Infrastructure Engineering - Research Publications

Permanent URI for this collection

Search Results

Now showing 1 - 10 of 60
  • Item
    No Preview Available
    Innovative composite structural systems for modular tall buildings
    Thai, HT ; Knobloch, M ; Kuhlmann, U ; Kurz, W ; Schafer, M (https://www.compositeconstructionix.com/, 2021)
    Modular or offsite construction is believed to shape the future of the construction industry as it possesses significant benefits over traditional onsite construction methods. However, most of its application are limited to steel or concrete buildings. Although steel-concrete composite structural system has many merits over the steel and concrete systems, its application in modular buildings is very limited. This paper explores recent developments of composite systems for modular high-rise buildings. They include modular units for resisting vertical gravity loads and lateral structural systems for resisting horizontal forces from wind and earthquake loadings and progressive collapse due to accidental loads such as fire, explosions and impact. Various inter-module joining methods developed in the literature will also be reviewed. Finally, a case study of the most efficient connection is presented to explore its applicability to high-rise modular buildings.
  • Item
    No Preview Available
    EXTENDING CITYGML 3.0 TO SUPPORT 3D UNDERGROUND LAND ADMINISTRATION
    Saeidian, B ; Rajabifard, A ; Atazadeh, B ; Kalantari, M ; Aleksandrov, M ; Barton, J ; Zlatanova, S (COPERNICUS GESELLSCHAFT MBH, 2022)
    Abstract. Rapid development of underground space necessitates the efficient management of underground areas. Data modelling plays an underpinning role in integrating and managing underground physical and legal data. The physical data refers to semantic and spatial data of underground assets such as utilities, tunnels, and basements, while the legal data comprises the ownership information and the extent of underground legal spaces and the semantic and spatial relationships between legal spaces. Current Underground Land Administration (ULA) practices mainly focus on representing only either legal spaces or the physical reality of subsurface objects using fragmented and isolated 2D drawings, leading to ineffective ULA. A complete and accurate 3D representation of underground legal spaces integrated with the 3D model of their physical counterparts can support different use cases of ULA beyond underground land registration, such as planning, design and construction of underground assets (e.g. tunnels and train stations), utility management and excavation. CityGML is a prominent semantic data model to represent 3D urban objects at a city scale, making it a good choice for underground because underground assets such as tunnels and utilities are often modelled at city scales. However, CityGML, in its current version, does not support legal information. This research aims to develop an Application Domain Extension (ADE) for CityGML to support 3D ULA based on the requirements defined in the Victorian state of Australia. These requirements include primary underground parcels and secondary underground interests. This work extends CityGML 3.0, which is the new version of this model. In CityGML 3.0, UML conceptual models as platform-independent models are suggested to express ADEs. Thus, the ADE proposed in this study will be based on UML. The findings of this study show that extending CityGML to support legal information can be a viable solution to meet the requirements of a 3D integrated model for ULA. The CityGML ADE proposed in this study can potentially provide a new solution for 3D digital management of underground ownership rights in Victoria, and it can be used to implement an integrated 3D digital data environment for ULA.
  • Item
    No Preview Available
    Improved Pump Setpoint Selection Using a Calibrated Hydraulic Model of a High-Pressure Irrigation System
    Wang, Y ; Zhao, Q ; Wu, W ; Willis, A ; Simpson, AR ; Weyer, E (Elsevier, 2022-01-01)
    This paper presents a case study of the operational management of the Robinvale high-pressure piped irrigation water delivery system (RVHPS) in Australia. Based on datasets available, improved pump setpoint selection using a calibrated hydraulic model is investigated. The first step was to implement pre-processing of measured flow and pressure data to identify errors in the data and possible faulty sensors. An EPANET hydraulic simulation model was updated with calibrated pipe roughness height values by using the processed pressure and flow data. Then, new pump setpoints were selected using the calibrated model given the actual measured demands such that the pressures in the network were minimized subject to required customer service standards. Based on a two-day simulation, it was estimated that 4.7% savings in pumping energy cost as well as 4.7% reduction in greenhouse gas emissions can be achieved by applying the new pump setpoints.
  • Item
    Thumbnail Image
    Innovative composite structural systems for modular tall buildings
    Thai, HT ; Knobloch, M ; Kuhlmann, U ; Kurz, W ; Schafer, M (https://www.compositeconstructionix.com/, 2021)
    Modular or offsite construction is believed to shape the future of the construction industry as it possesses significant benefits over traditional onsite construction methods. However, most of its application are limited to steel or concrete buildings. Although steel-concrete composite structural system has many merits over the steel and concrete systems, its application in modular buildings is very limited. This paper explores recent developments of composite systems for modular high-rise buildings. They include modular units for resisting vertical gravity loads and lateral structural systems for resisting horizontal forces from wind and earthquake loadings and progressive collapse due to accidental loads such as fire, explosions and impact. Various inter-module joining methods developed in the literature will also be reviewed. Finally, a case study of the most efficient connection is presented to explore its applicability to high-rise modular buildings.
