The construction management has been under pressure to reduce operating costs and to improve productivity using innovative information technologe (IT) solutions conformed to structural characteristics, site conditions and past experiences. Given the growing emphasis on effectiveness and efficiency in construction projects, there is an imminent need to develop a formal procedure to select the best IT application for each proposed construction project and research and development (R&D) project. As there are numerous factors that have to be considered in selecting appropriate IT in a given situation, decision-makers need to have multicriteria decision-making ability. To enable them to make the most appropriate decision in any situation, it is important that effective tools incorporating multicriteria decision-making techniques are available. In this paper, an Analytic Network Process (ANP) model is conducted for the selection of appropriate IT application for innovative construction management prior to construction or research. The paper concludes that the ANP is a viable and capable tool for conducting IT application selection in multicriteria decision-making environment.
This paper introduces the current development of electronic catalogues of construction products. The common system architecture of Web-based electronic products catalogues are discussed, followed by a discussion on construction products information standardization and latest distributed-systems technologies for communicating construction products information. Finally, this paper presents an implementation of Web service in e-commerce systems to enable sharing of construction products information.
Broadband dielectric measurement methods based on vector network analyzer coupled with coaxial transmission line cell (CC) and open-ended coaxial probe (OC) are simply reviewed, by which the dielectric behaviors in the frequency range of 1 MHz to 3 GHz of two practical geomaterials are investigated. Kaolin after modified compaction with different water contents is measured by using CC. The results are consistent with previous study on standardized compacted kaolin and suggest that the dielectric properties at frequencies below 100 MHz are not only a function of water content but also functions of other soil state parameters including dry density. The hydration process of a commercial grout is monitored in real time by using OC. It is found that the time dependent dielectric properties can accurately reveal the different stages of the hydration process. These measurement results demonstrate the practicability of the introduced methods in determining dielectric properties of soft geomaterials.