Framework for Automated Generation of Constructible Steel Erection Sequences Using Structural Information of Static Indeterminacy Variation in BIM

For effective pre-construction process, engineers create a 4D building information model (BIM). However, the rich information associated with the creation of the 4D BIM leads to manual effort. Past studies explored methods that automatically generate construction schedules using 3D building models. However, no method properly utilized relationships between building elements to robustly generate 4D BIMs that are structural stable during installation. This research presents an approach to the automated generation of structurally stable construction sequences using a 3D BIM. Focusing on steel erection, we create a framework integrating a 3D BIM and algorithms to create a 4D BIM with detailed steel erection sequences of individual elements. This research explores an approach to a variation of static indeterminacy for each installation process of steel elements. The principle of this approach is based on the relationships among the nodes and the connections among steel elements, information about which is available to those involved in the project. For validation, we test a prototype software program using a BIM for a real-world construction project. The results indicate that the prototype utilizing the static indeterminacy variation could generate a large number of random sequences and successfully transforms them into stable sequences. This study establishes the foundational step of generating constructible sequences using structural information in BIM which is found to be more robust than previous approaches, and results of this study can lead to follow up studies for full automation such as automated analysis and optimization of the sequences.