Special purpose simulation for tower crane construction operations management

Historically, simulation tools have only been used and understood by the academic community. Special Purpose Simulation (SPS) techniques have introduced computer modeling to the construction industry, resulting in reduced model development time and a user-friendly environment. This Thesis presents a new approach to handling process interaction for computer simulation modeling using priority rating logic, which is used to represent leading resource non-cyclic construction operations. The use of priority rating logic control for model process interaction is implemented through the development of a SPS tower crane template. On-site management of the tower crane resource is based on prioritized work tasks that need to be performed within a set period of time. Traditional SPS modeling techniques use relationship logic links to represent the logic contained in the modeled system. As the number of work tasks increases for the tower crane resource, the model complexity using traditional simulation techniques becomes unmanageable, resulting in limited acceptance by industry practitioners. The tower crane template uses priority rating logic to replace the relationship logic links. Evaluation of the tower crane operations at the Electrical and Computer Engineering Research Facility (ECERF), being constructed in Edmonton, is used as a generic case study. The ECERF case study is modeled using both the relationship logic links and priority rating logic control modeling approaches. The results from the two models are used to illustrate the advantages and viability of using the priority rating logic modeling approach for tower crane operations.