School of Future Environments - Huri te Ao

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https://hdl.handle.net/10292/13907
AUT is home to a number of renowned research institutes in architecture and creative technologies. The School of Future Environments - Huri te Ao strong industry partnerships and the unique combination of architecture and creative technologies within one school stimulates interdisciplinary research beyond traditional boundaries.

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Now showing 1 - 5 of 94
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    Promoting Health and Safety on UK Construction Sites Using Lean Construction Strategies
    (IGLC, 2024-07) Chaudhari, Himesh; Sarhan, Saad; Abdelmegid, Mohammed; Saad, Ali; Poshdar, Mani
    Poor health and safety (H&S) conditions in the construction industry are linked to ill-defined social and economic factors. To mitigate poor construction H&S performance, it has been widely recommended that Lean Construction (LC) strategies be adopted. Existing literature shows a strong correlation between implementing LC and improving construction H&S performance. However, limited research utilises qualitative research based on primary data to understand the perspectives of experts with real-world experience on the LC/H&S relationship. To address this gap, we conducted a novel study interviewing eight highly experienced LC experts to gain insights into how LC can enhance H&S in construction projects. Going beyond theory, we conceptualised a model linking key LC methods to root causes of H&S accidents to enable tangible improvements. This model intends to guide construction professionals in adopting and implementing LC strategies to foster safer construction workplaces. Our findings affirm and extend prior research by emphasising the efficacy of LC methods in improving H&S performance in construction projects.
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    Digital Twin Applications for Overcoming Construction Supply Chain Challenges
    (Elsevier BV, 2024-08-14) Bakhshi, S; Ghaffarianhoseini, A; Ghaffarianhoseini, A; Najafi, M; Rahimian, F; Park, C; Lee, D
    Despite Digital Twins' (DTs) growing popularity in the Architecture, Engineering, Construction and Operations sector, currently, only a limited number of studies have focused on the applicability and potential offered by DT to deal with the whole Construction Supply Chain (CSC) challenges, justifying the significance of the present study. As a response to provide a holistic insight into DT's contribution to overcoming CSC challenges, this paper follows an extensive literature review approach. This review aims explicitly to identify the existing applications of DT in dealing with current CSC challenges and explore its possible contributions by investigating examples of other industries that adopted DT to tackle similar challenges. Firstly, it utilises Scopus as a database to collect CSC-related data. Subsequently, it employs VOSviewer to extract and visualise CSC hotspots. Finally, this review conducts extensive discussions to identify the CSC challenges around the identified hotspots and the DT-provided solutions.
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    Digital Twins in Construction: Architecture, Applications, Trends and Challenges
    (MDPI AG, 2024-08-23) Yang, Zhou; Tang, Chao; Zhang, Tongrui; Zhang, Zhongjian; Doan, Dat Tien
    The construction field currently suffers from low productivity, a lack of expertise among practitioners, weak innovation, and lack of predictability. The digital twin, an advanced digital technology, empowers the construction sector to advance towards intelligent construction and digital transformation. It ultimately aims for highly accurate digital simulation to achieve comprehensive optimization of all phases of a construction project. Currently, the process of digital twin applications is facing challenges such as poor data quality, the inability to harmonize types that are difficult to integrate, and insufficient data security. Further research on the application of digital twins in the construction domain is still needed to accelerate the development of digital twins and promote their practical application. This paper analyzes the commonly used architectures for digital twins in the construction domain in the literature and summarizes the commonly used technologies to implement the architectures, including artificial intelligence, machine learning, data mining, cyber–physical systems, internet of things, virtual reality, augmented reality applications, and considers their advantages and limitations. The focus of this paper is centered on the application of digital twins in the entire lifecycle of a construction project, which includes the design, construction, operation, maintenance, demolition and restoration phases. Digital twins are mainly moving towards the integration of data and information, model automation, intelligent system control, and data security and privacy. Digital twins present data management and integration challenges, privacy and security protection, technical manpower development, and transformation needs. Future research should address these challenges by improving data quality, developing robust integration methodologies, and strengthening data security measures.
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    Numerical Investigations of Seismic-Resilient Techniques for Legged Fluid Storage Tanks Utilising Magnetorheological Dampers
    (Elsevier, 2024-08-19) Hosseini, Seyed Ehsan Aghakouchaki; Beskhyroun, Sherif
    Different energy-dissipating devices have been proposed in the literature to attenuate the destructive effects of base excitations over fluid storage tanks. These structures have numerous applications in strategic industries and their failure can result in environmental hazards and huge economic losses. Proposed techniques in the literature for seismic energy dissipation of fluid-contained tanks are mostly centred on passive and active control mechanisms. Semi-active control devices using materials with adjustable properties offer advantages of both active and passive systems while removing their drawbacks. In this paper, the performance of a Magnetorheological (MR) damper on the seismic response reduction of fluid storage tanks through the application of three different control strategies including H2/LQG, PID, FOPID, and two passive techniques, i.e. Passive On, and Passive Off has been investigated. Parameters of the semi-active controllers are optimally designed for each aspect ratio and the applied ground motion using the Hunger Game Search (HGS) technique and finally, the semi-active Clipping algorithm commands the voltage to the damper. The fluid-tank-MR damper system has been examined under three Far-Fault and three Near-Fault ground motions. Numerical simulations have demonstrated that depending on the aspect ratio, applied ground motion, and the control strategy, the MR damper can mitigate the peak relative displacements and absolute accelerations of the two major modes of the system, i.e the rigid and impulsive modes, up to 72% and 67%, respectively. This proves the efficacy of these dampers in reducing the maximum base shear and overturning moment, hence mitigating the damage risks in these structures.
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    Multiple Roles of Green Space in the Resilience, Sustainability and Equity of Aotearoa New Zealand’s Cities
    (MDPI AG, 2024-07-08) Blaschke, P; Pedersen Zari, M; Chapman, R; Randal, E; Perry, M; Howden-Chapman, P; Gyde, E
    Green space is needed in urban areas to increase resilience to climate change and other shocks, as well as for human health and wellbeing. Urban green space (UGS) is increasingly considered as green infrastructure and highly complementary to engineered urban infrastructure, such as water and transport networks. The needs for resilient, sustainable and equitable future wellbeing require strategic planning, designing and upgrading of UGS, especially in areas where it has been underprovided. We explore the implications of these needs for urban development through a detailed review of cited UGS analyses conducted on the larger cities in Aotearoa New Zealand (AoNZ). There are important differences in UGS availability (i.e., quantity), accessibility and quality within and between cities. Some of these differences stem from ad hoc patterns of development, as well as topography. They contribute to apparently growing inequities in the availability and accessibility of UGS. Broader health and wellbeing considerations, encompassing Indigenous and community values, should be at the heart of UGS design and decisionmaking. Most of AoNZ’s cities aim (at least to some extent) at densification and decarbonisation to accommodate a growing population without costly sprawl; however, to date, sprawl continues. Our findings indicate a clear need for the design and provision of high-quality, well-integrated UGS within and servicing areas of denser housing, which are typically areas in cities with a demonstrable UGS deficiency.
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