Interaction between BIM and FE models in structural health monitoring

Abstract

Building Information Modeling (BIM) is already widely used in civil engineering projects. Digital building models that contain geometric as well as semantic information are usually generated and could be then managed throughout a structural service life. A BIM model could generally serve as a primary source of any required information on a building, including the finite element (FE) models or monitoring systems as well. The interaction between BIM and FE models is of great importance for structural engineering as it helps increase productivity and minimize mistakes due to human factors. Moreover, with the help of structural health monitoring (SHM), it should be possible to update BIM and FE models to the current state of the structure and to maintain the remaining service life. Obviously, FE models of different complexity and element dimensionality are required for the same structure in view of various structural or material limit states considered during the structural design phase and the service life as well. The present contribution describes the development of an approach that allows FE models of different complexity to be consistently extracted from the same BIM model. It focuses on the openBIM technology incorporating the Industry Foundation Classes (IFC) format. The corresponding IFC file is enriched with FEM and SHM relevant information, for example, FE size and dimensionality as well as positions and conditions of the sensors. Using such information in the BIM model, the FE model for ANSYS APDL can be consistently created. The simulation or monitoring results can be subsequently introduced back into the original BIM model, thus describing the actual structural state. The approach will be illustrated by an example of a laboratory structure.