Infrastructure Engineering - Research Publications
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ItemFramework for standardising carbon neutrality in building projects(Elsevier, 2022-11-01)The construction industry accounts for approximately 40% of the global carbon emissions and is the largest consumer of materials and energy. Given the Paris Agreement target towards global net-zero greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, significant changes are required in the design, construction and use of buildings. This study applies a qualitative approach that combines a systematic literature review (SLR) with in-depth semi-structured interviews with experts to analyse existing carbon neutrality frameworks and decision support tools; expanding current knowledge by bringing to the fore the challenges experienced in implementing these frameworks. This research effort reveals an inadequacy in frameworks for effective decision-making on decarbonisation strategies along the project lifecycle. A novel framework that breaks down the activities and decision points across the entire project lifecycle is proposed to bridge this gap in literature. The developed framework defines whole lifecycle cost, whole lifecycle energy use, exergetic lifecycle and whole lifecycle emissions as the four critical underpinning variables considered in making decarbonisation decisions. It further details the key evaluation criteria to facilitate decision-making at each stage of the project lifecycle and provides decision-makers with contextual guidance for assessing the impact of their decarbonisation decisions at the planning, delivery, closure and operations phases of the project. It will assist academic researchers, building owners and industry professionals to keep track of the project's carbon neutrality target and encourage best practices for carbon emission reduction in the building sector.
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ItemIndentation into an aluminium panel by the impact of a rigid spherical object(Elsevier BV, 2022-11)This paper introduces algebraic expressions for determining the amount of permanent indentation caused to an aluminium panel when impacted by a rigid spherical object. The magnitude of indentation is observed to vary significantly with the position of impact within the panel when the impactor and the velocity of impact are kept the same. This spatial variation of indentation is caused by the changes in the combinational mass (which is in turn function of the participating mass of the plate) and the Coefficient of Restitution COR. Both parameters are shown to correlate with the position of impact. The proposed algebraic expression featuring the combinational mass and COR as input parameters, allows potential damage to the panel to be predicted conveniently in day-to-day engineering practices. The original contribution of this article is in illustrating this phenomenon analytically, and have the analytical predictions verified by impact experimentation which has been conducted by the authors on panels of varying dimensions.
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ItemTranslating Place-Related Questions to GeoSPARQL Queries(ACM, 2022-04-25)Many place-related questions can only be answered by complex spatial reasoning, a task poorly supported by factoid question retrieval. Such reasoning using combinations of spatial and non-spatial criteria pertinent to place-related questions is increasingly possible on linked data knowledge bases. Yet, to enable question answering based on linked knowledge bases, natural language questions must first be re-formulated as formal queries. Here, we first present an enhanced version of YAGO2geo, the geospatially-enabled variant of the YAGO2 knowledge base, by linking and adding more than one million places from OpenStreetMap data to YAGO2. We then propose a novel approach to translate the place-related questions into logical representations, theoretically grounded in the core concepts of spatial information. Next, we use a dynamic template-based approach to generate fully executable GeoSPARQL queries from the logical representations. We test our approach using the Geospatial Gold Standard dataset and report substantial improvements over existing methods.
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ItemBias-Bounded Estimation of AmbiguiTy: A Method for Radio Interferometric Positioning(IEEE-INST ELECTRICAL ELECTRONICS ENGINEERS INC, 2022-01-01)Carrier phase signals form the basis of various interferometric measurement models and estimation techniques that have parameters of which some are integer. In this paper, integer least-squares estimation theory is extended and applied to bias-bounded mixed-integer models. This extension accommodates the presence of bounded real-valued parameters in mixed-integer models through incorporating prior knowledge of a set, in which the parameters reside, into the estimation process. This enables one to jointly estimate the ambiguous phase cycles and the parameters of interest. To compute such mixed-integer estimates, a fast search strategy is developed that makes use of a dual-ellipsoid encompassing region. The volume of the stated region is quantified and its links to existing ellipsoidal search spaces are highlighted. Simulated and real-world data are employed to illustrate the theory. It is then, for the first time, shown that the proposed method makes single-epoch, phase-only positioning feasible with Global Navigation Satellite Systems (GNSS).
