• International conference on construction engineering and project management
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• 2022.06a
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• pp.571-578
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• 2022

Modularization in a high-rise building is different from a small building, as it is exposed to more lateral forces like wind and earthquakes. The integrity, robustness, and overall stability of the modules and their performance is based on the joining techniques and strong structural systems. High lateral stiff construction structures like concrete shear walls and frames, braced steel frames, and steel moment frames are used for the stability of high-rise modular buildings. Similarly, high-rise stick-built buildings have concrete cores and perimeter frames for lateral load strength and stiffness. Methods for general steel-concrete connections are available in many works of literature. However, there are few modular-related papers describing this connection system in modular buildings. This paper aims to review the various research and practice adopted for steel-to-concrete connections in construction and compare the methods between stick-built buildings and modular buildings. The literature review shows that the practice of steel module-to-concrete core connection in high-rise modular buildings is like outrigger beams-to-concrete core connection in stick-built framed buildings. This paper concludes that further studies are needed in developing proper guidelines for a steel module-to-concrete core connection system in high-rise modular buildings.

• International conference on construction engineering and project management
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• 2015.10a
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• pp.704-705
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• 2015

Recent research has been ongoing for modular buildings in the country, and interest increases. However, in accordance with legal restrictions in the country with regard to Project Delivery system of Modular Building, the activation of modular buildings industry is obstructed. In Korea, in accordance with national contract law, the construction contract is apply to the project delivery system of modular buildings, and in accordance with Framework Act on the Construction Industry, The project delivery system of modular buildings has to be a separate order. The definition of separate order in contract as defined in the law is that the electric work and Communication work and digestion facility work has to be separate each contract in order to be ensured professionalism. In accordance with law, the project delivery system of modular buildings is that the contract for construction is concluded with the Owner and the Construction Contractor and the contract for goods is concluded with the construction Contractor and modular manufacturer. Due to these project delivery system, the domestic factory production rate when making a modular unit is significantly reduced compared to the rate of factory production abroad and the domestic factory production rate is estimated to 10-20%. Due to the factory production rate is also low, despite what can be done at the factory the workload in construction field increases. According to the workload in field increases, the effect of the schedule reduction can be reduced. It resolved to form a consortium with a modular manufacturer and construction companies or the contract is concluded with Owner, modular manufacturer and construction companies in each. In this paper, we propose a specific project delivery system for modular building to solve the problem of the low factory production rate and the problem of schedule reduction. Through this paper, due to the variety of project delivery system on modular buildings is expected to contribute to the activation of modular buildings.

• Earthquakes and Structures
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• v.11 no.6
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• pp.1061-1076
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• 2016

Prefabricated Modular Buildings are increasingly becoming popular in the construction industry as a method to achieve financially economical buildings in a very short construction time. This increasing demand for modular construction has expanded into multi-storey applications where the effect of lateral loads such as seismic loads becomes critical. However, there is a lack of detailed scientific research that has explored the behaviour of modular buildings and their connection systems against seismic loads. This paper will therefore present the nonlinear time history analysis of a multi-storey modular building against several ground motion records. The critical elements that need special attention in designing a modular building in similar seismic conditions is discussed with a deeper explanation of the behaviour of the overall system.

• Journal of Korean Association for Spatial Structures
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• v.16 no.2
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• pp.79-88
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• 2016

Modular buildings are constructed by assembling modular units which are prefabricated in a factory and delivered to the site. However, due to a problem of noise between floors, concrete slab is usually poured at the top or bottom level of a modular unit in Korea. This greatly increases the weight of buildings, but designing vertical members of modular units to resist overall gravity loads is very inefficient. In this study, considering domestic building construction practices, feasible structural systems for tall modular buildings are proposed in which separate steel frames and reinforced concrete core walls are designed to resist gravity and lateral loads. To verify performance, a three-dimensional structural analysis has been performed with two types of prototype buildings, i.e., a residential building and a hotel. From the results, wind-induced lateral displacements and seismic story drifts are examined and compared with their limit values. Between the two kinds of buildings, the efficiency of the proposed system is also evaluated through a comparison of the weight of structural components. Finally, the effect of a floor diaphragm on the overall behavior is analyzed and discussed.

