BIM Data Exchange Standard for Hydro-Supported Structures

Abstract

With the rapid adoption of building information modeling (BIM) across diverse industries, the need for a universal standard for BIM data exchanges has become critical for the success of BIM applications. Questions of the level of development and interoperability of BIM as methods to exchange data and integrate various model-based applications into an efficient work process have come to the forefront of BIM standardization to improve the design and construction of facilities. Current BIM software authoring tools center on conventional structural systems and are not yet adequate for modeling floating structures. Hydro-supported structures comprise a special type of structure that relies primarily on the hydraulic buoyancy of the supporting water body to maintain equilibrium and safety. It is an area that is increasingly drawing the attention of architects and engineers to resolve many issues in coastal areas and to deal with issues related to increased flooding and tropical storms, such as shoreline stabilization, hurricane response, alternative energy, and rainwater collection and utilization. The study centers on expanding BIM standardization for designing and analyzing floating and amphibious structures. It seeks to address the information delivery manual (IDM) and model view definitions (MVDs) as they provide the basis for data exchange specifications for the industry foundation classes (IFC) schema. This research aims to enable a proficient BIM workflow for designing hydro-supported structures characterized by the coherent, organized, and reproducible exchange of consistent data that is commonly recognized across the architecture, engineering, and construction (AEC) industry.