Analytical, Communication, and Information Technology Directions in the Structural Industry
Publication: Practice Periodical on Structural Design and Construction
Volume 21, Issue 1
Abstract
Since the advent of mainstream computer applications, the structural engineering community has strongly embraced technology. Furthermore, the structural community is a leader in the advancement of new software, hardware, and applications within the market. Developments over the last 10 years have greatly expanded structural engineering beyond the traditional analytical methods; essentially, information and communication technologies are changing the way people do business. To understand how these technologies are changing the design and construction of structural solutions to problems in building projects, a study was conducted to develop a deeper understanding into these areas. Industry experts across the United States were interviewed and surveyed on these directions to look at how structural engineering is changing and what to keep in mind when implementing technology on projects. The focus of this paper will be twofold. First, it will focus on information and communication technologies, in particular, building information modeling). Second, it will focus on structural analytical technologies that encompass analysis and design methods. Trends, advantages, and disadvantages, as well as future directions that practitioners are taking are discussed.
Get full access to this article
View all available purchase options and get full access to this article.
References
AISC. (2011). “AISC basic technology survey results.” 〈http://www.aisc.org/WorkArea/showcontent.aspx?id=28374〉 (Oct. 19, 2011).
Alvi, I. A. (2013). “Engineers need to get real, but can’t: The role of models.” ASCE Structures Congress, ASCE, Pittsburgh, 916–927.
Carpenter, L. D. (2005). “Influences on structural engineering.” Struct. Design Tall Special Build., 14(5), 419–425.
Coenders, J. L., and Wagemans, L. A. G. (2004). “Open strategy form finding, a new approach to structural form finding and structural optimization.” IASS 2004 Int. Symp. Shell and Spatial Structures from Models to Realization, Bucharest, Romania, 66–67.
Eastman, C., Teicholz, P., Sacks, R., and Liston, K. (2011). “BIM handbook: A guide to building information modeling for owners, managers, designers.” Engineers and contractors, C. Eastman, ed., 2nd Ed., John Wiley & Sons, Hoboken, NJ.
ENR (Engineering News-Record). (2012). “The top 500 design firms.” Eng. News Rec., April 23, 10–15.
Hatem, D. J., and Yoakum, S. (2010). “What’s a structural engineer to do? The collaborative world of BIM and IPD.” Struct. Mag., Aug. 2010, 52–53.
Johnson, R. E., and Clayton, M. J. (1998). “The impact of information technology in design and construction: The owner’s perspective.” Autom. Constr., 8(1), 3–14.
Leite, F., Akcamete, A., Akinci, B., Atasoy, G., and Kiziltas, S. (2010). “Analysis of modeling effort and impact of different levels of detail in building information modeling.” Autom. Constr., 20(5), 601–609.
Luth, G. P. (2011). “VDC and the engineering continuum.” J. Constr. Eng. Manage., 906–915.
Marshall, C., and Rossman, G. B. (1999). Designing qualitative research, 3rd Ed., Sage Publication Inc., Thousand Oaks, CA.
Moreau, K. A. and Back, W. E. (2000). “Improving the design process with information management.” Autom. Constr., 10(1), 127–140.
Oppenheim, A. N. (1992). Questionnaire design and attitude measurement, Printer Publishers, London, U.K.
Park, K., and Holt, N. (2010). “Parametric design process of a complex building in practice using programmed code as master model.” Int. J. Archit. Comput., 3(8), 359–376.
Powell, G. (2006). “Nonlinear dynamic analysis capabilities and limitations.” Struct. Design Tall Special Build., 15(5), 547–552.
Rebolj, D. and Menzel, K. (2004). “Another step towards a virtual university in construction IT.” J. Inf. Technol. Constr., 9(1), 257–266.
Rezgui, Y., and Zarli, A. (2006). “Paving the way to the vision of digital construction.” J. Constr. Eng. Manage., 767–776.
Sacks, R., Koskela, L., Dave, B., and Owen, R. (2010). “Interaction of lean and building information modeling in construction.” J. Constr. Eng. Manage., 968–980.
Sandoval, A. (2011). “Integrating BIM.” Struct. Mag., Nov. 2011, 20–22.
Schinler, D., and Nelson, E. (2008). “BIM and the structural engineering community.” Struct. Mag., Dec. 2008, 10–12.
Schumacher, J., and Otani, R. K. (2012). “Advanced computational modeling in multidisciplinary design.” 20th Analysis and Computation Specialty Conf., ASCE, Reston, VA, 231–244.
Solnosky, R. (2014). “Integrated structural practices via emerging methods.” Structures Congress, ASCE, Reston, VA, 10–21.
Solnosky, R., Quinn, B., and Willard, L. (2014). “Reducing errors when using structural software.” Structures Congress, ASCE, Reston, VA, 2139–2150.
Solnosky, R. L. (2013). “Integrated structural process model: An inclusive non-material specific approach to determining the required tasks and information exchanges for structural BIM.” Ph.D. dissertation, Dept. of Architectural Engineering, Pennsylvania State Univ., University Park, PA.
Struck, C., deWilde, P., Hopfe, C. J., and Hensen, J. L. M. (2009). “An investigation of the option space in conceptual building design for advanced building simulation.” Adv. Eng. Inf., 23(4), 386–395.
Sun, Y., and Jeyaraj, A. (2013). “Information technology adoption and continuance: A longitudinal study of individuals’ behavioral intentions.” Inf. Manage., 50(7), 457–465.
Tatum, C. B., and Luth, G. P. (2012). “Integrated structural and construction engineering.” Construction Research Congress, ASCE, Reston, VA, 1301–1310.
Taylor, J., and Levitt, R. (2007). “Innovation alignment and project network dynamics: An integrative model for change.” Project Manage. J., 38(3), 22–35.
Taylor, J. E., and Bernstein, P. G. (2009). “Paradigm trajectories of building information modeling practice in project networks.” J. Manage. Eng., 69–76.
Weisenberger, G. (2008). “Inclined towards interoperability.” Mod. Steel Constr., 2008(1), 1–3.
Information & Authors
Information
Published In
Practice Periodical on Structural Design and Construction
Volume 21 • Issue 1 • February 2016
Copyright
© 2015 American Society of Civil Engineers.
History
Received: Aug 20, 2014
Accepted: Dec 19, 2014
Published online: Apr 28, 2015
Discussion open until: Sep 28, 2015
Published in print: Feb 1, 2016
Authors
Metrics & Citations
Metrics
Citations
Download citation
If you have the appropriate software installed, you can download article citation data to the citation manager of your choice. Simply select your manager software from the list below and click Download.