Taiebat, M (2011) Tuning up BIM for safety analysis proposing modeling logics for application of BIM in DfS. PhD thesis, Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University, USA.
Abstract
The construction industry is on the top list of hazardous industries. This justifies the importance of safety research in this industry. Review of the literature identified “falls” as the top mortality source in the construction industry. Therefore, this research focuses on falls from heights. Conventional safety practices have held designers responsible for safety of the end-users, and considered constructors responsible for the safety of construction workers. Design for Safety—along with its similar ideas such as Safety in Design, Prevention through Design, etc. —is gaining attention with the emerging paradigm of Integrated Project Delivery which promotes collaboration between designers and constructors through the entire delivery process. With Design for Safety concepts, designers and constructors can work together to enhance construction workers’ safety early in the design phase. The philosophy of Design for Safety is based on the idea that eliminating hazards early in the design phase rather than the construction phase is more effective. Szymberski’s (1997) time-safety influence curve explains how construction workers’ safety can be influenced in the different phases of construction. Szymberski depicts that the ability to influence safety diminishes as the phases from design to construction to operation progress. This research is inspired by the Design for Safety (DfS) concept. It aims at “design”ing and “engineer”ing safety during design as well as construction phases. BIM (Building Information Modeling) and parametric modeling are the tools that this research considers when designing its road for future developments. This research limits its scope to construction workers falls from heights. The research presents a framework for representing falls hazards for future implementation in a BIM model in order to help the designers and constructors better study and analyze safety of construction workers. The research studied falls accidents recorded from past projects and proposed rules and properties for hazard identification in a BIM / parametric model. These rules and properties were abstracted and presented in the form of flowcharts and validated by an expert panel. The flowcharts will guide software developers for incorporating hazard identification functions into parametric BIM environments in future research.
| Item Type: | Thesis (Doctoral) |
|---|---|
| Thesis advisor: | Ku, K and Beliveau, Y |
| Uncontrolled Keywords: | hazards; philosophy; collaboration; construction phase; integrated project delivery; project delivery; safety; construction worker; designer; developer |
| Index terms: | implementation, modelling, prevention, construction industry, construction phase, construction worker, project delivery, paradigm, mortality, design phase, engineer, falls, designer, hazard identification, building information modelling, safety research, collaboration, design for safety, integrated project delivery, philosophy |
| Subjects: | health monitoring assessment and metrics, project delivery, profession, occupational health and safety management, industry analysis, philosophical studies, information systems, education and knowledge transfer, management, health risk and incident analysis, contractual arrangements, professional practice, analytical methods, practitioner, health safety and environment, financial risk |
| Topics: | Organizational Design, Digital Applications, Design Practice, Roles and Professions, Cost Management, Research Practice, Procurement, Health and Safety, Engineering Principles, Project Management |
| Descriptive scope: | 3 PCT |
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