5/30/2021

Lecture 6
Recent Advances of Construction Technology,2021
Advancements in the Construction Technology
Bule Hora University
CoTM Department

What are the main advances in construction technology trends 2021?

1. Virtual Reality (VR) / Augmented Reality (AR)
2. Construction Software and Data Ecosystem
3. The Growth of BIM
4. 3D Printing and Robotics
5. Special Concrete
3D printing 6. Drones
7. Advanced uses for GPS
8. Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Machine Learning (ML)
A gantry-type printer measuring 8x8x6 meters – was 9. The Internet of Things (IoT)
used to create the structural walls of the “building on
demand” (BOD).
10.5G and Wi-Fi6.

1. Augmented Reality

 Construction World says that although virtual reality has been an emerging
trend over the past few years, it’s quickly growing outdated – especially
when compared to augmented reality uses and benefits. This is the
ability to visualize the real world through a camera lens.
 It’s something that’s bound to open many new opportunities for the
construction industry even though it’ll come with a cost.
 For those companies who can afford to start using it now, it’ll revolutionize
how they project and build things.
 This is a trend that will grow much bigger in the next few years. In fact,
many people believe that instead of using safety goggles, we’ll start
planning and plotting sites before we even break ground.

Augmented Reality (AR) is a perfect blend of the digital world and the
physical elements to create an artificial environment. Apps which are
developed using AR technology for mobile or desktop to blend digital
components into the real world. The full form of AR is Augment Reality.
Example: AR technology helps to display score overlays on telecasted sports
games and pop out 3D photos, text messages, and emails.
How does AR works?
AR uses computer vision, mapping as well as depth tracking in order to
show appropriate content to the user. This functionality allows cameras
to collect, send, and process data to show digital content appropriate to
what any user is looking at.
In Augmented reality, the user's physical environment is enhanced with
contextually relevant digital content in real-time. You can experience
(AR) augmented reality with a smartphone or with special hardware.
2. Construction software and data ecosystem/Big Data
 Real-time collaboration software is already regarded as an essential component of
the entire building process. Nevertheless, its impact on the sector is expected to
increase substantially in the near future. It goes without saying that data has
played an integral role in this paradigm shift in construction.
 The emergence of a data ecosystem where all the innovative players of the
industry will come together and share data, experience and project knowledge is
closer than we might think. And it is no exaggeration to maintain that it’s the only
way forward for construction.
 The use of digital tools facilitates the accumulation of these valuable bits of
information and by extension, the minimisation of delays, rework rates, and
communication hiccups between the site and the office.
 In that sense, reliable real-time collaboration software is expected to function as
the digital backbone for the construction process from start to finish.

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3. BIM will continue growing

 BIM is again one of the hottest construction technology trends. It

comes as no surprise if we take into account that the emergence of
an open and highly collaborative data ecosystem is on the way.
 From a general point of view, BIM will bring more accuracy to the
building process and empower the exchange of important project
information between the numerous stakeholders. Moreover, its
further evolution is anticipated to make construction projects more
productive and affordable by including revolutionary sustainability
and safety measures.
 It is evident, then, that BIM could function as a game-changer for
construction and offer a detailed depiction of the project
development in an open and highly collaborative environment.

BIM will continue growing

What is BIM Cont..

❑ BIM is a digital form of construction and asset operations. ❑ A foundational, intelligent model-based process for business and industry
transformation
 It brings together technology, process improvements and digital information
to radically improve client and project outcomes and asset operations. ❖ Uses 3D models to:
❑ It applies to Capture, explore, and
 new build projects; renovation, Maintain consistent and coordinated planning, design, construction, and
operational data
 refurbishment and maintenance of the built environment
❖ Provides greater project insight for
 While CAD addresses design, construction, and as-built documents for a
project; cost, schedule, and constructability
 BIM addresses a project from concept to construction through facility ❖ Uses and shares the same consistent data whether you’re at your desk or in
management, and renovation/demolition. the field
❖ Enables prompt response to change with processes that are smarter and faster

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Traditional vs. BIM Methods

Cont….

