Construction and Practice of First-Class Courses on Virtual Simulation Experimental Teaching of Urban Overpasses

Virtual simulation experiment,as a new way to promote the digital transformation of education,has a broad development prospect and application value.The civil engineering experimental volume and space are huge,it has a long construction period,is highly dangerous,and is difficult to experiment with.In order to solve the contradiction between the traditional theory teaching of civil engineering and the engineering training of students,the construction of virtual simulation experimental teaching courses with a high degree of realism,intuition,and accuracy can be used as a useful supplement and innovation of experimental and practical teaching.This paper takes the virtual simulation experimental teaching course of urban overpasses as an example,introduces the necessity and practicability of the course construction,and describes the experimental principle structure of the course,the simulation scene design,the experimental teaching process,the experimental method,etc.The course has achieved good application results,and it has been recognized as the first-class virtual simulation teaching course of the Chongqing Municipal Government,which provides certain references to the construction of the same type of courses in the civil engineering profession.

Application of BIM + Virtual Simulation Technology in Road Engineering Construction Technology and Organization Course

We focus on the goal of undergraduate talent training,consider the course features of Road Engineering Construction Technology and Organization,analyze the problems existing in the practical teaching of the course,use the advantages of BIM+virtual simulation technology,design a scientific and reasonable practical teaching content of Road Engineering Construction Technology and Organization,and address the contrast between the strong practical aspect of the traditional Road Engineering Construction Technology and Organization course and the lack of practical instruments in hope to improve students’learning autonomy,enhance the quality of practical teaching,achieve the training objectives of the course,and nurture applied technical talents.

Radial Tire Construction Design Method Based on Finite Element Simulation

The simulation of 295/80R22. 5 tire building process from tire building to curing was developed using ABAQUS software,which covered four stages: gluing of components on main drum,gluing of components on auxiliary drum,building process of green tire and shaping process of green tire. Results showed that material distribution of the simulated structure had good consistence with the real tire structure. Therefore,the tire building process simulation can be used to judge the rationality of tire construction design and to determine the shapes of different tire components. In order to optimize the construction design,a reverse simulation method was proposed to design the semi-product components such as apex,tread,and shoulder pad. The semi-product components determined by utilizing the reverse simulation method were assembled again into a tire. Results show that the simulated material distribution is consistent with the material distribution of design tire,which proves effectiveness and reliability of the reverse simulation method.

Construction Simulation and Real-Time Control for High Arch Dam

A method of combining dynamic simulation with real-time control was proposed to fit the randomness and uncertainty in the high arch dam construction process. The mathematical logic model of high arch dam construction process was established. By combining dynamic construction simulation with schedule analysis, the process of construction schedule forecasting and analysis based on dynamic simulation was studied. The process of real-time schedule control was constructed and some measures for dynamic adjustment and control of construction schedule were provided. A system developed with the method is utilized in a being constructed hydroelectric project located at the Yellow River in northwest China, which can make the pouring plan of the dam in the next stage (a month, quarter or year) to guide the practical construction. The application result shows that the system provides an effective technical support for the construction and management of the dam.

Simulation and experimental study on hydraulic driving fan cooling system for construction machinery working on plateau

Overheating of the engine, the transmission and the hydraulic device is a problem when the construction machinery works on plateau. To solve this problem, we proposed an electro-controlled hydraulic driving fan cooling system (ECHDFCS). The system was applied to a 50-wheel loader. We carried out the coolant temperature simulation using fluid modeling software FLOWMASTER, followed by laboratory experiments and road tests. The results show that ECHDFCS can adjust the cooling capability of the system automatically based on machine heat dissipation requirements. The coolant temperature is consequently remained within an appropriate range. The simulation results are consistent with the experiment results when the experiment is performed on the plain, but are different from the road tests in some investigated parameters on the plateau.

