Thesis (MTech (Mechanical Engineering))--Cape Peninsula University of Technology, 2005. / Due to an increasing in industrial micromation need in recent years, the use of micro accelerometers has been highly increased. Consecutively, this has promoted research activities in this field; capacitive accelerometers also have got high concern at large. As a research project of the Kentron in South Africa, this thesis deals with a theoretical model for a one-dimensional micro capacitive accelerometer with U-shape cantilever beam. The properties of the small angle tilted-plate capacitor have been analyzed; the capacitance equation and electrostatic force equation of this kind capacitor have been derived. The sensing element of this accelerometer consists of an inertial mass connected with two cantilever beams. The vibration modes analysis to the sensing element was accomplished by using CoventorWare2004's MemMech module, the result indicates that the main vibration mode can cause the capacitance change observably and the effect of the other modes to the capacitance can be ignored, which satisfied the purpose of the design. In the process of deriving the linearizing acceleration equation, the angle of the inertial mass caused by the deformation of the U-shape cantilever beam was taken into account as well as the electrostatic force between the two electrodes, thus the more precise acceleration linear equation was obtained. The sensitivity equation was derived through the acceleration linear equation, the relationship between the main parameters of the system and the sensitivity has been analyzed. The differential structure of this micro capacitive accelerometer was also analyzed; the linearizing acceleration equation and sensitivity equation of this kind structure were derived, it has been proven that the sensitivity of this structure is twice than the normal structure approximately. The maximum detectable signal was obtained in terms of the fracture strength of the cantilever beam and the maximum displacement of the inertial mass. The minimum detectable signal was obtained in terms of the thermal noise analysis. In the process of the dynamic analysis, the forced vibration produced by the sinusoidal periodic force and sinusoidal periodic moment was analyzed and the transient capacitance equation was derived, this proved the system has good dynamic character in theory. The system was simulated and analyzed by using CoventorWare2004's Saber module. The initial capacitance analysis indicates the relationship between the voltage and the initial capacitance, the result is close to the analytic model. The resonance frequencies analysis indicates that the main dimensions of the sensing element can determine the resonance frequencies and each vibration mode's sequence, the initial dimensions of the sensing element was proved reasonable by analyzing. Sensitivity analysis and Monte Carlo analysis indicate the effect of the sensing element's normal manufacturing tolerance to the system's frequency is small. Impact of plate curvature analysis indicates the effect of the inertial mass's deformation caused by the surface stress to the capacitance is small. Transient analysis obtained the system's transient displacement curve of six directions and transient capacitance curve in normal terms; this proved the system has good dynamic character in the simulating environment.

M. Tech. / Relative to other industries in South Africa and construction industries worldwide, the South African construction process generates a disproportionate number of fatalities, injuries and disease, the direct and indirect cost of which contribute to the cost of construction. Serious accidents and injuries resulting in personal injury and wrongful death occur with alarming frequency at construction sites in the U.K. The majority of accidents are not caused by careless workers but rather by failure to control. According to the Health and Safety Executive report published in 1988 out of the 90% of all construction accidents leading to death 70% could have been prevented by positive management actions and interventiion. Clients influence construction health and safety performance. Architects and design engineers often disavow responsibility for health and safety issues associated with the construction of their work. Arguably, this denial will only change if clients insist that construction health and safety is addressed on their projects. Health and safety begins with the attitude that accidents are preventable and that requirements for healthy and safe work practices must be followed. Health and safety should not be left solely under the control of the workers if injuries are to be curtailed or diminished, because the health and safety environment consists of many factors over which workers have little or no control. An underlying belief is that the majority of accidents are not caused by careless workers but by failure in controls. Although the best site management of health and safety cannot prevent all accidents, entities other than those actually performing the work do have an important role to play in enforcing proper safety standard measures : It is possible to prevent accidents from occurring. Success in health and safety has a great deal to do with people, especially those who will be responsible for ensuring that the project will be delivered safely. There is some evidence that the importance of health and safety is being realised by clients. Costs associated with worker injuries and fatalities are borne ultimately by the client and insisting that health and safety be included in design and construction considerations will prevent the occurrence of injuries and ultimately reduce the construction costs. Clients mostly set health and safety culture during the construction phase. Health and safety prequalification criteria to design approval post the design phase that shows that clients would prefer their involvement to be in specific phases. Clients do not realise that they can make significant contributions to improve health and safety performance during the early stages of a project. Clients who have to pay for construction work do not make specific cost provision for construction safety. Clients need to afford health and safety the same status as other project parameters. It is widely accepted that contractors should bear the responsibility for health and safety during the construction phase. The study found that clients regarded the construction and maintenance phases as the most important to address health and safety. Again clients do not realise the significance of placing health and safety importance in the initial phases of a project.

