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The construction industry accounts for an enormous quantity of construction and demolition waste (CDW) where its improper management jeopardizes social, environmental, and economic resources. Although several studies have investigated some aspects of construction and demolition waste management (CDWM), there is a substantial need to empirically analysing effective construction and demolition waste management (ECDWM) considering its contributing factors and the CDWM hierarchy (CDWMH). A framework was proposed to assess the effectiveness of CDWM using CDW stakeholders’ attitudes (CDWSA), CDWM within project life cycles (CDWPLC), CDWM with respect to sustainability (SCDWM), and CDWM tools (CDWMT) as factors that effectively affect CDWM, and CDWMH as the most effective strategy to manage CDW, leading to the effective management of CDW. This study analyzed ECDWM in Australia. Thus, 108 large construction companies were approached via an online questionnaire. Data were analyzed through partial least squares based structural equation modelling using SmartPLS. Results (path coefficients) could prove that CDWSA was the most effective factor to CDWM, while CDWPLC was the least effective (ineffective). In addition, recycling strategy received more attention than reusing and reducing strategies, which contrasts with the nature of CDWMH. The study is relevant for CDW professionals as well as academicians involved in CDWM.
Kamyar Kabirifar; Mohammad Mojtahedi; Cynthia Changxin Wang; Vivian W.Y. Tam. Effective construction and demolition waste management assessment through waste management hierarchy; a case of Australian large construction companies. Journal of Cleaner Production 2021, 312, 127790 .
AMA StyleKamyar Kabirifar, Mohammad Mojtahedi, Cynthia Changxin Wang, Vivian W.Y. Tam. Effective construction and demolition waste management assessment through waste management hierarchy; a case of Australian large construction companies. Journal of Cleaner Production. 2021; 312 ():127790.
Chicago/Turabian StyleKamyar Kabirifar; Mohammad Mojtahedi; Cynthia Changxin Wang; Vivian W.Y. Tam. 2021. "Effective construction and demolition waste management assessment through waste management hierarchy; a case of Australian large construction companies." Journal of Cleaner Production 312, no. : 127790.
Construction and demolition waste (C&DW) has a deleterious impacts on sustainability not only in developing countries but also in developed nations. For example, Australia generated more than 27 million tonnes of C&DW in 2018–2019; however, only 60% of this waste stream was recovered. Considering this low recovery rate, lower than many developed nations, and with regards to the increasing rate of C&DW generation, extra attention should be given to the construction and demolition waste management (C&DWM) in Australia. Therefore, this research attempts to accurately understand the current practices and challenges of C&DWM in Australia. To do so, primarily, a systematic review of studies relevant to C&DWM from 2010 to 2021 was performed. In this step, 26 research documents were meticulously analysed to identify the current practices of C&DWM in Australia. Then, an in-depth interview with three experts were undertaken to verify the major results and to investigate the challenges of C&DWM in Australia. The results indicated that three factors significantly affect C&DWM in Australia, namely attitudes and behaviour of C&DWM stakeholders, C&DWM in project life cycles, and C&DWM regulations with regards to sustainability, adding that the latter was revealed as the most effective in C&DWM in Australia.
Kamyar Kabirifar; Mohammad Mojtahedi; Cynthia Wang. A Systematic Review of Construction and Demolition Waste Management in Australia: Current Practices and Challenges. Recycling 2021, 6, 34 .
AMA StyleKamyar Kabirifar, Mohammad Mojtahedi, Cynthia Wang. A Systematic Review of Construction and Demolition Waste Management in Australia: Current Practices and Challenges. Recycling. 2021; 6 (2):34.
Chicago/Turabian StyleKamyar Kabirifar; Mohammad Mojtahedi; Cynthia Wang. 2021. "A Systematic Review of Construction and Demolition Waste Management in Australia: Current Practices and Challenges." Recycling 6, no. 2: 34.
