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Simulation-based optimisation (SO) is a popular optimisation approach for building and civil engineering construction planning. However, in the framework of SO, the simulation is continuously invoked during the optimisation trajectory, which increases the computational loads to levels unrealistic for timely construction decisions. Modification on the optimisation settings such as reducing searching ability is a popular method to address this challenge, but the quality measurement of the obtained optimal decisions, also termed as optimisation quality, is also reduced by this setting. Therefore, this study aims to develop an optimisation approach for construction planning that reduces the high computational loads of SO and provides reliable optimisation quality simultaneously.

This study proposes the optimisation approach by modifying the SO framework through establishing an embedded connection between simulation and optimisation technologies. This approach reduces the computational loads and ensures the optimisation quality associated with the conventional SO approach by accurately learning the knowledge from construction simulations using embedded ensemble learning algorithms, which automatically provides efficient and reliable fitness evaluations for optimisation iterations.

A large-scale project application shows that the proposed approach was able to reduce computational loads of SO by approximately 90%. Meanwhile, the proposed approach outperformed SO in terms of optimisation quality when the optimisation has limited searching ability.

The core contribution of this research is to provide an innovative method that improves efficiency and ensures effectiveness, simultaneously, of the well-known SO approach in construction applications. The proposed method is an alternative approach to SO that can run on standard computing platforms and support nearly real-time construction on-site decision-making.

The swivel construction method is a specially designed process used to build bridges that cross rivers, valleys, railroads and other obstacles. To carry out this construction method safely, real-time monitoring of the bridge rotation process is required to ensure a smooth swivel operation without collisions. However, the traditional means of monitoring using Electronic Total Station tools cannot realize real-time monitoring, and monitoring using motion sensors or GPS is cumbersome to use.

This study proposes a monitoring method based on a series of computer vision (CV) technologies, which can monitor the rotation angle, velocity and inclination angle of the swivel construction in real-time. First, three proposed CV algorithms was developed in a laboratory environment. The experimental tests were carried out on a bridge scale model to select the outperformed algorithms for rotation, velocity and inclination monitor, respectively, as the final monitoring method in proposed method. Then, the selected method was implemented to monitor an actual bridge during its swivel construction to verify the applicability.

In the laboratory study, the monitoring data measured with the selected monitoring algorithms was compared with those measured by an Electronic Total Station and the errors in terms of rotation angle, velocity and inclination angle, were 0.040%, 0.040%, and −0.454%, respectively, thus validating the accuracy of the proposed method. In the pilot actual application, the method was shown to be feasible in a real construction application.

In a well-controlled laboratory the optimal algorithms for bridge swivel construction are identified and in an actual project the proposed method is verified. The proposed CV method is complementary to the use of Electronic Total Station tools, motion sensors, and GPS for safety monitoring of swivel construction of bridges. It also contributes to being a possible approach without data-driven model training. Its principal advantages are that it both provides real-time monitoring and is easy to deploy in real construction applications.

This paper aims to provide decision support for precast concrete contractors about both precast concrete supply chain strategies and construction configurations.

This paper proposes a simulation-based optimisation for supply chain and construction (SOSC) during the planning phase of PC building projects. The discrete event simulation is used to capture the characteristics of supply chain and construction processes, and calculate construction objectives under different plans. Particle swarm optimisation is combined with simulation to find optimal supply chain strategies and construction configurations.

The efficiency of SOSC is compared with the parametric simulation approach. Over 70 per cent of time and effort used to simulate and compare alternative plans is saved owing to SOSC.

Building simulation model costs a lot of time and effort. The data requirement of the proposed method is high.

The proposed SOSC approach can provide decision support for PC contractors by optimising supply chain strategies and construction configurations.

This paper has two contributions: one is in providing a decision support tool SOSC to optimise both supply chain strategies and construction configurations, while the other is in building a prototype of SOSC and testing it in a case study.

The findings suggest that reducing information processing costs as a result of better transportation is an important ingredient in promoting the pricing of firm-specific information. This study aims to discuss the aforementioned issue.

The authors adopt a difference-in-difference (DID) research design to examine the impact of information processing costs on stock price synchronicity with a sample of firms listed in the Chinese A-share market during 2007 and 2017.

This paper shows that the launch of the high-speed railway (hereafter HSR) in China is associated with lower stock price synchronicity, consistent with the theory that the HSR reduces investors’ information processing costs (cost of monitoring, acquiring and analyzing firm disclosures). This effect is more pronounced for companies located in remote areas than for those located in large cities. Further tests show that the negative association between the launch of HSR and stock price synchronicity is stronger for companies with higher information asymmetries, proxied by higher equity concentration, higher complexity and lower internal control quality.

This study contributes to the literature in the following three ways. First, prior literature relates the effects of geographic distance to information transmission and information asymmetry between insiders and outside investors (e.g. Coval and Moskowitz, 2001; Kang and Kim, 2008; Malloy, 2005). The authors supplement the literature by providing new empirical evidence from an exogenous shock (natural experiment), that is, the launch of HSR, that facilitates transportation and reduces information transmission costs. Second, prior studies have shown that new airline routes that facilitate transportation improve investment and productivity (e.g. Bernstein et al., 2016; Giroud, 2013). The authors extend this stream of studies by showing that the development of HSR networks reduces information processing costs, and promotes the incorporation of firm-specific information in the asset pricing. More importantly, in this study, the authors explicitly incorporate disclosure processing costs theory into our framework thus enhancing our understanding of how and why improvements in transport relate to better market outcomes.

The purpose of this paper is to identify the energy absorption characteristics of arch micro-strut (ARCH) lattice structure (different from traditional straight micro-strut lattice structure) under high-speed impact, and promote the development of special-shaped micro-strut lattice structure.

The study serves to study the anti-impact and energy absorption characteristics of ARCH lattice structure under different strain rates and different unit layers of lattice structure. In this paper, quasi-static compression and Hopkinson compression bar experiments are used for comparative analysis.

The results show that the ARCH lattice structure has obvious strain rate effect. When the strain rate is low, the number of layers of lattice structure has a great influence on the mechanical properties. With the increase of strain rate, the influence of the number of layers on the mechanical properties gradually weakens. So the ARCH lattice structure with fewer layers (less than five layers) should be selected as the impact energy absorbing materials at lower impact rate, while at higher impact rate, the number of layers can be selected according to the actual requirements of components or devices space size.

This study shows that Arch lattice structure has excellent energy absorption performance, and provides a theoretical reference for the application of ARCH lattice structure in energy-absorbing materials. ARCH lattice structure is expected to be applied to a variety of energy absorption and anti-impact components or devices, such as aircraft black box fall buffer components, impact resistant layer of bulletproof and landing buffer device.