Abstract
This study demonstrates the research and development of a visualization method called thermal performance simulation. The objective of this study is providing the results of thermal performance simulation results into building information modeling (BIM) models, displaying a series of thermal performance results, and enabling stakeholders to use the BIM tool as a common user interface in the early design stage. This method utilizes a combination of object-oriented physical modeling (OOPM) and BIM. To implement the suggested method, a specific BIM authoring tool called the application programming interface (API) was adopted, as well as an external database to maintain the thermal energy performance results from the OOPM tool. Based on this method, this study created a prototype called the thermal energy performance visualization (TEPV). The TEPV translates the information from the external database to the thermal energy performance indicator (TEPI) parameter in the BIM tool. In the TEPI, whenever BIM models are generated for building design, the thermal energy performance results are visualized by color-coding the building components in the BIM models. Visualization of thermal energy performance results enables non-engineers such as architects to explicitly inspect the simulation results. Moreover, the TEPV facilitates architects using BIM as an interface in building design to visualize building thermal energy performance, enhancing their design production at the early design stages.
Highlights
A lack of information needed to visualize building energy simulation results prevents the efficient use of such results in developing schematic designs in the early design stages
In order to improve information visualization, we investigated a platform for depicting building energy performance, focusing on thermal energy performance in building information modeling (BIM)
We first created a BIM model of Building Energy Simulation Test (BESTEST) Case 600 [9] to experiment with our method and develop a case study
Summary
A lack of information needed to visualize building energy simulation results prevents the efficient use of such results in developing schematic designs in the early design stages. The research objectives in developing this platform includes (1) providing the results of thermal energy performance through the TEPI parameter in BIM models, (2) displaying a series of thermal energy performance results as color-coding building components, and (3) enabling stakeholders in the early design stages to use the BIM tool as a common user interface when developing architectural models and thermal energy performance visualizations. Our study is significant in that we demonstrate a new method for associating the representation of thermal energy performance obtained from an OOPM−BEPS with color-coded building components in BIM. This approach is distinctly different from other building performance representations and other. The terms “building information modeling” and “building information models” may both the abbreviated as BIM and used in different contexts
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