A Study on Factors Influencing Cost Overrun in High-rise Building Construction across India

Cost overrun is a common problem in construction projects worldwide.Most Indian construction projects,particularly those involving high-rise buildings,have had severe cost overruns.For managers,architects,engineers,and contractors,completing building projects within the specified cost budget has become the most important and hard assignment.Since it is common for high-rise building projects to go over budget,the aim of this study is to find out the causes of cost overruns and provide effective measures.The study found 70 cost overrun factors based on a comprehensive literature review and expert opinions.A Google form questionnaire was distributed to 150 construction professionals across India.After following up,101 of the 150 responses were received.A five-point Likert scale was used and the acquired data was analyzed and ranked using the Relative Importance Index(RII)technique.According to the findings of RII,the top ten critical factors influencing cost overruns were frequent change orders during construction by the owner,delay in construction,escalation of material prices,market inflation or deflation,rework,frequent changes in design,inaccurate evaluation of the project timeline,unforeseen ground condition,inaccurate quantity take-off,and delay in progressive payment by the owner.Spearman’s rank correlation test revealed that there is a very significant relationship between the rankings of factors provided by the owner,the consultant,and the contractor.In addition,a factor analysis tool in the SPSS software was also used to categorize the seventy factors into sixteen core components.The top ten critical factors were presented to subject matter experts,and their suggestions were being compiled.These results are expected to help construction professionals minimize cost overruns,improve cost control measures,and initiate future research.

Discussion on Construction Technology and Welding Deformation of High-Rise Steel Frame Structure

Because of urbanization,land resources in China’s cities has become increasingly scarce.Therefore,modern buildings are becoming taller,making high-rise steel frame structures the new favorite of the construction industry.However,the construction of high-rise steel frame structures requires advanced technology.If the construction technology is effectively implemented and the welding techniques of the construction personnel align with the requirements for high-rise steel frame structures,it can help mitigate deformations in the steel structure,thus preserving the overall construction quality of high-rise steel frame structures.To enhance the applicability of steel frame structures in high-rise buildings,this paper focuses on analyzing the optimization path for the construction process of high-rise steel frame structures.It introduces a tailored approach to control welding-induced deformations in steel frame structures,aiming to make a valuable contribution to the advancement of China’s construction industry.

Study on Evacuation Strategy of Commercial High-Rise Building under Fire Based on FDS and Pathfinder

With the development of economy and society and the growth of population,the high-rise and multi-function of commercial buildings have become an international trend.But it also poses huge fire hazards.Most of the existing studies’research objects are predominantly high-rise residential buildings,without considering the impact of different functional zones(Standard floor,entertainment zone,office zone,equipment room and so on)and personnel distribution of commercial buildings evacuation.And the influence of using elevators to carry evacuees on the refuge floor on personnel evacuation is rarely studied.In this work,the fire scenario of the Yangtze River InternationalConferenceCenter,a high-rise commercial building,is simulated with the Pyrosim programto get the necessary parameters under various fire scenarios and to calculate the available evacuation time TASET.At the same time,according to the complex functional zone of the commercial high-rise building and the distribution of people in different time periods,a reasonable evacuation strategy is developed and simulated by Pathfinder software.The results indicate that unorganized evacuation will lead individuals to take the erroneous evacuation route,resulting in a vast region of congestion;comprehensive consideration of the time staggering and the reasonable distribution of evacuation routes can significantly improve evacuation efficiency,and the TRSET of night and working hours is 36.6%–55.3%and 49.9%–79.6%of unorganized evacuation,respectively.For the night fire,60%of the people use elevator-refuge floor to evacuate is the optimal strategy;for the fire during working hours,half of the people on standard floors use the elevator to evacuate and people on multifunctional floors evacuate in four batches is the best plan.The results of this study can provide viable solutions and a foundation for analyzing the fire evacuation and safety of big commercial high-rise buildings.

