The reduction in on-site construction work has many benefits with respect to time, quality, productivity, safety, cost and environmental impact, and can be achieved through off-site manufacturing of building components. Such building components range from linear, planar or volumetric in form and once manufactured are transported to site for assembly. This method of prefabricated or modularized construction enables the use of automated systems in construction which further maximizes benefits and falls in line with the goals of industry 4.0 initiative.
The use of linear (beams, columns, ties, etc.) and/or planar (trusses, slabs, panels, etc.) prefabricated components for mid- to high-rise construction has been in practice for quite a while with examples such as the T30 hotel building in Changsha, China (2012) and the World Trade Centre Twin Towers in New York, USA (1973). However, the use of volumetric building units is a relatively new form of construction and there has seen much development in the past few years for application to mid- to high-rise buildings. Examples for such forms include the LaTrobe Tower in Melbourne, Australia (2016) and the Apex House building in London, UK (2017). This form of construction is also commonly referred to as modular building construction.
Although these examples exist, none avert the reliance on conventionally-built support structures to provide lateral strength, stiffness and overall stability. Therefore, none can be called a complete modular building system, where on-site work is reduced simply to foundation, module assembly and module-to-module interface finishing/treatment as required. This setback is primarily due to the difficulties in achieving efficient lateral load resistance and the incapability to provide high-performance inter-module connectivity.
Volumetric building units or modules, are the result of spatial modularization of buildings. The modules require to have a self-stable structural system and can either be bear with the structural system alone or be fully complete (finishing, fitting and furnishing included). These modules typically transfer vertical loads via continuous bearing onto each other through braced stud walls or via selective placement of columns. The transfer of lateral loads, on the other hand, inevitably requires the use of bracings or the reliance on diaphragm action for economical designs using a strategically placed lateral force resisting system. Much of achieving continuous transfer of these loads depends on the vertical and horizontal inter-connectivity between modules. Hence, this research attempts to solve the issue by developing robust high-performance inter-connectivity of the modules, thereby, achieving efficient overall vertical and lateral load resistance.