Award Date

December 2023

Degree Type

Dissertation

Degree Name

Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)

Department

Civil and Environmental Engineering and Construction

First Committee Member

Jee Woong Park

Second Committee Member

Pramen P. Shrestha

Third Committee Member

Jin Ouk Choi

Fourth Committee Member

Haroon Stephen

Fifth Committee Member

Jaeyun Moon

Number of Pages

133

Abstract

Designing the configuration of tower cranes, managing their operations, and coordinating material logistics are intricate processes that wield significant influence over the time, cost, productivity, and safety of construction projects. This complexity stems from the multitude of layout configurations, diverse crane types, varied tasks, and material supply points, all interacting within a dynamic environment. Collisions pose a heightened risk due to overlapping crane areas, further adding complexity to the planning of crane layouts and operations. Optimizing crane layout and operational planning while ensuring safety requires establishing effective connections between tasks, cranes, and material supply locations. Traditionally, research and industry practices have focused on linking tasks to supply points with the shortest individual task operating times, minimizing the completion time for each task. However, this approach may not be the most efficient for larger construction sites with multiple overlapping crane areas, where minimized individual task times do not guarantee an effective planning. To tackle this challenge, this dissertation introduces agent-based models to explore diverse scenarios for crane layout planning, operational planning, and material management. Three objectives are set to enhance the efficiency of crane layout, operational planning, and material management, which collectively seek optimal solutions. These models underwent testing on construction projects as case studies, and the results underscore the significant improvements achievable through effective linkage of tasks to cranes and supply points, both in terms of efficiency and the overall construction project schedule.

Keywords

Agent-based Modeling; Construction; Crane Layout; Operation Planning; Simulation; Tower Cranes

Disciplines

Civil Engineering

File Format

pdf

File Size

8730 KB

Degree Grantor

University of Nevada, Las Vegas

Language

English

Rights

IN COPYRIGHT. For more information about this rights statement, please visit http://rightsstatements.org/vocab/InC/1.0/

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