Construction and demolition waste (CDW) is described as a material which is indispensably arisen from construction and demolition (C&D) activities and ought to be effectively managed, otherwise, its improper management can produce negative economic, environmental, and social impacts. Effective management of CDW leads to the corroboration of structures and leading to an authentic impact on natural systems. Therefore, it is vital to consider a potent concept capable of analyzing effective construction and demolition waste management (CDWM). This study aims at developing a framework to assess the effectiveness of CDWM. The proposed conceptual framework includes three main categories, namely CDWM contributing factors, CDWM hierarchy, and effective CDWM. CDWM contributing factors consist of four main categories, namely CDWM stakeholders’ attitudes, CDWM from sustainability point of view, CDWM tools, and CDW project life cycle. In developing this framework, and in addition to the contributing factors, supportive theories have been applied for the purpose of justification. Based on a systematic research method, 214 research documents were revealed initially and after refining process, 32 relevant research documents were unveiled and then thoroughly considered. It was revealed that sustainability concept is the main foundation of CDWM. Accordingly, the Theory of Planned Behaviour (TPB) was identified as a fundamental pillar that supports stakeholders’ attitudes in effective CDWM assessment.
Kamyar Kabirifar; Mohammad Mojtahedi; Cynthia Changxin Wang; Tam Vivian W.Y.. A conceptual foundation for effective construction and demolition waste management. Cleaner Engineering and Technology 2020, 1, 100019 .
AMA StyleKamyar Kabirifar, Mohammad Mojtahedi, Cynthia Changxin Wang, Tam Vivian W.Y.. A conceptual foundation for effective construction and demolition waste management. Cleaner Engineering and Technology. 2020; 1 ():100019.
Chicago/Turabian StyleKamyar Kabirifar; Mohammad Mojtahedi; Cynthia Changxin Wang; Tam Vivian W.Y.. 2020. "A conceptual foundation for effective construction and demolition waste management." Cleaner Engineering and Technology 1, no. : 100019.
Urbanization and population growth have resulted in a significant increase in the amount of generated construction and demolition (C&D) waste worldwide. Improper C&D waste management has led to a tremendous landfilled C&D waste, which has placed a great concern over its adverse impacts on the environment and natural resources. Appropriate C&D waste recycling mechanism as a remedial action saves our resources from deterioration, which can be guaranteed through a systematic apportion of the construction projects to C&D waste recycling facilities. Previous studies in waste collection routing problem have almost exclusively assumed that parameters are deterministic; however, uncertainty associated with waste collection routing makes deterministic models inapplicable to real-life systems. To tackle this problem, this research proposes a novel simheuristic based on an integrated simulation-optimization approach, in which an efficient hybrid Genetic Algorithm (GA) is applied in order to optimize vehicle route planning for C&D waste collection from construction projects to recycling facilities. A comparative analysis with existing well-known approaches is performed to represent the strength and effectiveness of the proposed approach. The results demonstrate high performance of the proposed simheuristic algorithm. This study has also benefited from a real case of construction projects apportion to recycling facilities in Sydney, Australia for better evaluation. This research strongly contributes to academics by lighting up the ways to optimize future waste collection problems in a wider range and more precise manner. Meanwhile, this study recommends to C&D waste decision makers and practitioners to allocate generated C&D waste to recycling facilities precisely with respect to the capacity of produced C&D waste, capacity of recycling facilities, distances, and vehicle capacities.
Maziar Yazdani; Kamyar Kabirifar; Boadu Elijah Frimpong; Mahdi Shariati; Mirpouya Mirmozaffari; Azam Boskabadi. Improving construction and demolition waste collection service in an urban area using a simheuristic approach: A case study in Sydney, Australia. Journal of Cleaner Production 2020, 280, 124138 .
AMA StyleMaziar Yazdani, Kamyar Kabirifar, Boadu Elijah Frimpong, Mahdi Shariati, Mirpouya Mirmozaffari, Azam Boskabadi. Improving construction and demolition waste collection service in an urban area using a simheuristic approach: A case study in Sydney, Australia. Journal of Cleaner Production. 2020; 280 ():124138.
Chicago/Turabian StyleMaziar Yazdani; Kamyar Kabirifar; Boadu Elijah Frimpong; Mahdi Shariati; Mirpouya Mirmozaffari; Azam Boskabadi. 2020. "Improving construction and demolition waste collection service in an urban area using a simheuristic approach: A case study in Sydney, Australia." Journal of Cleaner Production 280, no. : 124138.
