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Faculty of Engineering and Built Environment

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Subject: search.filters.subject.Building information modeling

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    Building information modelling technologies for intelligent road engineering design, construction and digital twinning
    (2023-09) Yunos, Shuaib; Allopi, Dhiren
    Roads form an integral part of civil infrastructure, providing safe and reliable access from a point of origin to a destination. With the rapid growth in population, urbanisation, and the pursuit of smart cities, the pressure on effective road design, construction, and maintenance is ever-increasing, with sustainability and innovation being at the focal point to derive better and more intelligent ways to accomplish this infrastructure requirement. With this influx of demand, traditional processes are put under strain, resulting in roads being designed inadequately, impacting the safety and service, exploration of minimal alternative routes due to time pressure or lack of information, material wastage affecting design sustainability and construction cost, and poor maintenance affecting safety and design life. With the progression in technology, building information modelling (BIM) is an intelligent 3D model-based process that gives architecture, engineering, and construction (AEC) professionals the insight and tools to plan, design, construct and manage buildings and infrastructure more efficiently. BIM has been implemented, adopted, and mandated by many countries across the world, seen as an intelligent, innovative necessity for enhanced civil infrastructure design, construction, and maintenance. This leads to the question of BIM on civil infrastructure projects, with the focus being roads, and how would it compare to the traditional way of accomplishing road projects. In this regard, an in-depth investigation into the application and impact of BIM technologies across a typical road project had been conducted. This was achieved by describing the processes associated with a typical project when employing a traditional and BIM approach across 9 stages of the project lifecycle. This methodology effectively allowed for a detailed comparison between the two approaches, with the findings collated. The dissertation also expands on what is BIM, its levels, dimensions, benefits, its application on projects across various continents, its role in digital twinning and smart cities, its presence and development globally, its presence and development in Africa, as well as the hurdles experienced in its adoption and implementation and recommendations on how to overcome them. The conclusion arrived at was that BIM provides a plethora of advantages across the road project lifecycle, resulting in innovative, economical, and sustainable civil infrastructure, paving the way to enhanced operations and maintenance and digital twinning in the pursuit of smart cities, correlating with BIM being mandated by countries across the globe and various literature confirming its positive impact. The BIM approach outperformed the traditional approach across all stages of a typical road project lifecycle, conforming to the MacLeamy curve. The BIM technologies applied to derive and illustrate this conclusion were BIM technologies developed by Autodesk and the Devotech Group of Companies. It was also observed that whilst BIM has been around since the 1970s, BIM is still seen as a new concept, particularly in the civil infrastructure industry, and whilst professionals acknowledge its advantages, they are resistant to change, overwhelmed by how to become BIM ready, or do not know where to turn to for guidance, particularly in South Africa, Africa, and other developing countries. Other main challenges observed were those of education, training and upskilling, upfront cost, and the absence of a BIM mandate, as well as challenges specific to Africa were unpacked such as infrastructure gaps, skill gaps, digital division, and digital transformation.
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    An appraisal of building information modelling technology in building construction and maintenance in Africa : a case of Nigeria and South Africa
    (2023-05) Toyin, James Olaonipekun; Mewomo, Modupe Cecilia
    Building Information Modelling technology (BIM-T) continues to gain attention. Its adoption creates a platform that allows the built environment professionals to share project information through a common database. At the same time, there is an increased perception that implementing BIM on construction projects will positively influence building production throughout its lifecycle. Recent studies have revealed a low level of BIM implementation in the African construction industry. Currently, the utilisation of BIM for building production has received a significant acceptance rate in developed regions, while in African countries, it is still at an infant stage. Moreover, previous studies have established that BIM application comes with various barriers. These barriers contribute to its low adoption, application and implementation. Nevertheless, there are still some notable benefits and impacts on building production, which have been the main drivers for its continual adoption. Therefore, this study aimed to research BIM-T applications in African countries, focusing on the Nigerian and South African construction industries. The goals are to assess its level of awareness, usage, barriers hindering its application/implementation and benefits accruable with its adoption. BIM impacts the building production lifecycle and determines the strategies to promote its application among construction professionals for sustainable construction in developing countries. To achieve the objective of this research, an extensive review of the literature was conducted on usage, barriers to BIM adoption, application/implementation, benefits of adopting BIM, its impacts on building production, and strategies to promote its application/implementation. A structured questionnaire elicited constructive data from the Nigerian built environment professionals (NIA, NIOB, NIQS, and NSE) and the South African construction-related professionals (SACPCMP). The web-based (Google form) questionnaire was distributed online. According to the distribution among the professionals, 276 and 105 respondents indicated their willingness and availability to participate in the research from Nigeria and South Africa, respectively. The generated data was analysed using the following descriptive measures: mean item score (M.I.S), relative important index (RII), ranking and frequency and quantitative inferential analysis (factor analysis, pairwise comparison, one-way ANOVA and Kruskal-Wallis). It was found that there is a significant increase in the level of BIM awareness among Nigerian and South African construction professionals compared to previous findings. 