3D Finite Element Simulation of Tunnel Boring Machine Construction Processes in Deep Water Conveyance Tunnel

Applying stiffness migration method,a 3D finite element mechanical model is established to simulate the excavation and advance processes.By using 3D nonlinear finite element method,the tunnel boring machine(TBM) excavation process is dynamically simulated to analyze the stress and strain field status of surrounding rock and segment.The maximum tensile stress of segment ring caused by tunnel construction mainly lies in arch bottom and presents zonal distribution.The stress increases slightly and limitedly in the course of excavation.The maximum and minimum displacements of segment,manifesting as zonal distribution,distribute in arch bottom and vault respectively.The displacements slightly increase with the advance of TBM and gradually tend to stability.

Simulation analysis of construction process of high rock slope's stabilization

A self-developed elasto-plastic finite element program was used to analyze the construction sequence of high rock slope's stabilization in a coal-coking plant, and the result was compared with that employing the ultimate equilibrium method. Based on the results of finite element analysis, the stress contour graphs and displacement vector graphs at different construction steps were obtained, and the behavior of the slope during stabilization construction process was analyzed quantitatively. Based on the analysis of safety factors of three different schemes of stabilization and two different construction schemes, the assessment of stability and bracing design of the construction process were performed. The results show that the original reinforcement design is improper; the stability of the rock slope is controlled by a developed structural plane, the stability factor after excavation is less than 1, and the free surface should be braced in time; for stability, the construction sequence should adopt that bracing follows excavation step by step up to down; the local slide occurred during the construction process agrees with the dangerous slide determined by the numerical analysis, which proves the validity and rationality of the adopted method.

Discrete-Event Simulation of Viaduct Construction Methods in Riyadh Metro

The Riyadh metro project is one of the current megaprojects that aim to improve the transit systems in Saudi Arabia.It consists of several metro lines with a total length of 176 km and 85 stations.The viaducts are considered as one of the main construction elements in the metro lines.Four methods for viaducts construction have been used in the Riyadh metro project:precast beam,full span launching method,cast on-site,and segment method(precast segment method and BCM(balanced cantilever method)).The viaducts work consumes a large portion of a project’s time and cost.Furthermore,the competitive nature of the construction industry increases the need to improve the efficiency of construction performance.Accordingly,this paper takes the initial steps toward increasing the efficiency of viaduct construction methods through simulation.Simulation of construction processes provides a systematic tool that can be used for determining the resources,time,and cost of these processes.The simulation processes should focus on the main activities affecting this element’s execution for viaducts construction,such as segment storage,handling,transporting,and installation.This study highlights the viaducts construction methods and develops general discrete-event simulation models for the most commonly used viaducts construction methods in the Riyadh metro using AnyLogic simulation software.The simulation models visualize and capture the interaction between the different activities and resources in a viaduct construction.Consequently,the construction drawbacks can be identified.Furthermore,the simulation model can be manipulated by adding assumptions to develop more efficient construction methods in terms of time and cost in such projects.

GIS-Based Simulation of Engineering Construction Schedule

For its complexity, engineering construction schedule design is limited by various factors.Simulation-based engineering construction schedule takes critical path method (CPM) network as frame and calls complex cyclic operation network (CYCLONE) simulation model enclosed in advance for its simulation nodes. CYCLONE simulation model takes charge of simulating stochastic duration of activity and efficiency of resources, while CPM model performs project scheduling. This combination avoids the shortcomings of both models. Furthermore, geographic information system (GIS) technique is utilized to visualize the construction processes which are otherwise difficult to be understood by static results described. Application in practical project verifies the feasibility and advantage of the technique.

Dust Diffusion Simulation in the Third Layer Construction of Underground Powerhouse

Under forced ventilation,the dust diffusion of underground powerhouse construction is investigated using a 3D high Reynolds number k-ε model.The interfacial momentum transfers and the wall roughness in the wall function are considered.Ventilation in the third layer of underground powerhouse of Xiangjiaba hydropower station is used as a case.The geometric structure has a decisive effect on the airflow distribution.It is concluded that the dust concentration decreases gradually with the increase of the ventilation time.However,iso-concentration curves have the same tendency after 1 800 s.The dust concentration meets the ventilation and dust-prevention health standard after 2 300 s.The prediction by the present model is confirmed by the experimental measurement by Nakayama.