Cont…. Benefits of BIM

Using BIM to produce, manage and Exchange Building Information's
through planning, design, construction and operations will....

BIM Developments throughout the World

3

The Prospect Of Building Information Modeling in Ethiopian
Construction Industry
Challenges and strategies
Constructability..
 Constructability involves the process of visualizing the construction of
the project prior to beginning the actual design, and maintaining this
vision throughout the design process.
 Constructability is a design philosophy that begins in the conceptual
design stage and links project planning to design and construction.
 Constructability is a project management technique to review
construction processes from start to finish during preconstruction phase.
 It is to identify obstacles before a project is actually built to reduce or
prevent errors, delays, and cost overruns.
 BIM is a reliable digital representation of the building available for design
decision making, high-quality construction documentation, construction
planning, performance predictions and cost estimates
5/30/2021
Cont….
Constructability of Civil Engineering Construction
What It Is
• Constructability (or buildability) is a project management technique
to review construction processes from start to finish during
preconstruction phase.
• The Construction Industry Institute defines constructability as the
optimum use of construction knowledge and experience in planning,
design, procurement, and field operations to achieve overall project
objectives.
The focus will be on the bottom line—all members of the design and
construction team will be expected to find ways to complete
construction faster and more efficiently. That is what constructability
is all about.
The following are some of the most important reviews
(but not all) that should be performed during project
management:
Design Stage
✓Review (between contractor, client, consultants and architects/designers)
whether the construction design is realistic or not; architects can sometimes
get carried away, and contractors know what is feasible or not
✓Review whether the design can be executed within budget
✓Review whether the design will take longer to execute than time afforded
to the project
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 Planning Stage  Building Stage

• Review which materials will be necessary to complete the design,
and which are the most cost effective while still achieving the
design-vision
• Review which equipment is necessary to achieve construction,
and which can be done without; eliminate luxury but non-essential
construction equipment
• Perform a cost/benefit analysis on equipment quantity demands
(i.e. will using one tractor for multiple roles which takes more time,
saves more project money than investing in multiple tractors for
accomplishing individual roles more quickly?)
• Review proposed site soil composition, and how it will impact
building
✓Review how quickly the contractor is performing the
construction, whether it is on schedule or falling behind.
✓Review whether design expectations are being met
✓Review how construction waste is being managed
✓Review again if there is any extraneous, non-essential
equipment being used during site construction
Therefore, By integrating constructability in the design process in the
early stages of the project, construction disputes will be reduced, and as
a result, project delivery will be more secure.

4. 3D printing and robotics A gantry-type printer measuring

8x8x6 meters – was used to
 Robotic building arms and 3D printers are being used to produce building create the structural walls of the
components or even entire buildings. This combination of technology uses “building on demand” (BOD).
concrete, extruded concrete, and plastics to "print" components and buildings of
all kinds, and is quickly being adopted on a wider scale.
 Dubai is home to the world's first entirely 3D-printed office building. Robots also
serve other uses within the construction sector – placing bricks, excavating,
demolishing, and accessing areas that are difficult or unsafe for humans.
Although entire buildings don't necessarily need to be 3D printed, certain elements
can be printed to reduce costs and lessen turnaround times.
 Multiple building components can be generated with a 3D printer and since the
process is computerized, work can be done around the clock. Metal is very costly
3D printing
to print, but molds are budget-friendly. Successful projects with a 3D printer
include demonstration houses, walls and bridges.
 Robotics are also being used for mapping purposes. Sensors are able to virtually
map the layout of a building as well as any objects inside.

❑ When the concrete cracks, and water enters

5. Advanced Construction Materials the gaps, it comes into contact with the
bacteria and the food source, setting the
A. Self-healing concrete/Bio-concrete/ healing process off.
❑ The bacteria then feed on the calcium lactate,
joining the calcium with carbonate to form
 Many of the industry’s experts believe we’ll start seeing self- limestone, fixing the crack.
healing concrete being used on roads, buildings, and homes.
Since concrete is the most widely produced and consumed
material in the construction industry (being used to create
buildings, roads, and bridges) many believe that by 2030 we’ll
be using about 5 billion metric tons per year.
 Part of this is due to the urban boom that’s being experienced
in China and India today. Currently, the United States already
makes up 8% of the total global emissions in this area – a
number that’s also slated to rise.

