• International conference on construction engineering and project management
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• 2017.10a
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• pp.271-280
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• 2017

Small islands in humid and hot climates have received less attention development due to lack of resources and difficulties for in-situ construction. This paper addresses this problem by presenting a modular system for sustainable construction of a resort hotel in accordance with the international tourism standards, in addition to, minimizing undesirable effects on nature. This has been achieved by review of literature in the scope of off-site construction and identification of the natural geographical features of Herndurabi Island. According to the information acquired, a feasibility study and design practice have been conducted to achieve a reasonable solution to equip Hendurabi Island as a sample with a self-sufficient prefabricate resort hotel. Findings indicate that the volumetric prefabricated modules would be a solution to devising a framework for design and construction in remote regions.

• Journal of Korean Association for Spatial Structures
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• v.16 no.2
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• pp.79-88
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• 2016

Modular buildings are constructed by assembling modular units which are prefabricated in a factory and delivered to the site. However, due to a problem of noise between floors, concrete slab is usually poured at the top or bottom level of a modular unit in Korea. This greatly increases the weight of buildings, but designing vertical members of modular units to resist overall gravity loads is very inefficient. In this study, considering domestic building construction practices, feasible structural systems for tall modular buildings are proposed in which separate steel frames and reinforced concrete core walls are designed to resist gravity and lateral loads. To verify performance, a three-dimensional structural analysis has been performed with two types of prototype buildings, i.e., a residential building and a hotel. From the results, wind-induced lateral displacements and seismic story drifts are examined and compared with their limit values. Between the two kinds of buildings, the efficiency of the proposed system is also evaluated through a comparison of the weight of structural components. Finally, the effect of a floor diaphragm on the overall behavior is analyzed and discussed.

• Journal of Digital Convergence
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• v.17 no.11
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• pp.225-232
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• 2019

This study proposes a temporary residential prefab modular structure to provide residential space to displaced people after a disaster. Patent cases related to prefab structures are collected for related design implementations, and classified. Space in temporary residential prefab modular structures must consider factors such as "Expandability", "Assembly and Disassembly", "Built-in Structure", and "Energy Efficiency", and the cases are classified into "Detailed Assembly Modular Type", "Modular Expandable Type", and "Space Unit Expandable Type". Overseas patents cases will be collected and analyzed in future studies for providing the efficient way for mass production for the lowest production cost.

• Journal of the Korean housing association
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• v.22 no.5
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• pp.101-110
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• 2011

The Ministry of Land, Transport and Maritime Affairs has announced a policy which can enable the building of urban type housing with the use of a prefabrication method 2010. However, such may possibly be at standstill owing to the prefabrication methodology that has not been currently developed in Korea. Moreover, small households of consisting of one or two family members have been steadily increasing, but the small housing units in which they reside has been decreasing. Due to this situation, urban type housing has been proposed. To expand the propagation of such urban type housing and to promote prefabrication methods, the top priority project is to develop a technology that is able to reduce construction costs, as well as to shorten the actual construction period. In consideration of this prefabrication system for an avenue to solve such problems, a series of systems and policies for the fostering of prefabricated urban type housing has been proposed. This study is to review a series of methods, technologies and policies that are required for such urban type housing and henceforth, to utilize such as preliminary data for further prefabricated urban type housing.

• Proceeding of Spring/Autumn Annual Conference of KHA
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• 2011.04a
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• pp.75-80
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• 2011

The Ministry of Land, Transport and Maritime Affairs has announced a policy which could enable the building of urban type housing using a prefabrication method in 2010. However, it may possibly be at standstill owing to the prefabrication methodology has not been currently developed in Korea. Moreover, small households of one or two family members are been steadily increasing, but small housing in which they reside has been decreasing. Because of this situation, the urban type housing has been proposed. To expand the propagation of this urban type house and to promote the prefabrication method, the first-priority project is to develop a technology that is able to reduce the construction costs, as well as to shorten the construction period. Considering this prefabrication system as an avenue to be able to solve these problems, a series of systems and policies for fostering prefabricated urban type housing has been proposed. This study is to review a series of methods, technologies and policies that are required for urban type housing and henceforth, to utilize them as preliminary data for prefabricated urban type housing.

• Steel and Composite Structures
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• v.32 no.6
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• pp.769-778
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• 2019

The specially prefabricated steel moment connections with pyramid head is one of the significant innovations in the steel structures forms to improve the installation time and simplify the construction procedure. The beams in this structure form are supported by two top and bottom angles and web double angles. Such a configuration despite its advantages increases the welding operation and filed installation time and costs. In this paper, the effect of using beams with channel and I section in three classes of seismically compact, seismically non-compact, and slender section according to width-to-thickness ratio on the behavior of the connection was investigated under monotonic and cyclic loading. Modeling was performed by ABAQUS and verified by the results of an experimental specimen. The findings indicated that using I and channel section instead of angle section reduces the amount of welding materials as well as easing the installation procedure. However, it has no significant effect on the ultimate strength and ductility of the connection. Furthermore, if the beam section is seismically compact, this form is considered as a special moment frame that has a rotation capacity up to 0.04 radians without any reduction in connection moment resistance.

