The rate at which chlorides from deicer salts penetrate into concrete towards the reinforcing steel has a strong influence on the time-to-corrosion and service life of concrete structures. Thus, the permeability of the concrete cover layer protecting the reinforcement has to be minimized especially in severe exposure conditions. In addition to the type of concrete, the permeability of the concrete cover is influenced by early-age curing (keeping the concrete warm and wet to maintain cement hydration that fills in pores).
With the growth of the internet, online and social media marketing have replaced tv and print advertising. Many companies have become extremely savvy in the use of online marketing tools to reach consumers. But how should online marketing be used when a company is working within a business-to-business context? Online marketing techniques often do not apply in this context. Developing appropriate strategies for business-to-business companies are important as they will drive brand recognition, acquire new customers and create significant financial returns for the company.
Workspace Interferences/Collisions happen on construction jobsites when multiple resources (labor, equipment, material, etc.) don’t have enough space to coexist at the same time and will interfere with each other’s operations. These interferences affect performance, delaying the project, impacting cost, and may jeopardize the buildings’ integrity and people’s safety on site. Most of existing models simulate resources as being deterministic. However, the behavior of the crew interfering is more chaotic.
The proposed research consists of two tiers to understand the volume change behaviour of problematic geomaterials. Engineered structures have been distressed by expansive soils because of heaving and subsidence. Likewise, mine waste tailings from mineral beneficiation process must be contained in-pit storage facilities to minimize environmental impacts.
Golder Associates Ltd., teaming with the Seyem’ Qwantlen Business Group (Kwantlen First Nation), was retained by the Township of Langley to develop a model to predict the location of unrecorded archaeological sites on a 10,000 year-old landscape located in the Fraser River Valley, British Columbia. Conventional predictive modelling techniques are common practice however with the increased availability of more powerful computers and software there is a growing potential for using machine learning algorithms to predict a wider variety of archaeological site types with greater accuracy.
Monitoring and control earthmoving operations such as highways and dams construction; require the collection of large amounts of data. Collecting this data manually is time-consuming and it lacks accuracy, so there is a necessity for using automated data collection systems in such operations. Most of nowadays available data acquisition systems are costly back boxes, where the user can not use it based on his/her customised needs.
Usually, any construction project begins with the planning department preparing a construction schedule that is pushed onto the project team. The big up-front plan might cause delays in the construction process because it relies on predicting a lot in the future, so you need frequent updating of this plan throughout the execution. Agile is a project management approach that includes micro-planning tools to support construction contractors in the execution of projects.
The use of Building Information Modeling (BIM) processes and technologies is rapidly growing in the Architecture, Engineering and Construction (AEC) industry. It is being widely implemented during the design and construction phases. However, the building models created in these phases are not suitable for the Operation and Maintenance Phase (O&M). These models lack useful data for O&M or include unnecessary items which affect the usability of models. This project aims to develop tools to improve the quality of models used for O&M.
The proposed research will follow four steps within the scope of this Mitacs grant:
1. Collect data from existing sources, including the CACB, regarding Canadian Schools of Architecture statistics;
2. Find gaps in the data collection and seek out the missing data from Schools of Architecture and/or the partner organizations;
3. Collate the data as a whole and begin quantitative analysis according to several questions outlined above (i.e. how many hours does each School devote to design studio instruction per week?);
4.
Cost overruns, schedule delays, and sometimes disputes and even litigations have been a pervasive issue in Canadian construction industry. This applied research study is commissioned to establish a solid empirical relationship between project delivery efficiencies and project owners upfront investment on design and consulting services. The study plans to employ personal interviews, project database development, and data analyses as the key research methods to disentangle the complex impact network of project performance from pre-project planning to the closing of a construction project.
