Yang Zhang

The University of Hong Kong | HKU

Modular construction has attracted wide attention from both academia and industry and has been viewed as a novel approach to improve construction sustainability. Nevertheless, few studies have focused on examining the embodied carbon (EC) emissions of modular buildings. This paper aims to assess the EC of a modular concrete high-rise residential bu...

The construction sector is responsible for about 40% of energy-related emissions worldwide. Utilizing low-carbon concrete materials (LCCMs) has been recognized as an efficient way to reduce embodied carbon (EC). However, there is a lack of systematic understanding and a unified comparison of the LCCMs’ EC reduction potentials. This paper identifies...

Buildings contribute significantly to carbon emissions over their life cycle. Recently, embodied carbon (EC) accounts for an increasing share of life cycle carbon emissions of new buildings as their energy efficiency is improving. However, traditional methods of data collection and communication from diverse carbon sources such as manual recording...

Modular buildings have been widely recognised as a solution for improving the sustainability of the construction industry. However, the implications of modular buildings for reducing embodied carbon (EC) have seldom been examined previously. This paper aims to quantify the EC reduction potentials of different structural designs of concrete modules...

Increasing construction waste has been a severe environmental problem globally. Adopting new construction methods such as modular construction is considered as an effective measure to reduce construction waste. However, few studies have examined the potential of modular construction in construction waste reduction. This study aims to measure the ty...

Building information modeling (BIM) helps simplify data acquisition and reduce labor-intensive processes in the life cycle assessment (LCA) of buildings. However, there is a lack of systematic understanding of integrating BIM into LCA. This paper aims to develop a framework for systematically reviewing the body of knowledge on BIM-integrated LCA in...

Building information modeling (BIM) has been leveraged to reduce manual efforts in the life cycle assessment (LCA) of buildings. However, data interoperability between BIM and LCA tools remains a significant challenge because of disparate data structures, leading to a deficiency in automatic data mapping methods. Few studies have adopted profession...

Modular high-rises are attractive for metropolises, but few applications exist, partly due to the lack of knowledge about their lateral behaviors. Existing concrete modular high-rises usually adopt a time-consuming and labor-intensive cast-in-situ concrete layer on modules to satisfy the continuous rigid diaphragm assumption. This study aims to dev...

High-rise modular buildings are attractive for metropolises, but few applications exist. One reason is the lack of relevant knowledge about their lateral force resistance. Existing high-rise modular buildings generally adopt cast-in-situ concrete cores, which can work with precast module walls in concrete modular buildings to resist lateral loads t...

Despite the increasing adoption of modular construction worldwide, it is still largely limited to low-to-medium-rise buildings. One of the main reasons is the knowledge gap regarding the structural design of modular high-rises. This provides a significant opportunity for research and development as high-rise buildings are more competitive in metrop...