University of Macau / Faculty of Science and Technology / Department of Electromechanical Engineering

M.Ing. (Civil Engineering) / Please refer to full text to view abstract

M.Ing. (Engineering Management) / Ensuring and maintaining positive cash flow is becoming more and more difficult, especially in the construction industry. Payments need to be collected to be able to sustain a positive cash flow and this is not an easy process. Organizations fail due to insufficient available liquid assets and this study is done to determine why payments aren’t made, including information on what payment provisions contractors agree upon, and why the trend in the industry is to keep cash rather than pay suppliers. The collection of outstanding payments is also investigated, including actions taken if payments are not made, what clauses are included in contracts to ensure payment and if interest is charged on outstanding payments. A credit application processes need to be in place to ensure the credit worthiness of the clients/ employers is reviewed. It is also very important that some form of contract is agreed upon, understood and signed by both parties. There are instances where the contract documentation is not provided or the contract documents is provided and signed, but one of the parties has not read or understood some of the payment clauses. This could also lead to delayed payments. Collection of outstanding payments could be to propose a payment agreement, by charging interest or alternatively, enforcing early payments by providing a settlement discount. One of the most mentioned reasons for companies holding onto cash is to ensure liquid capital is available to ensure positive cash flow and the continuation of the business. The main reasons why liquid capital is not available is poor management of funds, poor payment procedures and mismanagement of funds. It was found that most of the construction companies have credit application processes, contracts and payment provisions in place, but most of these companies don’t adhere strictly to the procedures set out in these documents. More attention need to be given to enforcing credit and collection policies in practice, as well as following the payment provisions set out in the construction documentation. Questionnaires were only sent to companies operating in the construction industry. Further investigations can be done on other industries (including construction, mechanical, electrical, medical, farming, food sector, fashion sector etc.), which can assist in assisting with payments made by companies or individuals.

The study is a qualitative investigation of the implementation of green procurement in the construction sector at Local Government level. The focus is on the Metropolitan Municipalities of EThekwini, Nelson Mandela Bay and City of Cape Town. For the purpose of realising an extended comparative perspective, an additional three smaller municipalities were also reviewed. Green procurement is the tool used by governments to source the supply of products and services that are environmentally friendly to counter the global problem of climate change. The study commences with the exposition of the aspects of green procurement from the basis of the enabling legal framework to the scholarly contribution from which the study can be predicated. It becomes apparent from this review of legislation that there is a scope within the existing body of legislation for the use of green procurement as an environmental tool. Scholarly work addresses adoption of green procurement and considers, inter alia, the Bottom-up Approach, the Top-down Approach, and the Procura + Milestones model. Literature indicates that development has a negative impact on the environment, which includes vegetation loss, illegal dumping, and greenhouse gas emissions. Further, the literature recommends green lifecycle design and production of construction projects to reduce the impact of construction on the environment. A systematic investigation of municipalities by means of interviews with relevant municipal officials involved with the procurement of products and services, infrastructure services and environmental affairs officials made it possible to identify factors that impact on the implementation of green procurement. The investigation finds that the major obstacles to green procurement are socio-economic challenges that confront municipalities, lack of policy, and lack of awareness. Recommendations include the proposal of initiatives that encourage and improve the implementation of green procurement. The study hopes to inspire innovation in the implementation of green procurement in the construction sector.