A Stroke-Limitation AMD Control System with Variable Gain and Limited Area for High-Rise Buildings

Collisions between a moving mass and an anti-collision device increase structural responses and threaten structural safety.An active mass damper(AMD)with stroke limitations is often used to avoid collisions.However,a strokelimited AMD control system with a fixed limited area shortens the available AMD stroke and leads to significant control power.To solve this problem,the design approach with variable gain and limited area(VGLA)is proposed in this study.First,the boundary of variable-limited areas is calculated based on the real-time status of the moving mass.The variable gain(VG)expression at the variable limited area is deduced by considering the saturation of AMD stroke.Then,numerical simulations of a stroke-limited AMD control system with VGLA are conducted on a high-rise building structure.These numerical simulations show that the proposed approach has superior strokelimitation performance compared with a stroke-limited AMD control system with a fixed limited area.Finally,the proposed approach is validated through experiments on a four-story steel frame.

Intelligent Sensing and Control of Road Construction Robot Scenes Based on Road Construction

Automatic control technology is the basis of road robot improvement,according to the characteristics of construction equipment and functions,the research will be input type perception from positioning acquisition,real-world monitoring,the process will use RTK-GNSS positional perception technology,by projecting the left side of the earth from Gauss-Krueger projection method,and then carry out the Cartesian conversion based on the characteristics of drawing;steering control system is the core of the electric drive unmanned module,on the basis of the analysis of the composition of the steering system of unmanned engineering vehicles,the steering system key components such as direction,torque sensor,drive motor and other models are established,the joint simulation model of unmanned engineering vehicles is established,the steering controller is designed using the PID method,the simulation results show that the control method can meet the construction path demand for automatic steering.The path planning will first formulate the construction area with preset values and realize the steering angle correction during driving by PID algorithm,and never realize the construction-based path planning,and the results show that the method can control the straight path within the error of 10 cm and the curve error within 20 cm.With the collaboration of various modules,the automatic construction simulation results of this robot show that the design path and control method is effective.

A novel control strategy for reproducing the floor motions of high-rise buildings by earthquake-simulating shake tables

To enable the experimental assessment of the seismic performance of full-scale nonstructural elements with multiple engineering parameters(EDPs),a three-layer testbed named Nonstructural Element Simulator on Shake Table(NEST)has been developed.The testbed consists of three consecutive floors of steel structure.The bottom two floors provide a space to accommodate a full-scale room.To fully explore the flexibility of NEST,we propose a novel control strategy to generate the required shake table input time histories for the testbed to track the target floor motions of the buildings of interest with high accuracy.The control strategy contains two parts:an inverse dynamic compensation via simulation of feedback control systems(IDCS)algorithm and an offline iteration procedure based on a refined nonlinear numerical model of the testbed.The key aspects of the control strategy were introduced in this paper.Experimental tests were conducted to simulate the seismic responses of a full-scale office room on the 21^(st)floor of a 42-story high-rise building.The test results show that the proposed control strategy can reproduce the target floor motions of the building of interest with less than 20%errors within the specified frequency range.

Properties and Characteristics of Regolith-Based Materials for Extraterrestrial Construction

The construction of extraterrestrial bases has become a new goal in the active exploration of deep space.Among the construction techniques,in situ resource-based construction is one of the most promising because of its good sustainability and acceptable economic cost,triggering the development of various types of extraterrestrial construction materials.A comprehensive survey and comparison of materials from the perspective of performance was conducted to provide suggestions for material selection and optimization.Thirteen types of typical construction materials are discussed in terms of their reliability and applicability in extreme extraterrestrial environment.Mechanical,thermal and optical,and radiation-shielding properties are considered.The influencing factors and optimization methods for these properties are analyzed.From the perspective of material properties,the existing challenges lie in the comprehensive,long-term,and real characterization of regolith-based construction materials.Correspondingly,the suggested future directions include the application of high-throughput characterization methods,accelerated durability tests,and conducting extraterrestrial experiments.