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B. Greener Asphalt Mortarless Masonry (Interlocking)

❖ Traditional asphalt and concrete pavements have a few disadvantages. As
we've already mentioned, because these materials are nonporous  Consists of compressed earth interlocking blocks or concrete interlocking
(or impervious), rainwater cannot seep into them and instead runs off. blocks or fly-ash interlocking blocks
❖ As the water travels, it may also collect oil, gasoline and other pollutants
as it washes into neighboring streams and rivers. This runoff can cause
steady landscape erosion.

❖ Additionally, traditional asphalt gets very hot, creating a "heat island“ effect
in urban environments.
❑ Permeable pavement (also known as pervious or porous concrete) is a
specific type of pavement with a high porosity that allows rainwater to
pass through it into the ground below.
❑ And plastic and rubber are recycled materials being mixed into asphalt:

Block-work System
Self- Consolidating Concrete

E.g. Interlocking Concrete Masonry Unit (CMU), Lightweight Concrete Blocks

Flowable Fill (FF)

 FF is a self-leveling and self-compacting, cementitious material

with an unconfined compressive strength in the order of 8 MPa or
less.
 FF is primarily used as a backfill material in lieu of compacted
granular fill.
 The FF mix consists of cement, sand, and water typically mixed
with fly ash, and/or air generating admixtures.
• The type and proportions of ingredients used to make the FF can
largely change its properties to match its intended use.

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Shotcrete
 Shotcrete is mortar or small-aggregate concrete
that is sprayed at high velocity onto a surface.
 Shotcrete, also known as “sprayed concrete,” is
a relatively dry mixture that is consolidated by
the impact force and can be placed on vertical
or horizontal surfaces.
 Shotcrete is applied by either the dry or wet
process.
❑ In the dry process, a premixed blend of cement
and damp aggregate is propelled through a
hose by compressed air to a nozzle, while the
water is added at the nozzle.
❑ In the wet process, all ingredients are premixed
and pumped through a hose to the nozzle and
forced to the surface using compressed air.

High Performance Concrete

Translucent Concrete
In the United States, in response to widespread cracking of concrete bridge
decks, the construction process moved towards the use of High Performance
Light transmitting concrete is a mixture of optical Concrete (HPC) mixes.
glass fibers and fine concrete. ❑ Four types of HPC were developed
The two basic materials used for making transparent 1. Very High Early Strength Concrete – 17.5 MPa in 6 hours
concrete 2. High Early Strength Concrete – 42.5 MPa in 24 hours
❖ Fine concrete and Optical fibers. 3. Very High Strength – 86 MPa in 28 days
❖ ✓ Fine concrete: Consists of cement and fine 4. High Early Strength with Fiber Reinforcement
aggregate such as sand
✓ An optical fiber is a hair thin cylindrical fiber of Why High Performance Concrete?
glass or any transparent ❑ Conventional Portland-cement concrete mixtures suffer from certain
deficiencies.
❑ Attempts to overcome these deficiencies have resulted in the development
of special concrete types.

Why High Performance Concrete?