The Earth's health is deteriorating and will deteriorate even more rapidly unless people adopt eco-friendly policies. Green building has long been a concept but it has not yet been universally applied in practice. The concept of sustainability emerged in the 1970s and can be associated with the energy crisis and environmental pollution concerns. This research is aimed at investigating whether building “green” is more demanding than non-green buildings in terms of cost and the use of green materials against traditional materials; whether professionals in the construction industry are knowledgeable in terms of green buildings; and lastly, to determine whether green buildings are contributing significantly to the environment. The literature reviewed and results of quantitative research amongst professionals from the Island of Mauritius formed the basis of the study. The study revealed that green building is expensive relative to traditional buildings considering. However, the concepts employed (for example: lower energy use, less waste disposal, lower water usage, and sustainable design) provide green buildings with long term savings. Furthermore, the scarcity of natural materials makes it expensive. The study also showed that contractors and professionals have a preference for traditional materials over green materials thus making them more familiar with traditional materials. Contractors and professionals are believed to understand green materials only on a limited basis. This may be attributed to the specific environmental issues involved; however, the research revealed that the professionals are familiar with the basic concepts of green buildings. Lastly, the research showed that green building is still at its infancy but the benefits of green buildings are understood; resulting in green buildings having a good growth potential. The study should be valuable to construction industry professional and clients.

The construction industry in Malawi plays a vital role in developing the infrastructure of the country that is in need of improvement. Thus, in order to improve the quality of infrastructure in Malawi, the construction industry has to perform better than the status quo. The construction industry is characterised by a complex value chain that comprises of clients, consultants, contractors, and material manufacturers, suppliers, financing institutions, knowledge organisations and regulatory authority. This research looks at the relationship between construction value and project success in the Malawian construction industry. A qualitative research method was used for compiling the primary data for the study. Twenty-nine (29) participants were interviewed. These participants represented clients, consultants, contractors and material suppliers. The findings reveal that value creation in Malawi is characterised by lack of harmonised standards and specifications, inconsistent project management practices, existence of non-value adding activities, corrupt practices, lack of a skilled labour force, and lack of commitment to best practices in H&S as well as environmental management. Further, logistical problems affect the supply of construction materials to the country; while an unfavourable economic environment makes pricing of materials a challenge in the country too. Poor communication and limited use of information technology (IT) is very common in the industry and project implementation is also affected by a poor road network, an intermittent power supply, and a lack of cooperation from other service providers. In terms of supply chain structures in use, the research revealed that the traditional procurement method that is based on the lowest bidder / price is the most dominant method in use and very few members of the construction industry are conversant with other procurement methods. The method is also the preferred procurement method used by public sector clients. The performance of the traditional procurement method largely depends on the competence of the project design and supervision team, the adequacy of the documentation, and the capacity of the contractor. However, in most cases the system has failed to perform due to the poor contract management skills of the supervising consultant and the lack of timely guidance from the public sector clients. The findings also revealed that most of the suppliers or subcontractors are engaged on project based relationships, and members of the industry are unwilling to engage in long terms relationships due to mistrust and greed among members of the industry, and also largely due to lack of proper frameworks that can support such relationships. It is therefore recommended that other procurement methods should be explored and the engagement of the lowest price bidders should be discontinued on small and medium scale projects. The criteria for upgrading contractors to higher categories should equally be revisited to eliminate incompetent contractors. The NCIC should take a leading role in harmonising the various standards and specifications in use in the country. Promotion of the usage IT services should be encouraged to facilitate faster information dissemination. Usage of risk management in construction and evaluation and monitoring of projects should be encouraged and benchmark best practices. Finally, the members of the industry should take up the responsibility to take leading entities in the industry to task, if fundamental changes are to take place in the industry.

