Hassandokht Mashhadi, A; Handy, R; Farhadmanesh, M; Rashidi, A; Honda, T; Sleeth, D K and Henry, T (2022) Feasibility study of using nebulizer-retrofitted uavs at construction projects: The case study of residential jobsites in Utah. Journal of Construction Engineering and Management, 148(10): 05022009, ISSN 0733-9364
Abstract
Increased heat stress and air pollution are two major causes of health issues and productivity loss in the construction industry. This will be exacerbated by global warming and an increased possibility of extreme weather conditions in the future. Previous studies revealed that each 1°C rise in temperature reduces construction workers' productivity by up to 2%. Also, it is found that a 10 μg/m3 particulate matter sized 2.5 μm (PM2.5) fluctuation over 25 days lowers workers' daily production by 1%. As an effective dust control and cooling strategy, water spraying is used by practitioners to mitigate the effect of air pollution and heat-related problems on construction workers. Considering low costs and high mobility, unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) could be considered as a potential alternative for ground-based, stationary water spraying systems. To this end, a case study approach is adopted in this project to investigate the feasibility of using nebulizer-retrofitted UAVs in controlling air pollution and reducing heat stress at construction job sites. The case study consists of two different residential job sites in the state of Utah: one in Salt Lake City and the other one in St. George. The main contribution of this study is to determine the effect of aerial water spraying on air temperature and pollution at job sites. The outcomes of this study show that the average wet bulb globe temperature (WBGT) decreases 1.7° during the flight phase compared to average values for preflight and postflight phases. The aerial water spraying technique yields better and more water-efficient results in decreasing temperature at job sites compared to the existing approaches, such as stationary fans. Moreover, the results of PM variations illustrate that the mean value of particulate change was significantly different between flight and preflight (p=0.005), and flight and postflight (p<0.001) modes. Future studies should include the deployment of multiple drones flying simultaneously at job sites to cover larger areas.
| Item Type: | Article |
|---|---|
| Uncontrolled Keywords: | construction safety; dust control; heat stress control; nebulizer drone; unmanned aerial vehicle |
| Index terms: | mobility, pollution, case study, low cost, productivity, air temperature, future study, heat stress, unmanned aerial vehicle, construction worker, spraying, construction industry, drone, dust control, feasibility study, air pollution, global warming, particulate, strategy, practitioner, construction project, variation, weather, construction safety |
| Subjects: | industry analysis, infrastructure and transport systems, environmental health, environmental engineering, building construction, automation and robotics, production management, contractual condition, management, bidding, design stages, climate science, practitioner, data collection methods, air quality, research design and methodology |
| Topics: | Design Practice, Urban Studies, Digital Applications, Contract Administration, Business Strategy, Project Management, Research Practice, Engineering Principles, Roles and Professions, Procurement, Sustainability |
| Descriptive scope: | 5 PCTEA |
N.B. Descriptive scope is a count of how many of the five facets of empirical research are indicated by the words used in title, abstract and keywords. It is not intended as a judgement on the research; merely a count of the kind of word we would expect to indicate Phenomenon, Concepts, Theoretical framing, Empirical techniques, Analytical techniques. If all five are present, then a code of “5 PCTEA” will indicate this. If you feel the coding for this record is questionable, we welcome discussion around the terms we matched or the way we categorized them. The facet you would expect may not be coded, or a facet may be coded inappropriately. This can also bear on a larger question, of which facets should be treated as defining in construction management research. Please get in touch, and we will look at it. More details here