Arab Emirates (UAE). Selecting the right people for the overseas job is important as the selected individuals need to have a desire and readiness to learn. Some researchers in this field referred to this as the "learning orientation" where people with high learning orientations like challenges and are ready to learn and people with low learning orientations like to play it safe and do not like challenges. The way the "right" people can be chosen for the …

Sensemaking Of Rework Causation In Offshore Structures: People, Organization And Project, Peter E. D. Love, Jim Smith, Sangwon Han

Jim Smith

Cost and schedule overruns are norm in offshore hydrocarbon projects. With increasingly complex commercial and contracting arrangements, technical challenges, changing local economic and regulatory conditions and a shift toward project‘s being undertaken in peak oil frontier regions, the risks of overruns increase. A major factor contributing to such overruns is rework. Twenty three indepth interviews with leading oil and gas industry practitioners were undertaken to acquire knowledge of their experiences of rework causation in offshore projects. Analysis of the dialogue and narratives obtained enabled a nomenclature for rework causal factors to be classified as People, Organization and Project for different …

A Fuzzy Approach For Assessing Contractors Competitiveness, Yongtao Tan, Li-Yen Shen, Craig Langston

Craig Langston

Purpose – Proper assessment of contractors' competitiveness is important for assisting contractors in taking internal analysis and for assisting clients in selecting suitable contractors. This paper seeks to address this issue.

Design/methodology/approach – With previously identified contractor key competitiveness indicators (KCIs), this study presents a fuzzy competitiveness rating (FCR) method for measuring contractor competitiveness with reference to the Hong Kong construction industry. A set of linguistic terms is used for facilitating the assessment process.

Findings – For illustration, an example is used to show the application of the FCR method. The results provide valuable information for helping contractors in the …

Bs News July/August

Building Services Engineering

No abstract provided.

Use Of Building Information Modelling In Responding To Low Carbon Construction Innovations: An Irish Perspective - Presentation, Barry Mcauley

Conference papers

No abstract provided.

A Spectacle Of Great Beauty: The Changing Faces Of Hagia Sophia, Victoria M. Villano

Master's Theses

No abstract provided.

Bs News May/June

Building Services Engineering

No abstract provided.