Machine learning approaches have been developed rapidly and also they have been involved in many academic findings and discoveries. Additionally, they are widely assessed in numerous industries such as cement companies. Cement companies in developing countries, despite many profits such as valuable mines, face many challenges. Optimization, as a key part of machine learning, has attracted more attention. The main purpose of this paper is to combine a novel Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA) approach in optimization at the first step to find the Decision-Making Unit (DMU) with innovative clustering algorithms in machine learning at the second step introduce the model and algorithm with higher accuracy. At the optimization section with converting two-stage to a simple standard single-stage model, 24 cement companies from five developing countries over 2014–2019 are compared. Window-DEA analysis is used since it leads to increase judgment on the consequences, mainly when applied to small samples followed by allowing year-by-year comparisons of the results. Applying window analysis can be beneficial for managers to expand their comparison and evaluation. To find the most accurate model CCR (Charnes, Cooper and Rhodes model), BBC (Banker, Charnes and Cooper model) and Free Disposal Hull (FDH) DEA model for measuring the efficiency of decision processes are used. FDH model allows the free disposability to construct the production possibility set. At the machine learning section, a novel three-layers data mining filtering pre-processes proposed by expert judgment for clustering algorithms to increase the accuracy and to eliminate unrelated attributes and data. Finally, the most efficient company, best performance model and the most accurate algorithm are introduced. The results indicate that the 22nd company has the highest efficiency score with an efficiency score of 1 for all years. FDH model has the highest efficiency scores during all periods compared with other suggested models. K-means algorithm receives the highest accuracy in all three suggested filtering layers. The BCC and CCR models have the second and third places, respectively. The hierarchical clustering and density-based clustering algorithms have the second and third places, correspondingly.
Mirpouya Mirmozaffari; Maziar Yazdani; Azam Boskabadi; Hamidreza Ahady Dolatsara; Kamyar Kabirifar; Noorbakhsh Amiri Golilarz. A Novel Machine Learning Approach Combined with Optimization Models for Eco-Efficiency Evaluation. Applied Sciences 2020, 10, 5210 .
AMA StyleMirpouya Mirmozaffari, Maziar Yazdani, Azam Boskabadi, Hamidreza Ahady Dolatsara, Kamyar Kabirifar, Noorbakhsh Amiri Golilarz. A Novel Machine Learning Approach Combined with Optimization Models for Eco-Efficiency Evaluation. Applied Sciences. 2020; 10 (15):5210.
Chicago/Turabian StyleMirpouya Mirmozaffari; Maziar Yazdani; Azam Boskabadi; Hamidreza Ahady Dolatsara; Kamyar Kabirifar; Noorbakhsh Amiri Golilarz. 2020. "A Novel Machine Learning Approach Combined with Optimization Models for Eco-Efficiency Evaluation." Applied Sciences 10, no. 15: 5210.
To reduce damage caused by the disposal of non-biodegradable materials such as rubber into the environment, one strategy is to use rubber as a substitute for common materials in concrete. However, there is a great need to investigate the mechanical properties of this new concrete, known as recycled rubber concrete (RRC). Thus, this study attempted to explore the performance of RRC containing recycled rubber aggregate (RRA), replacing fine aggregate by 5, 10, 15, and 20%, under high temperatures of 200, 400, 600, and 800 ℃. For this purpose, the physico-mechanical properties of cylindrical RRCs, namely the tensile and compressive strength, modulus of elasticity, compressive stress-strain behavior, stiffness, peak strain, and weight loss, as well as the appearance, were scrutinized after exposure to heat. The results indicate a notable deterioration of the physico-mechanical characteristics of the concrete specimens as temperature increased. Furthermore, the thermal response of specimens made with RRA was relatively similar to that of the reference concrete (RC). Meanwhile, in the heated specimens, as the residual strength declined with increasing temperature, the linearity of the ascending branch increased, and the descending branch became flatter. Subsequently, a series of empirical models were proposed to capture the mechanical characteristics of concrete, and a juxtaposition was carried out between the results extracted from this study and the predicted ones based on ASCE, ACI 216, CEB-FIP 1990, and EN 1992 codes. In the end, a stress-strain model was developed to obtain an empirical equation capable of predicting the RRC characteristics under heat, which showed a rigorous consistency with the experimental results.
Habib Akbarzadeh Bengar; Amir Ali Shahmansouri; Nader Akkas Zangebari Sabet; Kamyar Kabirifar; Vivian W.Y. Tam. Impact of elevated temperatures on the structural performance of recycled rubber concrete: Experimental and mathematical modeling. Construction and Building Materials 2020, 255, 119374 .
AMA StyleHabib Akbarzadeh Bengar, Amir Ali Shahmansouri, Nader Akkas Zangebari Sabet, Kamyar Kabirifar, Vivian W.Y. Tam. Impact of elevated temperatures on the structural performance of recycled rubber concrete: Experimental and mathematical modeling. Construction and Building Materials. 2020; 255 ():119374.
