Abstract
Building information modelling (BIM) is the first step towards the implementation of the industrial revolution 4.0, in which virtual reality and digital twins are key elements. At present, buildings are responsible for 40% of the energy consumption in Europe and, so, there is a growing interest in reducing their energy use. In this context, proper interoperability between BIM and building energy model (BEM) is paramount for integrating the digital world into the construction sector and, therefore, increasing competitiveness by saving costs. This paper evaluates whether there is an automated or semi-automated BIM to BEM workflow that could improve the building design process. For this purpose, a residential building and a warehouse are constructed using the same BIM authoring tool (Revit), where two open schemas were used: green building extensible markup language (gbXML) and industry foundation classes (IFC). These transfer files were imported into software compatible with the EnergyPlus engine—Design Builder, Open Studio, and CYPETHERM HE—in which simulations were performed. Our results showed that the energy models were built up to 7.50% smaller than in the BIM and with missing elements in their thermal envelope. Nevertheless, the materials were properly transferred to gbXML and IFC formats. Moreover, the simulation results revealed a huge difference in values between the models generated by the open schemas, in the range of 6 to 900 times. Overall, we conclude that there exists a semi-automated workflow from BIM to BEM which does not work well for big and complex buildings, as they present major problems when creating the energy model. Furthermore, most of the issues encountered in BEM were errors in the transfer of BIM data to gbXML and IFC files. Therefore, we emphasise the need to improve compatibility between BIM and model exchange formats by their developers, in order to promote BIM–BEM interoperability.
Highlights
The challenge of designing a high-performance building demands better data exchange between the building information modelling (BIM) and building energy model (BEM)
After analyzing the import of the green building extensible markup language (gbXML) and industry foundation classes (IFC) files of the residential building and the warehouse into BEM software, all the models were simulated with the aim of assessing whether the energy results would differ, with respect to the BEM software used
Its gbXML and IFC files were imported in BEM tools without any problem; the model was not constructed properly
Summary
The challenge of designing a high-performance building demands better data exchange between the building information modelling (BIM) and building energy model (BEM). Directive (EPBD) [2,3], which is the leading legislative and policy instrument This directive focuses on the building sector (i.e., new and existing constructions) and determines that the existing ones must be nearly zero energy buildings (NZEBs) by 2050 [4]. The NZEB standard is valuable for the environment, as well as for the end-users of the building, as energy savings reduce costs [5]. In this framework, there has been a growing interest in energy modelling studies, in order to understand how to optimise energy consumption in buildings [6]
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