Targeted Procurement strategies are widely used in government contracts to achieve contractor performance and development objectives in the South African construction industry. However, there have been reports of poor performance and high attrition rate of contractors in contractor development programmes. There is little or no objective empirical evidence informing the implementation of SMC-friendly policies in South Africa. The study fundamentally set out to empirically validate the pre-existing assumption that targeting small and medium-sized contractors, and increasing their participation in government contracts stimulates their growth performance and development. The research further examines whether the quality of relationships in the project supply chain mediates the relationship between targeted procurement strategies used and contractor development. An embedded mixed methods research approach was adopted, that primarily employed quantitative (survey) means of data collection, and supported by secondary qualitative data (focus group interview) which was conducted concurrently. A sample size of 307 contractors registered on Grades 3 to 6 of the Construction Industry Development Board (cidb) Register of Contractors that have executed targeted procurement projects and been part of a cidb-registered contractor development programme within a five-year period (2011 – 2015) constituted the focus of the research. Data collected was subjected to both descriptive and inferential statistical analyses. The empirical model developed was validated using partial least squares structural equation modelling (PLS-SEM) technique. Findings from the study reveal that Targeted Procurement strategies influences the quality of relationships in the project supply chain, and is a statistically significant predictor of the growth performance and development of targeted contractors. Moreover, relationship quality emerged to be an important mediator of the relationship between Targeted Procurement strategies and contractor development. These findings demonstrate that Targeted Procurement has the potential to achieve its intended results of improving the performance and development of historically disadvantaged contractors where the quality of relationships in the project supply chain has significant elements of trust, communication, collaboration, joint problem-solving and risk allocation. The study contributes to the existing body of knowledge recognizing the importance of social and relational dimensions of inter-firm relationships within the context of project management and particularly relating to public-sector procurement and small contractor development. The findings imply that the government as a key construction sector client should continue to invest in Targeted Procurement or affirmative action policies that benefit historically disadvantaged SME contractors. The recommendations made calls for the establishment of a framework on Targeted Procurement for ease of application by the government and accountability. This also implies further research into more measurable criteria for the proposed Targeted Procurement framework. The policy implication of the findings from this study is the need for policymakers, state entities, and public-sector client departments to recognise their role in shaping construction supply chains. They should encourage the design and implementation of strategies and policies that enable adequate relationship management to be entrenched in the supply chain, and consider including relationship management as a relevant criterion for participating in public contracts.

This research investigates the interaction process between building clients and construction professionals. The context of the interaction is the first meeting between the parties to discuss a potential construction project. The objective of the research was to determine whether clients, with differing levels of construction experience, and construction professionals, from different disciplines (architects, quantity surveyors, consulting engineers and contractors), exhibit distinctive interaction characteristics, both in terms of how they interact and the subject matter of their interactions. In order to test a number of hypotheses about the interactions an experimental procedure was developed. This involved arranging a series of interviews between the different client types and the construction professionals. 44 interviews were conducted with each one being recorded and then transcribed. Additional data was collected in the form of participant questionnaires and personality tests. Transcripts were coded using systems developed for this investigation, using measures of nature of interaction and subject matter. Processing and analysis of the data was conducted using ethnographic computer software and programs written specifically for this research project. A database was created from the interview data which allows selective retrieval of segments of interviews. The database comprises of approximately 215,000 words, with 58,000 codes assigned to text segments. The results of the analysis are presented in both quantitative and qualitative forms, and show that there are significant differences in the interactions. In interviews between inexperienced clients and professionals the professionals make the greater contributions, dominating the clients. There is a reversal of the roles when experienced clients interact with professionals, with the clients assuming the dominant position. In addition the results show that in interviews between inexperienced clients and professionals, the four professional disciplines emphasis different factors. All professionals raise issues relating to primary factors such as time, cost and quality. However, the discussion of other building factors was more specific to a particular professional discipline. Finally, the research also concluded that the element of personality differences in interviews was an influential factor in determining whether their outcome was perceived as successful by the participants.