Chicago/Turabian StyleHabib Akbarzadeh Bengar; Amir Ali Shahmansouri; Nader Akkas Zangebari Sabet; Kamyar Kabirifar; Vivian W.Y. Tam. 2020. "Impact of elevated temperatures on the structural performance of recycled rubber concrete: Experimental and mathematical modeling." Construction and Building Materials 255, no. : 119374.
Construction and demolition waste (C&DW) as a direct consequence of rapid urbanization is increasing around the world. C&DW generation has been identified as one of the major issues in the construction industry due to its direct impacts on the environment as well as the efficiency of construction industry. It is estimated that an overall of 35% of C&DW is landfilled globally, therefore, effective C&DW management is crucial in order to minimize detrimental impacts of C&DW for the environment. As the industry cannot continue to practice if the resources on which it depends are depleted, C&DW management needs to be implemented in an effective way. Despite considering many well-developed strategies for C&DW management, the outputs of the implementation of these strategies is far from optimum. The main reason of this inefficiency is due to inadequate understanding of principal factors, which play a vital role in C&DW management. Therefore, the aim of this research is to critically scrutinize the concept of C&DW and its managerial issues in a systematic way to come up with the effective C&DW management. In order to achieve this aim, and based on a systematic review of 97 research papers relevant to effective C&DW management, this research considers two main categories as fundamental factors affecting C&DW management namely, C&DW management hierarchy including reduce, reuse, and recycle strategies, and effective C&DW management contributing factors, including C&DW management from sustainability perspective, C&DW stakeholders’ attitudes, C&DW project life cycle, and C&DW management tools. Subsequently, these factors are discussed in detail and findings are scrutinized in order to clarify current and future practices of C&DW management from both academic and practical perspectives.
Kamyar Kabirifar; Mohammad Mojtahedi; Changxin Wang; Vivian W.Y. Tam. Construction and demolition waste management contributing factors coupled with reduce, reuse, and recycle strategies for effective waste management: A review. Journal of Cleaner Production 2020, 263, 121265 .
AMA StyleKamyar Kabirifar, Mohammad Mojtahedi, Changxin Wang, Vivian W.Y. Tam. Construction and demolition waste management contributing factors coupled with reduce, reuse, and recycle strategies for effective waste management: A review. Journal of Cleaner Production. 2020; 263 ():121265.
Chicago/Turabian StyleKamyar Kabirifar; Mohammad Mojtahedi; Changxin Wang; Vivian W.Y. Tam. 2020. "Construction and demolition waste management contributing factors coupled with reduce, reuse, and recycle strategies for effective waste management: A review." Journal of Cleaner Production 263, no. : 121265.
The Construction Industry is a complex and fragmented industry worldwide with regards to its supply chain, products, and processes, and is faced with a similar dilemma as faced by manufacturers during its time in past decades. Scope, time, and cost are the triple constraints of project management and leading factors in defining the project performance. Productivity and efficiency of each construction project is measured through its triple constraints, therefore the factors that affect project success are significantly important. Despite the importance of understanding project performance indicators, few empirical studies have been conducted over the last decade in terms of analyzing the factors that determine the performance of high-rise buildings in Engineering, Procurement, and Construction (EPC) projects. Hence, the aim of this paper is to analyze and rank EPC critical activities across large-scale residential construction projects in Iran, by using the TOPSIS method as a multi-attribute group decision-making technique. Results indicate that engineering design, project planning and controls are significant factors contributing to the project performance. In addition, engineering has a pivotal role in project performance and this significance is followed by the construction phase. On the contrary, all believe procurement is more important than Construction phase.
Kamyar Kabirifar; Mohammad Mojtahedi. The impact of Engineering, Procurement and Construction (EPC) Phases on Project Performance: A Case of Large-scale Residential Construction Project. Buildings 2019, 9, 15 .
AMA StyleKamyar Kabirifar, Mohammad Mojtahedi. The impact of Engineering, Procurement and Construction (EPC) Phases on Project Performance: A Case of Large-scale Residential Construction Project. Buildings. 2019; 9 (1):15.
Chicago/Turabian StyleKamyar Kabirifar; Mohammad Mojtahedi. 2019. "The impact of Engineering, Procurement and Construction (EPC) Phases on Project Performance: A Case of Large-scale Residential Construction Project." Buildings 9, no. 1: 15.