TBM Construction Process Simulation and Performance Optimization

Long tunnel excavation with tunnel boring machine (TBM) is a complex and stochastic process. It is easily affected by uncertainties and needs to be adjusted according to specific geological conditions in different tunnel sections, which makes the construction scheduling and management difficult. Based on the rock mass classification, this paper estimates the penetration rate. Using the rate, a cyclic network simulation (CYCLONE) model of TBM boring system is established, and the advance rates under different geological conditions are determined. Then, the impact of different cutter head thrust, which is chosen in reasonable range according to previous experiences, on project schedule is analyzed. Moreover, the simulation model of mucking system is built to determine the number of muck trains and rail intersections reasonably, regarding the efficiency of muck loading and material transporting. Based on the interaction and interrelation between TBM boring system and mucking system, the combined CYCLONE model for the entire tunneling process is established. Then reasonable construction schedule, the utilization rate of working resources, and the probability of project completion are obtained through the model programming. At last, a project application shows the feasibility of the presented method.

Revenue Optimization of Pipelines Construction and Operation Management Based on Quantum Genetic Algorithm and Simulated Annealing Algorithm

For the optimization of pipelines, most researchers are mainly concerned with designing the most reasonable section to meet the requirements of strength and stiffness, and at the same time reduce the cost as much as possible. It is undeniable that they do achieve this goal by using the lowest cost in design phase to achieve maximum benefits. However, for pipelines, the cost and incomes of operation management are far greater than those in design phase. Therefore, the novelty of this paper is to propose an optimization model that considers the costs and incomes of the construction and operation phases, and combines them into one model. By comparing three optimization algorithms (genetic algorithm, quantum genetic algorithm and simulated annealing algorithm), the same optimization problem is solved. Then the most suitable algorithm is selected and the optimal solution is obtained, which provides reference for construction and operation management during the whole life cycle of pipelines.

Quantitative Assessment of Building Constructability Using BIM and 4D Simulation

Despite the fact that applying constructability concepts in building designs have led to savings estimated within a range of 1% to 14% of the capital cost, the construction industry still lacks an advanced tool to assess and check for constructability implementations in designs. Therefore, the objective of this research is to propose a quantitative assessment of building constructability, which transforms the subjective assessment of constructability knowledge to a quantified value so that it is easy to analyze and improve building design. The proposed methodology uses the advancement of object oriented Building Information Model (BIM) and 4D simulation model to serve as a data repository models for the constructability assessment platform. Factors affecting constructability of building designs have been identified and relatively weighted using Analytical Hierarchy Process (AHP) technique based on a questionnaire survey collected throughout the Canadian provinces. Evaluation criteria are also developed to assist the designer to evaluate the design proposals. The outcome shows that the proposed method provides the designer an accurate and faster mode in evaluating project constructability by using the parametric features from BIM and taking the advantage of spatial relationship between building components.

Design and Implementation of Training Simulator for Multi-purpose Construction Crawler

An efficient multi-purpose construction crawler training simulator is developed based on windows platform using digital signal processing,multimedia,sensing,simulation modeling and real-time visualization simulation technologies. The simulator architecture and each part are discussed in this paper. The module designs for data acquisition,dynamic modeling and visual,sound and assess simulation are focused. The system has been put into practice and the satisfactory results are got.

Discrete element simulation of crushable rockfill materials

A discrete element method was used to study the evolution of particle crushing in a rockfill sample subjected to triaxial shear. A simple procedure was developed to generate clusters with arbitrary shapes, which resembled real rockfill particles. A theoretical method was developed to define the failure criterion for an individual particle subjected to an arbitrary set of contact forces. Then, a series of numerical tests of large-scale drained triaxial tests were conducted to simulate the behaviors of the rockfill sample. Finally, we examined the development of micro-characteristics such as particle crushing, contact characteristics, porosity, deformation, movement, and energy dissipation. The simulation results were partially compared with the laboratory experiments, and good agreement was achieved, demonstrating that the particle crushing model proposed can be used to simulate the drained triaxial test ofrockfill materials. Based on a comparison of macro behaviors of the roekfill sample and micro structures of the particles, the microscopic mechanism of the rockfill materials subjected to triaxial shear was determined qualitatively. It is shown that the crushing rate, rather than the number of crushed particles, can be used to reflect the relationship between macro- and micro-mechanical characteristics of rockfill materials. These research results further develop our understanding of the deformation mechanism of rockfill materials.