Construction Activity Analysis of Workers Based on Human Posture Estimation Information

Identifying workers’construction activities or behaviors can enable managers to better monitor labor efficiency and construction progress.However,current activity analysis methods for construction workers rely solely on manual observations and recordings,which consumes considerable time and has high labor costs.Researchers have focused on monitoring on-site construction activities of workers.However,when multiple workers are working together,current research cannot accu rately and automatically identify the construction activity.This research proposes a deep learning framework for the automated analysis of the construction activities of multiple workers.In this framework,multiple deep neural network models are designed and used to complete worker key point extraction,worker tracking,and worker construction activity analysis.The designed framework was tested at an actual construction site,and activity recognition for multiple workers was performed,indicating the feasibility of the framework for the automated monitoring of work efficiency.

Promoting grain production through high-standard farmland construction:Evidence in China

Food security is a strategic priority for a country’s economic development.In China,high-standard farmland construction(HSFC)is an important initiative to stabilize grain production and increase grain production capacity.Based on panel data from 31 sample provinces,autonomous regions,and municipalities in China from 2005–2017,this study explored the impact of HSFC on grain yield using the difference-in-differences(DID)method.The results showed that HSFC significantly increased total grain production,which is robust to various checks.HSFC increased grain yield through three potential mechanisms.First,it could increase the grain replanting index.Second,it could effectively reduce yield loss due to droughts and floods.Last,HSFC could strengthen the cultivated land by renovating the low-and medium-yielding fields.Heterogeneity analysis found that the HSFC farmland showed a significant increase in grain yield only in the main grain-producing areas and balanced areas.In addition,HSFC significantly increased the yields of rice,wheat,and maize while leading to a reduction in soybean yields.The findings suggest the government should continue to promote HSFC,improve construction standards,and strictly control the“non-agriculturalization”and“non-coordination”of farmland to increase grain production further.At the same time,market mechanisms should be used to incentivize soybean farming,improve returns and stabilize soybean yields.

Application of Modern Construction Art in Landscape Architecture Planning and Design

The continuous progress of urbanization has driven the continuous development and innovation of landscape planning and design.Focused on the important design method of modern construction art,this study analyzed its concepts and characteristics,and made deep exploration to its application in landscape planning and design.The results indicated that modern construction art had a significant impact on landscape spatial planning and layout,spatial design forms,and spatial ornaments.The use of modern construction art concepts could make landscape design more scientific,artistic,and humane,creating higher quality leisure and entertainment venues for audiences.

Work-Related Accidents on a Hospital Construction Site in Benin

Introduction: Work-related accidents are frequent and serious in the construction sector. The aim of the study was to determine the frequency and factors associated with occupational accidents on the construction site of a referral hospital in Benin. Methods: A cross-sectional study was carried out. The sample size was calculated using the Schwartz form adjusted for the number of workers on site and was 129 workers. Random sampling was used. The dependent variable was work-related accidents. The other variables were socio-demographic and occupational characteristics. Data were collected through a questionnaire survey. Medians and proportions were calculated. An association was sought using Chi-square and Fisher tests with a threshold of p Results: A total of 132 workers were included. Their median age was 30 years with an ITQ of [27 - 38];men were the most represented 126 (95.45%) with a level of education higher than or equal to high school in 101 (76.52%) and in the majority with a permanent status 85 (64.39%). Seniority of more than 5 years was observed in 92 (69.7%). Workers working more than 8 hours of overtime per week numbered 57 (43.18%). Exposure to vibrating objects was 49 (37.12%). In terms of psychosocial constraints, 82.58% had high psychological demands;79.53% low decision-making latitude;50.76% low social support. The frequency of work-related accidents was 6.82%, and the only associated factor was the type of worker (p = 0.016). On the other hand, there were 10.2% accidents among workers handling vibrating objects versus 4.98% among those not using them. With regard to psychosocial constraints, the following frequencies were recorded respectively: 6.42% among those with high psychological demand versus 8.7% among those with low psychological demand;7.62% among those with low decision-making latitude versus 3.7% among those with high decision-making latitude;8.96% among those with low social support versus 4.62% among those with high support. Conclusion: Work-related accidents on construction sites must be avoided by all possible means including the management of psychosocial constraints.

