A structural engineering platform for timber modern methods of construction.

Menendez, Jesus; Hairstans, Robert; Leitch, Kenneth; Turnbull, Deb

Abstract

The UK has a housing deficit, requiring 3 million new homes by 2020 that will have to conform to national environmental policy and the corresponding regional building regulation requirements. The economic down turn has exacerbated this problem and as a result there is now an even greater need to employ an offsite Modern Method of Construction (MMC) approach.

The current implementation of innovative timber offsite MMC techniques is limited due to the lack of availability of a Eurocode compliant software platform that is generic across the Architecture, Engineering and Construction (AEC) sector. This constraint was identified when timber engineering innovations were restricted from being embedded into practice after being developed with architectural firms and construction companies.

As a result the Centre for Off-site Construction and Innovative Structures (COCIS) at the Institute of Sustainable Construction (ISC), Edinburgh Napier University is currently developing an integrated whole house engineering (WHE) system based on Tedds® for Word (Tedds), CSC Inc. The system being developed has the capability to harness the findings of research work being undertaken and embed them into practice whilst being compatible with future building regulatory standards and construction practices.

This paper provides an overview of the above process and through a case study demonstrates how the software platform being created is resulting in the practical application of research work being undertaken in collaboration with industry partners. Additionally, consideration is given as to how the software can be enhanced further in the future to be Building Information Modelling (BIM) enabled.

Citation

Menendez, J., Hairstans, R., Leitch, K., & Turnbull, D. (2012). A structural engineering platform for timber modern methods of construction.

• Conference Name: AEC 2012: 7th International Conference on Innovation in Architecture, Engineering & Construction
• Start Date: Aug 15, 2012
• End Date: Aug 17, 2012
• Publication Date: 2012
• Deposit Date: May 17, 2016
• Publicly Available Date: May 17, 2016
• Peer Reviewed: Peer Reviewed
• Keywords: Structural engineering; timber; modern methods; construction
• Public URL: http://researchrepository.napier.ac.uk/id/eprint/10209