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ItemA review of augmented reality visualization methods for subsurface utilities(Elsevier BV, 2022-01-01)Subsurface utilities are important assets that need to be perceived during any construction activities. Positioning and visualizing the subsurface utilities before the construction work starts has significant benefits for the effective management of construction projects. Augmented Reality (AR) is a promising technology for the visualization of subsurface utilities. The aim of this paper is to provide a comprehensive review of the state-of-the-art in AR visualization of subsurface utilities, including existing AR visualization methods, categorization of the methods and their drawbacks, comprehensive discussion on the challenges, research gaps and potential solutions. The paper begins with an introduction of current practice of locating subsurface utilities and an overview of different reality technologies including AR. We propose a taxonomy of AR visualization methods including X-Ray view, transparent view, shadow view, topo view, image rendering and cross-section view. We provide a comparison of existing methods in terms of quality of depth perception, occlusion of real world, complexity of visualization and parallax effect followed by a discussion of the drawbacks in these methods. Poor depth perception, parallax effect caused by the user movement, poor positional accuracy in Global Navigation Satellite System (GNSS) deprived or indoor areas and unavailability of accurate location information for generating virtual models are identified as main challenges and topics of future research in effective AR visualization of subsurface utilities.
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ItemCorrigendum to “A review of augmented reality visualization methods for subsurface utilities” [Adv. Eng. Inf. 51 (2022) 101498] (Advanced Engineering Informatics (2022) 51, (S1474034621002470), (10.1016/j.aei.2021.101498))(Elsevier BV, 2022-01-01)The authors regret, Our article that was published in the previous issue of the journal contains incorrect citations to research work in a few places. The correct reference should be 140. Hansen, L.H.; Fleck, P.; Stranner, M.; Schmalstieg, D.; Arth, C. Augmented Reality for Subsurface Utility Engineering, Revisited. IEEE Transactions on Visualization and Computer Graphics 2021, 27, 4119–4128. Instead of 140. Piroozfar, P.; Judd, A.; Boseley, S.; Essa, A.; Farr, E.R. Augmented reality for urban utility infrastructure: a UK perspective. In Collaboration and Integration in Construction, Engineering, Management and Technology; Springer: 2021; pp. 535–541. Additionally, Figure 20 should be referenced as 37. Eren, M.T.; Balcisoy, S. Evaluation of X-ray visualization techniques for vertical depth judgments in underground exploration. The visual Computer 2017, 34, 405–416, https://doi.org/10.1007/s00371-016-1346-5. Instead of 62. Doolani, S.; Wessels, C.; Kanal, V.; Sevastopoulos, C.; Jaiswal, A.; Nambiappan, H.; Makedon, F. A Review of Extended Reality (XR) Technologies for Manufacturing Training. Technologies 2020, 8, https://doi.org/10.3390/technologies8040077. And Figure 21 should be referenced as 144. Baek, J.-M.; Hong, I.-S. The Design of an Automatically Generated System for Cross Sections of Underground Utilities using Augmented Reality. International Journal of Smart Home 2013, 7, 255–264, https://doi.org/10.14257/ijsh.2013.7.6.25. Instead of 64. Chuah, S.H.-W. Why and who will adopt extended reality technology? Literature review, synthesis, and future research agenda. Literature Review, Synthesis, and Future Research Agenda (December 13, 2018) 2018. The authors would like to apologise for any inconvenience caused.
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ItemRequirements of a data storage infrastructure for effective land administration systems: case study of Victoria, Australia(TAYLOR & FRANCIS LTD, 2022-01-27)Land administration systems are being modernised to streamline the cadastral data lodgement. However, in many jurisdictions, cadastral data are still stored as a flat file. This method of data storage has significant limitations in terms of effective access, management, query, and analysis of cadastral data. Therefore, this study elicited the requirements and proposed an approach to automate the cadastral data storage. The proposed approach was successfully implemented within the land registry organisation in Victoria, Australia and the database management system was rigorously tested. The outcomes can potentially contribute to the implementation of a similar data storage infrastructure in other jurisdictions.