• Steel and Composite Structures
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• v.30 no.2
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• pp.185-199
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• 2019

Modular construction is an emerging technology to accommodate the increasing restrictions in terms of construction period, energy efficiency and environmental impacts, since each structural module is prefabricated offsite beforehand and assembled onsite using industrialized techniques. However, some innate structural drawbacks of this innovative method are also distinct, such as connection tying inaccessibility, column instability and system robustness. This study aims to explore the theoretical and numerical stability analysis of a tenon-connected square hollow section (SHS) steel column to address the tying and stability issue in modular construction. Due to the excellent performance of composite structures in fire resistance and buckling prevention, concrete-filled steel tube (CFST) columns are also taken into account in the analysis to evaluate the feasibility of adopting composite sections in modular buildings. Characteristic equations with three variables, i.e., the length ratio, the bending stiffness ratio and the rotational stiffness ratio, are generated from the fourth-order governing differential equations. The rotational stiffness ratio is recognized as the most significant factor, with interval analysis conducted for its mechanical significance and domain. Numerical analysis using ABAQUS is conducted for validation of characteristic equations. Recommendations and instructions in predicting the buckling performance of both SHS and CFST columns are then proposed.

• Steel and Composite Structures
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• v.31 no.3
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• pp.217-232
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• 2019

Modular steel buildings consist of prefabricated room-sized structural units that are manufactured offsite and installed onsite. The inter-module connections must fulfill the assembly construction requirements and soundly transfer the external loads. This work proposes an innovative assembled connection suitable for modular buildings with concrete-filled steel tube columns. The connection uses pretensioned strands and plugin bars to vertically connect the adjacent modular columns. The moment-transferring performance of this inter-module connection was studied through monotonic and cyclic loading tests. The results showed that because of the assembly construction, the connected sections were separated under lateral bending, and the prestressed inter-module connection performed as a weak semirigid connection. The moment strength at the early loading stage originated primarily from the contact bonding mechanism with the infilled concrete, and the postyield strength depended mainly on the tensioned strands. The connection displayed a self-centering-like behavior that the induced deformation was reversed during unloading. The energy dissipation originated primarily from frictional slipping of the plugin bars and steel strands. The moment transferring ability was closely related to the section dimension and the arrangements of the plugin bars and steel strands. A simplified strength calculation and evaluation method was also proposed, and the effectiveness was validated with the test data.

• International conference on construction engineering and project management
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• 2020.12a
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• pp.75-84
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• 2020

Modular construction is a construction method whereby prefabricated volumetric units are produced in a factory and are installed on site to form a building block. The construction productivity can be substantially improved by the manufacturing and assembly of standardized modular units. 3D printing is a computer-controlled fabrication method first adopted in the manufacturing industry and was utilized for the automated construction of small-scale houses in recent years. Implementing 3D printing in the fabrication of modular units brings huge benefits to modular construction, including increased customization, lower material waste, and reduced labor work. Such implementation also benefits the large-scale and wider adoption of 3D printing in engineering practice. However, a critical issue for 3D printed modules is the loading capacity, particularly in response to horizontal forces like wind load, which requires a deeper understanding of the building structure behavior and the design of load-bearing modules. Therefore, this paper presents the state-of-the-art literature concerning recent achievement in 3D printing for buildings, followed by discussion on the opportunities and challenges for examining 3D printing in modular construction. Promising 3D printing techniques are critically reviewed and discussed with regard to their advantages and limitations in construction. The appropriate structural form needs to be determined at the design stage, taking into consideration the overall building structural behavior, site environmental conditions (e.g., wind), and load-carrying capacity of the 3D printed modules. Detailed finite element modelling of the entire modular buildings needs to be conducted to verify the structural performance, considering the code-stipulated lateral drift, strength criteria, and other design requirements. Moreover, integration of building information modelling (BIM) method is beneficial for generating the material and geometric details of the 3D printed modules, which can then be utilized for the fabrication.

• Steel and Composite Structures
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• v.37 no.3
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• pp.273-289
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• 2020

Due to the unique construction method of modular steel buildings (MSBs) with units prefabricated fully off the site and assembled quickly on the site, the inter-module connection for easy operation and overall performance of the system were key issues. However, it was a lack of relevant research on the system-level performance of MSBs. This study investigated the seismic performance of two-storey modular steel structure with a proposed vertical rotary inter-module connection. Three full-scale quasi-static tests, with and without corrugated steel plate and its combination, were carried out to evaluate and compare their seismic behaviour. The hysteretic performance, skeleton curves, ductile performance, stiffness degradation, energy dissipation capacity, and deformation pattern were clarified. The results showed that good ductility and plastic deformation ability of such modular steel structures. Two lateral-force resistance mechanisms with different layout combinations were also discussed in detail. The corrugated steel plate could significantly improve the lateral stiffness and bearing capacity of the modular steel structure. The cooperative working mechanism of modules and inter-module connections was further analyzed. When the lateral stiffness of upper and lower modular structures was close, limited bending moment transfer may be considered for the inter-module connection. While a large lateral stiffness difference existed initially between the upper and lower structures, an obvious gap occurred at the inter-module connection, and this gap may significantly influence the bending moments transferred by the inter-module connections. Meanwhile, several design recommendations of inter-module connections were also given for the application of MSBs.