• Korean Journal of Construction Engineering and Management
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• v.20 no.3
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• pp.12-21
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• 2019

Specification is an important document for securing safe construction and improving quality as well as the contract document. Currently, the specifications used in modular buildings in Korea are only the construction specification, and most of the contents are used by borrowing the standard specifications of the building, so the contents of the modular buildings can not be reflected and it is contents are similar to the guideline book. The current status of domestic specification for modular buildings is affecting the quality of modular buildings. Therefore, we analyze activity through monitoring the modular process of modular buildings and analyze systematically relationship by applying IDEF modeling with analyzed activity. As result this paper proposes a structure of special specification specialized in modular building through generalization. The major classifications were divided into three stages : factory construction, transportation, and on-site installation. The specification structure was divided into 32 types of construction items from the floor slab assembly of the factory production to the joint finish of the on site installation in accordance with the opinion of experts.

• Korean Journal of Construction Engineering and Management
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• v.22 no.3
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• pp.31-39
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• 2021

The modular construction method is an off-site construction method using built-in structures from the manufacturing facilities. Modular construction is commonly applied to buildings which have relatively smaller and simpler structures than other types of buildings. Although modular building has emerged in the domestic construction industry as an alternative building strategy, previous researches on the environmental characteristics of modular building has not been comprehensively studied. Thus, this study empirically analyzed the insulation performance of thermal bridge and condensation parts of the modular buildings by using IR image analysis, Air-Surface Temperature Ratio method, and temperature difference ratio. The insulation performance analysis was conducted by comparing a modular building and a RC building in Seoul. The results shows that there was no significant difference between insulation performances of RC building and modular building. Furthermore

• Journal of the Korea institute for structural maintenance and inspection
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• v.23 no.4
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• pp.15-22
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• 2019

The use of modular buildings is increasing because of various advantages of modular buildings. But there are limits to apply modular buildings to medium-rise buildings because the building law provides only the specification criteria of the modular building with respect to the 1 hour fire resistance performance. This study was conducted to investigate 2 hours fire resistance performance of load bearing walls with steel studs in modular buildings by KS F 2257-1 and KS F 2257-4. After full scale tests, load bearing walls ensuring two hours fire resistance performance consist of at least 2 layers of fire resistance plaster boards of 19mm thickness or 3 layer of fire resistance plaster boards of thickness.

• International conference on construction engineering and project management
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• 2015.10a
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• pp.132-137
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• 2015

A modular construction method includes factory-prefabricated room-sized volumetric units. Although low-rise buildings have been constructed worldwide using this method for more than 30 years, it is a relatively new technology in high-rise construction. There are three basic methods of constructing high-rise buildings using modular construction: the core method, the core-and-podium combination method, and the modular in-fill method. While the first two have been used in the USA and in several European countries, the third method, introduced in 2011 by an international cruise ship development firm, is a rather new approach for which there are few case histories. Therefore, its applicability and construction feasibility should be verified. As a pilot study to test the applicability of the modular in-fill method, a 12-story residential building was built in Korea. This paper describes a case study of the pilot project. The advantages and disadvantages of the method and its applicability in terms of cost effectiveness and construction schedule management were evaluated.

• Journal of the Korean Solar Energy Society
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• v.34 no.3
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• pp.107-114
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• 2014

Modular systems are widely used in various building types including housing, dormitory, and barracks. Steel studs have many advantages over other materials as construction components of modular buildings in terms of seismic performance, durability and maintenance. However, steel stud modular systems also have weakness in condensation resistance due to high thermal conductivity of steel. The purpose of this study is to investigate the condensation resistance of steel stud wall corner details in modular buildings by thermal simulation. The condensation resistance was evaluated by temperature difference ratio according to ISO 13788. The result showed that there was little difference between the alternatives of adding cavity and insulation. Separation of interstitial steel studs showed outstanding effect on the improvement of temperature difference ratio.

• Korean Journal of Construction Engineering and Management
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• v.17 no.4
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• pp.49-56
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• 2016

Recent research has been ongoing for modular buildings in the country and interest increases. However, the activation of modular building projects is obstructed in the construction industry. There are many reasons to identity for this obstruction but one issue should be focussed. Modular buildings require to change the existing construction production system to a new construction production system, which is factory production - transportation - erection. However, the existing project delivery system in the public sector could not be adapted for this new construction production system due to the obligation of multi prime contract use, such as electrical, communication, fire fighting contracts by Law. Therefore, modular buildings in the existing project delivery system are separately contracted by multi prime contracts and modular units composed of the buildings are contracted by an architectural prime contractor as a commodity. As results, construction costs are increased, potential quality problems are raised and the existing project delivery system is finally an obstacle not to maximize benefits of the modular buildings. In this paper, we propose a new project delivery system for the modular buildings to adapt then ew construction production system.