Probabilistic prediction of expected ground condition and construction time and costs in road tunnels

Ground condition and construction （excavation and support） time and costs are the key factors in decision-making during planning and design phases of a tunnel project. An innovative methodology for probabilistic estimation of ground condition and construction time and costs is proposed, which is an integration of the ground prediction approach based on Markov process, and the time and cost variance analysis based on Monte-Carlo （MC） simulation. The former provides the probabilistic description of ground classification along tunnel alignment according to the geological information revealed from geological profile and boreholes. The latter provides the probabilistic description of the expected construction time and costs for each operation according to the survey feedbacks from experts. Then an engineering application to Hamro tunnel is presented to demonstrate how the ground condition and the construction time and costs are estimated in a probabilistic way. In most items, in order to estimate the data needed for this methodology, a number of questionnaires are distributed among the tunneling experts and finally the mean values of the respondents are applied. These facilitate both the owners and the contractors to be aware of the risk that they should carry before construction, and are useful for both tendering and bidding.

Fast simulation of flexible multibody dynamics with electric-hydraulic drive system

Hardware in the loop simulation （HILS） has been investigated in the field of the multibody dynamics （MBD）, which combined the MBD simulation with the actual mechanical system. The fast simulation is necessary for the HILS system in order to require the real time simulation. This paper presents a fast simulation technique using the domain decomposition method with the iteration in the flexible multibody system in which flexible linkage system and electro-hydraulic drive system are coupled with each other. C 2013 The Chinese Society of Theoretical and Applied Mechanics.[doi：10.1063/2.1301301]

Traffic organization during urban road constructions

This research presented a bi-level programming approach to optimize the schedule of ur- ban road construction activities based on a hypothetical transport network, with an objective of mini- mizing the overall traffic delays. A heuristic algorithm was utilized to identify a set of road construction schedules, while PARAMICS was adopted to estimate the total travel time in the network under each road construction scenario. To test the performance of proposed heuristics-simulation methodology, a numerical test was implemented. The overall results suggested that the proposed methodol- ogy could quickly find the optimum solution with good convergence.

Application of system dynamics for assessment of sustainable performance of construction projects

Sustainable performance is expected to become a major factor when examining the feasibility of a construction project in terms of its life cycle performance. The study on which this paper is based developed a simulation model, using system dy- namics methodology, to assess the sustainable performance of projects. Three major factors are used to examine project sus- tainable performance (PSP): the sustainability of economic development (E), the sustainability of social development (S), and the sustainability of environmental development (En). Sustainable development ability (SDA) was used as a prototype to evaluate the degree of sustainable performance. The simulation software ‘ithink’ was used to help with the application of the model to a real life case. This paper explains and demonstrates the procedures used to develop the model and finally offers an approach for assessing the feasibility of a construction project in terms of its sustainable performance.

Numerical Simulation and Experimental Characterization of Clay Paste under Loads for Energy Saving in Clay Materials Processing

Requirements for the respect of the environment encourage to reduce the impact of human activity on the nature. Civil engineering answers these requirements by the development of ecological construction materials. This paper deals with the transformation of clay raw materials which enable the processing of environmentally friendly construction materials: in addition to their biodegradability, the alveolar fired clay materials allow energy saving in home heating thanks to their thermal isolation properties. But their manufacturing is a high energy consumption process, in particular during compaction, drying and firing which contribute to the emission of greenhouse gases. The goal of this paper is to study the rheology of clay pastes in order to develop low energy in manufacturing processes. For this purpose, theoretical and experimental approaches were carried out on six clay varieties. In the theoretical approach, a finite element (FE) simulation model has been developed for pressing a non-rigid material predicting deformations and stresses occurring within the clay structure. Experiments have then been carried out to validate the finite element modelling. In this experimental approach, the clay pastes were transformed with water content respecting the Atterberg limits which determine the plasticity of clays. The samples compaction has been carried out under variable loadings in order to determine the suitable low energy consumption loading.