Keywords: physical interface, interface issues, building information modelling (BIM), interface object model (IOM), object-oriented, residential construction, interface management (IM).

Physical interfaces (for example joints, connections, surface contacts, or particular spatial relationships) between building elements or components widely exist in a built facility. Accordingly, various physical interface issues, such as mismatched parts, dimensional errors, poorly designed interfaces for construction, inappropriate handling methods, interface failures, etc., are the most common jobsite problems that have frequently resulted in construction conflicts and quality defects. These problems may also cause project delays, cost overruns, and other severe outcomes [1].

Managing physical interface issues is currently a challenging task due to the complexity of physical interfaces in a construction project and the lack of experienced management personnel. Modelling approaches, for example, building information modelling (BIM), are deemed much more effective and efficient ways to monitor and coordinate interface information and ultimately help manage those potential or existing interface issues. Nevertheless, they are still far from capable of capturing detailed interface information such as interface properties, construction operations, responsibilities, maintenance, etc. Therefore, model-based interface management (IM), if existing, has only achieved limited success compared with the actual benefits a suitable modelling approach can offer.

This ongoing research has proposed an interface object modelling method, which attempts to model various types of interfaces as objects containing interface properties, operations, responsibilities, etc. These objects can act intelligently and actively in an object-oriented modelling environment to facilitate interface-related coordination, decision-making, operation, and management [2]. This paper is a continued effort to introduce and also test this method's modelling efficiency.

To test its workability, the authors model physical interfaces in a selected U.S. residential construction process. This is done by first describing the selected foundation wall installation process and modelling the physical relationships between the involved building elements or components in a traditional way. Then, the paper addresses how to select appropriate applicable interface objects for modelling those existing physical interfaces and displays the interface object model (IOM) in a higher level UML (Unified Modelling Language) graphical model presentation. For the sake of simplicity, the IOM is not instantiated with detailed information. At the end of this paper, the potential application of this modelling method in visualizing construction operations is discussed. This application can be used to organize and direct real world construction activities as well as train construction workers to familiarise them with construction operations.

Future research will be focused on building a software prototype which incorporates the proposed physical interface object modelling with the current BIM approach. Then, the model-based visualization and simulation will be demonstrated.

1

T.C. Pavitt, A.G.F. Gibb, "Interface management within construction: In particular, building façade", Journal of Construction Engineering and Management, 129(1), 8-15, 2003. doi:10.1061/(ASCE)0733-9364(2003)129:1(8)

2

Q. Chen, G. Reichard, Y.J. Beliveau, "An interface object model for interface management in building construction", in "Proceedings of the 6th European Conference on Product and Process Modelling", M. Martinez, R. Scherer, (Eds.), Taylor & Francis, London, U.K., 119-126, 2006.

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