BIM-based automated schedule generation in reinforced concrete-framed buildings

Abstract

In the construction industry, project schedule has been regarded as a fundamental tool to complete a project under the targeted duration and cost. A sound schedule usually depends on schedulers’ construction management knowledge, such as the principles and concepts of construction scheduling, as well as their enriched construction experience. However, as the complexity of projects increases, project scheduling has become demanding as well. In addition, traditional manual project scheduling methods are tedious, time-consuming, and error-prone. These methods, therefore, can hardly meet the requirement of the contemporary project management. With the prevailing trend of Building Information Modelling (BIM) in the Architecture, Engineering, and Construction (AEC) industry, many researchers in the construction research community have paid more attention on extending its capabilities into project management areas. Some of them have investigated automated schedule generation by utilizing BIM’s versatility thorough buildings’ lifecycle. The scope and capabilities of the developed systems, however, were limited, and they mainly demonstrated a simple proof of concept. In particular, there is a limited number of research efforts, which investigated automated scheduling of a certain type of structures, namely reinforced concrete-framed buildings. Accordingly, BIM has not reached its full potentials in the construction domain yet and the link between the design and construction stages is still underdeveloped. This research investigates methods to develop a BIM-based framework to automatically generate schedules for reinforced concrete structures. In this framework, a BIM-enabled software has been connected with a project management tool, in which a bridge between the design and project planning stage was created. This framework firstly extracts the data that stored in the BIM, including elements’ geometrical data, quantities, spatial information, material types, and other related attributes. Secondly, it creates project activities, determines their sequences, and calculates their durations by applying construction sequencing rules and production rate data. At last, it organizes these figures into an applicable schedule, and then exports it to a project management software. Moreover, three samples are presented to further demonstrate the concept and feasibility of this system.