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Many organizational approaches and technological opportunities are available or under development to improve the integration of design and construction. The opportunities offered by information technology are especially promising. Combining organizational approaches with state‐of‐the‐art technologies in a systematic manner will allow firms to derive the full benefits of computer‐aided design for construction. The present paper describes a framework that helps researchers and practitioners approach computer‐aided design for construction systematically. The framework identifies six interactions between design and construction. It is based on frame‐works for design for manufacture and on an analysis of current building practice. Design for manufacture has proven most effective when integrated into a cyclical product development process. The present framework serves as a road map for the building industry to formalize its information flows, to integrate design for construction into its linear facility delivery process and to approach a more cyclical delivery process.

This paper describes an analysis of Product Data and Information Technologies (PDIT) which are available to support processes in Large Scale Engineering (LSE), particularly those which are construction related. Three main areas are addressed: supporting environment; systems and technologies; and application software. On‐going and future developments in these areas are considered. The findings from each of the PDIT areas examined are presented, together with their potential opportunities for exploitation within LSE in construction. The perceived barriers to the adoption of such technologies are also addressed. Considerations are given to the most significant emerging technologies within the IT industry and the potential impact these may have on the business needs within LSE. The work was undertaken within the User Reference Project ESPRIT 20876—eLSEwise—European Large Scale Engineering Wide Integration Support Effort.

A marked characteristic of rubber‐like materials is the nearly incompressible behaviour. This type of behaviour is best modelled by mixed finite elements with separate interpolation functions for the displacements and the pressure. In this contribution the performance of three‐dimensional elements is investigated using a two‐tiered strategy. First, the ability of some linear and quadratic three‐dimensional elements to deform correctly under nearly isochoric conditions is estimated using the well‐known constraint‐counting method, in which the ratio of the number of degrees‐of‐freedom over the number of kinematic constraints present in the finite element mesh is determined. Next, the performance of the elements is assessed by numerical simulations for three cuboidal rubber blocks with different shape factors. The results turn out to be quite sensitive with respect to the ratio of the number of degrees‐of‐freedom over the number of kinematic constraints, since too many pressure degrees‐of‐freedom make the element overstiff, while too few pressure degrees‐of‐freedom may cause the occurrence of spurious kinematic modes. This observation appears to be not only valid for the global structural behaviour, but also with respect to the specific parts in the structure, where the above‐mentioned ratio is different from the global number, e.g., in corners of the structure.

This paper presents an organization based information architecture (OBIA) that defines a structure for information needed to address the strategic decision process of evaluating and selecting projects to pursue. The project evaluation process requires information that has not been well defined by project specific information structures developed in previous information modelling efforts. The information in the OBIA is separated into five main categories: organization, commitment, process, environment, and facility. The OBIA categories were identified through expert interviews. The model was then evaluated through a detailed analysis of 10 project case studies. Each case study focused on the evaluation of a particular project from one organization's perspective. A method of applying the model to analyse projects is presented. The structure is also believed to be applicable for other strategic decision types including strategic planning and market selection.

This study aims at improving the constructability of design solutions by inte grating site construction problems, which are related to the design, with the design's main functions. A full process analysis was carried out on the design functions of concrete framed office buildings whereby site problems were traced back to the relevant design stages. Design processes that significantly contribute to these problems were highlighted, along with their data flows. An object‐oriented analysis (OOA) method was then applied to model those processes. Proceedings through the five major activities of Coad & Yourdon's OOA method, a complete OOA model was developed. This technique has proved to be very effective in producing a well structured data model with the consequence of being easily mapped into an object‐oriented development environment. An integrated object‐oriented system was also developed, which attempts to use essential design information, at an early stage of the design process, to improve the constructability of the design.

The paper starts with a review of constitutive equations for rubber‐like materials, formulated in the invariants of the right Cauchy—Green deformation tensor. A general framework for the derivation of the stress tensor and the tangent moduli for invariant‐based models, for both the reference and the current configuration, is presented. The free energy of incompressible rubber‐like materials is extended to a compressible formulation by adding the volumetric part of the free energy. In order to overcome numerical problems encountered with displacement‐based finite element formulations for nearly incompressible materials, three‐dimensional finite elements, based on a penalty‐type formulation, are proposed. They are characterized by applying reduced integration to the volumetric parts of the tangent stiffness matrix and the pressure‐related parts of the internal force vector only. Moreover, hybrid finite elements are proposed. They are based on a three‐field variational principle, characterized by treating the displacements, the dilatation and the hydrostatic pressure as independent variables. Subsequently, this formulation is reduced to a generalized displacement formulation. In the numerical study these formulations are evaluated. The results obtained are compared with numerical results available in the literature. In addition, the proposed formulations are applied to 3D finite element analysis of an automobile tyre. The computed results are compared with experimental data.

Recognition of the importance of Large Scale Engineering (LSE) construction in the economics of Europe has resulted in the European Commission supporting the proposal for the eLSEwise project (Esprit 20876). eLSEwise is the European LSE Wide Integration Support Effort, which commenced in 1996 as part of the family of the ‘User Reference Group’ projects established by the European Commission to define the needs of the busiess users of ICT within several industrial areas. This paper describes the eLSEwise initiative and the approach adopted in identifying the LSE construction needs and the business processes that come together to allow an LSE project to evolve through the various phases of a project life cycle.

A major contributory factor to poor project performance in the construction industry is known to be the lack of integration and coordination between the different disciplines involved in various stages of the procurement process. Attempts by researchers to address this problem have met with limited success, as they have focused mainly on adapting integration techniques originally developed for use in the manufacturing industry. There is therefore a need to develop a detailed understanding of the fundamental sciences that underpin the problem of integrating the procurement process across the construction project life cycle. Presents and discusses a research model for addressing major methodological issues in the analysis of design/construction relationships.

As known from nearly incompressible elasticity, selective reduced integration (SRI) is a simple and effective method of overcoming the volumetric locking problem in 2D and 3D solid elements. This method of finite elastoviscoplasticity is discussed as are its well‐known limitations. In this context, an isochoric‐volumetric decoupled material behavior is assumed and thus the additive deviatoric‐volumetric decoupling of the consistent algorithmic moduli tensor is essential. By means of several numerical examples, the performance of elements using selective reduced integration is demonstrated and compared to the performance of other elements such as the enhanced assumed strain elements. It is shown that a minor modification, with little numerical effort, leads to rather robust element behaviour. The application of this process to so‐called solid‐shell elements for thin‐walled structures is also discussed.

Supply chain networks are generally associated with inter‐organisational communications, leading to reduction of time delays in services and information flows. Recognising the importance of communication, this paper deals with the management of information across a network of organisations that are involved in the design and construction process. The paper presents an overview of problems associated with the process of managing construction project information and explores the key role Web‐based technology systems can play in making this process more effective. The paper also reports on the utilisation of such a system on a number of construction projects. It discusses the efficiency gained in the traditional process of architectural drawings transmittal, and reports on a questionnaire survey targeting system users to gain some insight into their perception of its usefulness, performance and role in improving communications amongst the entire project team.