Friction Characteristics Between Marine Clay and Construction Materials

Structure-soil interface friction characteristics is of importance to investigate the interaction between engineering structures and soils,especially for offshore structures.The interface friction behavior between marine clay and structural materials with different roughness was studied in this paper by using 3D optical scanning tests,a modified direct shear device and numerical simulation.Relationships between the surface roughness of structures,water content and interface friction angle were presented by model tests.The increase of water contents decreased the interface friction angles.For interfaces with different roughness,the interface friction angles will be smaller than that of the soil when the water content exceeds a certain value.The roughness of the interface and the water content of the soil are mutually coupled to influence the coefficient of friction(COF).This paper proposed a Finite Element Method(FEM)to simulate the interface direct shear tests of structures with different roughness.The surface models with different roughness are established based on the structure data obtained by 3D scanning.The Coupled Eulerian-Lagrangian(CEL)approach was employed to analyse soils sheared by irregular surfaces.The interface behavior for interfaces with different roughness under cyclic shear stresses was analyzed by FEM.

Subsurface multi-physical characterization of mountain excavation and city construction in loess plateau with a fiber-optic sensing system

Mountain excavation and city construction(MECC)projects being launched in the Loess Plateau in China involve the creation of large-scale artificial land.Understanding the subsurface evolution characteristics of the artificial land is essential,yet challenging.Here,we use an improved fiber-optic monitoring system for its subsurface multi-physical characterization.The system enables us to gather spatiotemporal distribution of various parameters,including strata deformation,temperature,and moisture.Yan’an New District was selected as a case study to conduct refined in-situ monitoring through a 77 m-deep borehole and a 30 m-long trench.Findings reveal that the ground settlement involves both the deformation of the filling loess and the underlying intact loess.Notably,the filling loess exhibits a stronger creep capability compared to underlying intact loess.The deformation along the profile is unevenly distributed,with a positive correlation with soil moisture.Water accumulation has been observed at the interface between the filling loess and the underlying intact loess,leading to a significant deformation.Moreover,the temperature and moisture in the filling loess have reached a new equilibrium state,with their depths influenced by atmospheric conditions measuring at 31 m and 26 m,respectively.The refined investigation allows us to identify critical layers that matter the sustainable development of newly created urban areas,and provide improved insights into the evolution mechanisms of land creation.

“Instruction-Category” Approach of Test Suite Construction for Oven Embedded System

Being different from testing for popular GUI software, the “instruction-category” approach is proposed for testing embedded system. This approach is constructed by three steps including refining items, drawing instruction-brief and instruction-category, and constructing test suite. Consequently, this approach is adopted to test oven embedded system, and detail process is deeply discussed. As a result, the factual result indicates that the “instruction-category” approach can be effectively applied in embedded system testing as a black-box method for conformity testing.

Construction of Urban Mixed-age Community: Opportunities, Challenges and Countermeasures: A Case Study of“Fangjia Hutong”in Beijing

In the context of China’s economic development and population aging,the innovation and exploration of the old-age care model has emerged as a new community transformation and development direction.Given the differing needs and characteristics of individuals across the lifespan,it is evident that a design approach that incorporates mixed-age integration and mutual-help communities is a viable strategy for enhancing intergenerational exchanges.This entails the creation of a diverse and open community that is conducive to habitation for individuals of all ages,encompassing the full spectrum of needs,from those of young children to the elderly.Such a community must be designed and constructed with the population in mind,from the initial planning and design stages to the operational phase.This encompasses a comprehensive range of services,including food,clothing,housing,transportation,and medical care and recreation.

Evaluation of Economical and Intensive Use of Construction Land in a County Town:A case study of Wan’an County,Ji’an City

Taking the changes of construction land in Wan’an County over the years as the research object,the quantity and spatial characteristics of construction land in Wan’an County were analyzed,and the overall situation and regional differences of construction land utilization in Wan’an County were revealed.From the aspects of main influencing factors such as land use structure,land use intensity,land input intensity and output benefit,an evaluation indicator system was established to evaluate the economical and intensive use level of construction land in Wan’an County.The results show that the score of the economical and intensive use level of construction land in Wan’an County was 56.92,which was the lowest among all the districts and counties in Ji’an City.Based on the evaluation results,the corresponding economizing and intensive strategies were put forward,and the safeguard measures for its implementation were explored.The purpose is to provide some support for the preparation of territorial spatial planning,the delineation of urban development boundaries,and the potential exploitation of construction land stock,hoping to improve the utilization efficiency and benefit of construction land in Wan’an County,and promote the economic growth of Wan’an County to the stage of high-quality development.