98.55% and 96.19% of respondents, respectively affirmed that they are aware of BIM. Nevertheless, these findings established that there are still BIM-related barriers peculiar to both countries; the top common three barriers are low computer skills among some of the professionals, habitual resistance to change from the traditional style of design and build, and government's unwillingness to support BIM use. These barriers could be responsible for the professional’s low level of BIM tool usage. The study also revealed that all 13 identified BIM benefits are significantly important in both countries. From this, it could be concluded that BIM application has significantly improved the production of buildings through its contribution to performing tasks from building design to post-construction stages. Finally, the respondents identified the need for foundational knowledge in an educational institution on BIM tool use and its applications as a critical area of focus that could assist the promotion of BIM. This study has extensively documented the various research contributions carried out in this study's area of focus. The preliminary survey result concludes that the findings will assist the professional body in making intelligent decisions and adequate measures to advance the adoption, application/implementation of BIM among their members. It will also inform the institutions about what is required from their construction graduates to improve their employability in the industry.
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    Reducing material waste with the application of Building Information Modelling (BIM)
    (2019) Mall, Ayesha; Aiyetan, Olatunji Ayodeji
    Every year approximately 13 million tonnes of unused materials go to waste from construction sites. Construction professionals should strive to reduce wastage through the principle of right-first-time. Material waste directly affects the profitability of the contractor and it is a measure of competency and competitive advantage. The construction has a great influence on several industries by procuring products, as well as by providing products to other industries, therefore, by reducing waste there could be great cost savings to the construction industry. The Building Information Modelling (BIM) tool can be used in a construction of a project to motivate the design, construction, and operation of a project from start to finish. Therefore, the 3D BIM model can assist the construction industry in reducing material waste. The aim of this study is to identify the main causes of waste in the South African construction industry and develop a flow chart through the application of BIM to reduce waste. The objectives of the study include the identification of causes and sources of material waste on construction and the use of BIM to aid in waste minimisation. The tools used for data collection included questionnaires and site observations. The sample population for data collection included architects, project managers, quantity surveyors, and engineers. A programme called Statistical package for social scientists (SPSS) was employed to analyse the data. Mean score rankings, factor analysis, and Cronbach alpha test were adopted for data analysis. The structured questionnaire indicated whether construction professionals in South Africa have sufficient knowledge of BIM. Key research findings indicate that BIM has the ability to assist in reducing material waste. BIM enhances practices such as collaboration, detailing, visualisation and simulation, clash detection and improved communication. BIM has a strong influence on the reduction of waste material. BIM has the potential to address the causes of waste, relative to design changes, ineffective coordination and communication, and improvements towards waste minimisation through the construction stage of a project. The results from the data analysis, revealed that the most common contribution to waste on a construction site included material handling and storage factors, design and documentation factors, procurement factors, site management and practice factors and operation factors. The use of the developed flow chart on the application of BIM in the delivery of a project will minimize material waste. The model developed is recommended to be adopted for use in the South African construction industry for the delivery of projects with minimal wastage costs.
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    Improving the efficiency of structural engineering design in the Eastern Cape through the implementation of Building Information Modelling (BIM)
    (2018) Hiscock, David Jason; Khuzwayo, Bonga PraiseGod; Whelan, Deborah; Hefer, Elke Helene
    This dissertations focuses on the implementation of BIM in the structural engineering field, particularly in the Eastern Cape province of South Africa. Currently, structural engineering practitioners in the Easter Cape face the threat of being "left behind" in terms of BIM technology, and therefore are losing out on reaping the benefits associated with BIM implementation. Furthermore, BIM is no longer a 'nice beneficial technology to have' but is fast becoming a global requirement within the AEC industry. The main aim of this study is to investigate the necessity for BIM implementation into structural engineering organisations within the Eastern Cape. The hypothesis behind the research is that the implementation of BIM technology will improve the efficiency of the structural engineering design process currently being used within the province. A secondary hypothesis is that BIM will soon become standard practice for the AEC industry.