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ItemA Bayesian approach to understanding the key factors influencing temporal variability in stream water quality: a case study in the Great Barrier Reef catchments( 2021-01-12)Abstract. Stream water quality is highly variable both across space and time. Water quality monitoring programs have collected a large amount of data that provide a good basis to investigate the key drivers of spatial and temporal variability. Event-based water quality monitoring data in the Great Barrier Reef catchments in northern Australia provides an opportunity to further our understanding of water quality dynamics in sub-tropical and tropical regions. This study investigated nine water quality constituents, including sediments, nutrients and salinity, with the aim of: 1) identifying the influential environmental drivers of temporal variation in flow event concentrations; and 2) developing a modelling framework to predict the temporal variation in water quality at multiple sites simultaneously. This study used a hierarchical Bayesian model averaging framework to explore the relationship between event concentration and catchment-scale environmental variables (e.g., runoff, rainfall and groundcover conditions). Key factors affecting the temporal changes in water quality varied among constituent concentrations, as well as between catchments. Catchment rainfall and runoff affected in-stream particulate constituents, while catchment wetness and vegetation cover had more impact on dissolved nutrient concentration and salinity. In addition, in large dry catchments, antecedent catchment soil moisture and vegetation had a large influence on dissolved nutrients, which highlights the important effect of catchment hydrological connectivity on pollutant mobilisation and delivery.
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ItemTowards Understanding Evapotranspiration Shifts Under a Drying Climate(Copernicus, 2022-03-28)Around 60 percent of terrestrial precipitation on the global average transforms into evapotranspiration. However, reliable estimation of actual evapotranspiration (AET) is challenging as it depends on multiple climatic and biophysical factors. Despite developments such as remotely sensed AET products, AET responses to prolonged drought is still poorly understood. Therefore, this study focuses on understanding long-term changes and variability of AET prior to and during the Millennium Drought in Victoria, Australia. We also investigate the capability of commonly used rainfall-runoff models to simulate AET under multiyear droughts. Therefore, we employ simple sensitivity analysis to examine four different water balance approaches between pre-drought and drought periods in six different study catchments in Victoria. The first water balance approach is the simplest long-term water balance approach, partitioning long-term precipitation into evapotranspiration and runoff. The second water balance approach adopts a long-term change in storage to the water balance during the Millennium Drought by employing regional-scale change in GRACE estimates derived from Fowler et al. (2020). The third and fourth water balances are based on simulations from SIMHYD and SACRAMENTO. Surprisingly, the adoption of long-term change in storage during the Millennium Drought indicates that the annual rates of pre-drought AET were largely maintained throughout the drought; i.e. the rate was relatively constant with time. This suggests that AET gets priority over streamflow following a drying shift in precipitation partitioning; resulting in a relatively constant AET under multiyear drought. In contrast, the rainfall-runoff models underestimated AET during the drought compared to both water balance approaches. These results broadly acknowledge the need for model improvements to provide more realistic AET estimates under future drying climates and provide a new perspective on recent hydrological phenomena such as changing rainfall-runoff relationships in these regions. Furthermore, this sensitivity analysis was augmented and confirmed by a regional-scale water balance approach.
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ItemExperimental and Analytical Investigation of a RC Wall with a Gabion Cushion Subjected to Boulder Impact(PERGAMON-ELSEVIER SCIENCE LTD, 2021-05-31)An experimental investigation involving the use of a full-scale pendulum device to deliver solid object impact on a reinforced concrete (RC) barrier specimen that was fitted with a layer of gabion cushion is reported in this paper. The deflection behaviour of the stem wall of the RC barrier including the tensile strains developed in the longitudinal reinforcement was of interests. Results recorded from the tests are compared with results from control experiments which were without the protection of any cushion materials. The introduction of a layer of cushion is shown to be able to have the contact force reduced by more than 95% and deflection demand reduced by about 70%. An analytical procedure employing the Hunt and Crossley contact model, Swiss code model and two-degrees-of-freedom (2DOF) system modelling technique is presented for calculating the flexural response behaviour of the cushioned barrier and validated by comparison with experimental measurements. An important outcome from the study is a simple hand calculation procedure featuring the use of a closed form expression along with a design chart which is illustrated by a worked example, to facilitate uptake in design practices.