Why High Performance Concrete?
❑ This places concrete at an economic disadvantage when designing structural
members for tall buildings, long-span bridges, and floating structures.
❑ There are 3 ways to address this problem:-
❖ A. The unit weight of concrete can be reduced by substituting lightweight
aggregate (LWA) in place of conventional aggregate.
******LWA made by calcination of clay or shale is commonly used to
produce structural lightweight concrete that has about 1/3 less unit
weight than conventional concrete.
❖ B. The strength of concrete can be raised substantially.
❖ C. The third approach, which is a relatively recent development, combines the
first two approaches.
***********It involves the use of high-strength LWA particles in super
plasticized mixtures to produce high-strength, lightweight concrete.
❑ Poor impact resistance is yet another deficiency from which concrete
suffers as a building material. This characteristic has been substantially
improved by using the concept of microlevel reinforcement.
❖ Fiber-reinforced concrete mixtures containing steel, glass, or
polypropylene fibers are being employed successfully in the structures
where resistance to impact is important.
❑ Imperviousness is an important materials’ characteristic for durability to
strong chemical solutions.
• Concrete mixtures containing polymers have been developed which
show very low permeability and excellent chemical resistance.
• Overlays composed of such concrete mixtures are suitable for protection
of reinforcing steel from corrosion in industrial floors and bridge decks.

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Why High Performance Concrete?

❖Heavyweight concrete made with high-density minerals is
about 50% heavier than normal concrete containing Reading assignment
conventional aggregate.  Lightweight Concrete (LWC)
❖This type of concrete is being used for radiation shielding in  High-Strength Concrete (HSC)
o Heavyweight Concrete (HWC)
nuclear power plants when limitations of usable space require o Preplaced Aggregate Concrete (PAC)
a reduction in the thickness of the shield.  Shrinkage-Compensating Concrete o Polymers and Concrete (PC)
(ShCC) o Roller-Compacted Concrete (RCC)
❑ Mass concrete for dams and other large structures has been around for some o Nano-Concrete (NC)
 Fiber-Reinforced Concrete (FR
time, but methods selected to control the temperature rise have had a
considerable influence on the construction technology during the last 45 years.
❑ Pre-cooling of concrete materials has virtually eliminated the need for
expensive post-cooling operations and has made faster construction
schedules possible.
❑ Dams are also being built now with Roller-Compacted Concrete, using
ordinary earth-moving equipment, at speeds and costs that were
unimaginable only 25 years ago.

Application of geosynthetic materials

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6. Drones
❑ Autonomous drones are being used to map out –
sometimes hazardous construction sites digitally,
 Many construction sites are already heavily dependent on the use of and providing a higher level of accuracy.
drones. These drones are very beneficial in that they save a lot of time. ❑ Drones collect data by flying over a site and taking
For instance, surveyors can survey an entire site in just a few minutes, high resolution photographs.
whereas in the past it’d take them several weeks or months. Obviously,
this will also save construction companies a lot of money.
 As drone technology continues rapidly developing in its accuracy and
precision of its readings, even less human involvement will be necessary.
In the past, many companies were hesitant to use drones because they
still needed a controller, but today as the technology grows much more
efficient, more construction companies are willingly and openly
embracing this technology.

7. Advanced uses for GPS

 Construction World says while GPS tracking solutions aren’t

anything new, they’re now being used in more creative and
resourceful ways including:
❖ Surveying has been dramatically improved because crews no
longer need to use traditional surveying equipment.
❖ Data for prospective project sites can be quickly and accurately
collected.
❖ Project managers are also using GPS in fleet management.
Today, each of their vehicles is equipped with a device that is
trackable via both computers and smartphones. This lets
everyone know where vehicles always are.
❖ It’s easier to find lost or stolen equipment because managers can
now generate maps that pinpoint the exact location of any of
these items.

Internet of Things(IoT) Artificial Intelligence(AI)

 The Internet of things refers to a type of network to
connect anything with the Internet based on stipulated
protocols through information sensing equipment's to
conduct information exchange and communications in
order to achieve smart recognitions, positioning, tracing,
monitoring, and administration.
 AI is defined as the ability of a machine to mimic intelligent
human behavior, thus seeking to use human-inspired algorithms for
approximating conventionally challenging problems.
 The implementation of AI can be seen as a digital transformation.
 advantages of AI for organizations to be the following: Improve
end-users experience using the data it provides, automate tasks to
allow humans to focus on work that will add value and reduce
human errors and deliver services more quickly.
 This can be seen in relation with the lean principles where
maximizing value, minimizing waste and increase the efficiency
of the working process is central.

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Future application of AI presented by Team Bispevika

Thank You

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