Longitudinal vibration characteristics of a tapered pipe pile considering the vertical support of surrounding soil and construction disturbance

This research is concentrated on the longitudinal vibration of a tapered pipe pile considering the vertical support of the surrounding soil and construction disturbance.First,the pile-soil system is partitioned into finite segments in the vertical direction and the Voigt model is applied to simulate the vertical support of the surrounding soil acting on the pile segment.The surrounding soil is divided into finite ring-shaped zones in the radial direction to consider the construction disturbance.Then,the shear complex stiffness at the pile-soil interface is derived by solving the dynamic equilibrium equation for the soil from the outermost to innermost zone.The displacement impedance at the top of an arbitrary pile segment is obtained by solving the dynamic equilibrium equation for the pile and is combined with the vertical support of the surrounding soil to derive the displacement impedance at the bottom of the upper adjacent segment.Further,the displacement impedance at the pile head is obtained based on the impedance function transfer technique.Finally,the reliability of the proposed solution is verified,followed by a sensitivity analysis concerning the coupling effect of the pile parameters,construction disturbance and the vertical support of the surrounding soil on the displacement impedance of the pile.

Construction of Rail Connectivity from Idapalli to International Container Transhipment Terminal(ICTT)at Vallarpadam,Kochi

Cochin Port is an all-weather port situated within a protected natural harbour,just 11 km away from mainland shipping route.Total draft of 15m-16m is available and it is a natural choice for setting up transhipment hub.The International Container Transhipment Terminal(ICTT)at Vallarpadam was developed by DP World and M/s Cochin Port Trust(CPT).As a part of this project,the new Rail connectivity from ICTT at Vallarpadam to Idappalli station is 8.60km,including the construction of 4.62 km elevated bridge was awarded to AFCONS by M/s Rail Vikas Nigam Limited(RVNL),in 2007 with a scheduled completion by 2009.This bridge is constructed for single railway track and piling was done for the provision of a second railway track in future.The 4.62 km long bridge was successfully completed and Trial Loco run was done in March 2010.This paper includes details of sub-surface profile,engineering properties of soils,details of construction of pile foundations and Challenges faced during construction.

Personification in Chinese Diplomatic Discourse and the Construction of National Identity Based on Corpus:A Case Study of the Regular Press Conference of Ministry of Foreign Affairs

With the development of the major country diplomacy with Chinese characteristics,diplomatic discourse,as an important part of building China’s international discourse power,has attracted much attention.Personification is a common means in diplomatic discourse.By giving anthropomorphic expressions to countries,regions,institutions and policies,the purpose of building national identity and establishing national image can be achieved.Based on conceptual metaphor theory and national identity theory,this paper focuses on personification in diplomatic discourse with a case study of the regular press conference of Ministry of Foreign Affairs.It is found that the spokesperson skillfully constructed China’s positive national identity,such as peace-loving,openness and inclusiveness by using a large number of body metaphor,kinship metaphor and role metaphor.

Research Progress and Prospects of Total Factor Productivity in the Construction Industry

The high-quality development of the construction industry fundamentally stems from the significant improvement of total factor productivity.Therefore,it is of crucial significance for promoting the development of the construction industry to a higher level by scientifically and accurately measuring the total factor productivity of the construction industry and deeply analyzing the influencing factors behind it.Based on a comprehensive consideration of research methods and influencing factors,this paper systematically reviews the existing relevant literature on total factor productivity in the construction industry,aiming to reveal the current research development trend in this field and point out potential problems.This effort aims to provide a solid theoretical foundation and valuable reference for further in-depth research,and jointly promote the continuous progress and development of total factor productivity research in the construction industry.