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Application of project information models to Computer-integrated Construction

University of British Columbia

Architecture, engineering and construction (AEC) projects are becoming increasingly complex. This complexity is manifested in the diversity and fragmentation of the construction projects. Computer-integrated Construction (CIC) offers ever-increasing potential to improve project management practice for AEC projects in resolving the fragmentation problem of construction information using computers (Froese 94d). CIC, however, must rely on the AEC project information being shared among various AEC computer applications used by many different project participants. This information sharing is based on the development of AEC information models (Froese 94b, 94c). In this thesis, we have proposed a set of AEC information models, the AEC Core Reference Models (ACRM). The ACRM have been developed based on our investigation of currently available AEC information models and on our own opinions of the desirable characteristics of the models. While the current development of the models is still in a conceptual stage, we believe that some basic central concepts are sufficiently well developed for testing some of their implementation capabilities in a computer program using a real-world example (Froese and Yu 94). In this research, we have developed a computer program, StartPlan, based on the ACRM. StartPlan provides a test-bed for these experiments. Since generic concepts such as Activity are defined in the ACRM, StartPlan can represent a wide range of AEC project information and allow the information to be shared and translated between different types of AEC computer applications. A fictitious construction project originally developed in REPCON (Russell 95) has been used in StartPlan for the test. Although it is not a specific real-world project, it can be treated as a typical project because it has been tested in many real-world situations and proven to contain most of the information that a similar real-world project would have. The results from the test reveal specific advantages and disadvantages of the proposed ACRM.

Thesis/Dissertation

application/pdf

2009-02-03

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http://hdl.handle.net/2429/4110

Civil Engineering

University of British Columbia

UBCV

DSpace