  • Item
    Thumbnail Image
    Spatial and Spatiotemporal Matching Framework for Causal Inference
    Akbari, K ; Tomko, M (Schloss Dagstuhl, 2022-09-01)
    Matching is a procedure aimed at reducing the impact of observational data bias in causal analysis. Designing matching methods for spatial data reflecting static spatial or dynamic spatio-temporal processes is complex because of the effects of spatial dependence and spatial heterogeneity. Both may be compounded with temporal lag in the dependency effects on the study units. Current matching techniques based on similarity indexes and pairing strategies need to be extended with optimal spatial matching procedures. Here, we propose a decision framework to support analysts through the choice of existing matching methods and anticipate the development of specialized matching methods for spatial data. This framework thus enables to identify knowledge gaps.
  • Item
    No Preview Available
    Do digital natives telework more than digital immigrants?
    Cheng, Y-T ; Sauri Lavieri, P ; Astroza, S (ATRF, 2021)
  • Item
    Thumbnail Image
    Integrating sustainability into higher education curricula
    Rajabifard, A ; Elisa, L ; Herath, N ; Hui, K ; Currie, G ; Kahalimoghadam, M (Engineers Australia, 2021)
    Education has been widely recognised as a key instrument to achieve sustainability. Integrating sustainability knowledge, skills and values are considered paramount to enable individuals to contribute to sustainable development. The paper presents a pilot study conducted at the University of Melbourne to investigate the links between the subjects offered by the University and sustainability. The pilot study is a part of the Sustainability in the Curriculum program, which addresses the Sustainability Plan Teaching and Learning Target 1, aimed to incorporate sustainability knowledge and values in the University's curricula. The 17 Sustainability Development Goals have been used as a framework to measure how well the curricula are linked to sustainability. A study first undertaken to establish the link between subjects and the Sustainability Development Goals is presented. The study involved data collection through published literature on Sustainable Development Goals and the University's subject handbook, followed by a survey involving the subject coordinators. The findings of the study show that the strength of linkages between subjects with sustainability varies, highlighting the challenge in some technical subjects in linking their contents with sustainability. Approaches adopted in the Faculty of Engineering and Information Technology in embedding sustainability in the curriculum are presented with some examples and discussions for the next steps.
  • Item
    Thumbnail Image
    Foreword
    Hui, K ; Ismail, S ; Hui, K ; Ismail, S (The University of Melbourne, 2022-09-27)
  • Item
    No Preview Available
    Value of Intersection Cross Box Data in Traffic Signal Control
    Yazdani, M ; Sarvi, M ; Asadi Bagloee, S ; Nassir, N (ITS World Congress, 2022)
  • Item
    No Preview Available
    Investigating into public transport fare noninteractions using large-scale automatically collected data
    Yin, T ; Nassir, N ; Leong, J ; Tanin, E ; Sarvi, M (Australasian Transport Research Forum, 2022)
    Fare card data provides an unprecedented opportunity to monitor day-to-day variability of travel demand and its responses to service disruptions and special events. However, when passengers take public transport without interacting with the fare system, demand is usually underestimated, which may cause problems for performance measurement and revenue collection. This research aims to investigate the fare noninteractions phenomena of the tram network in Melbourne, Australia. According to a prior evaluation, only 37% of boarding passengers validate tickets. This study utilizes large-scale automatically collated data to measure fare noninteractions, including data collected by Automatic Passenger Counting (APC) and Automated Fare Collection (AFC) systems. Compared to previous studies with small samples of on-board surveys, it contributes to the state of the art as these high coverage data enable the study of the impact of different types of explanatory variables, including time periods, routes, stop location, travel demand variability, presence of an inspector on-board, etc. Moreover, a free service zone is located in Melbourne central business district where passengers are not required to validate tickets. We specifically investigate passengers’ behavior at the boundary of a free service zone. Results show that fare noninteractions are lower for stops close to train stations, education facilities, stops that have been frequently inspected, and during the peak hours, but are higher for stops with large boarding flows, crowded services, evening periods and weekends. Importantly, conditioning on other variables, fare noninteractions at the boundary of the free service zone are higher in the morning peak but lower in the afternoon peak. The passenger flow diagram demonstrates the reason behind this may lie in the differences between purposes of trips. This investigation provides a starting point for proposing solutions to deal with the missing AFC data due to fare noninteractions.