Building Information Modeling Design Research Articles

Automated BIM-based process for wind engineering design collaboration

Building information modeling (BIM) can be considered a collaborative design process that allows all project stakeholders in different disciplines to contribute during the design phase of a construction project. However, interoperability issues between wind, structural engineering tools, and BIM design authoring software platforms have acted as a barrier to such collaborative design processes. This research pursued an evaluation-based approach to propose and develop a workflow for resolving the interoperability issues as well as automating significant parts of the collaborative design process. In this paper, the development of an automated modelling system to facilitate integrated structural design and wind engineering analysis using BIM is presented. The research was focused on pre-engineered building (PEB) as a case study. This research introduces some novel BIM concepts to facilitate the implementation of automation in the model development processes. These concepts facilitate engineering analysis integration and overcome challenges associated with creating and working with different level of development (LOD) models. The proposed system uses a central element level database and outputs a 3D model of the building and the computational domain for use by the computational fluid dynamics software. A BIM-based application program interface (API) and stand-alone software was developed to evaluate the proposed concepts and process and their feasibility. The results suggest a successful integration that could significantly improve the building design quality and further facilitate wind, or other, engineering design collaborations. It is also observed that the resulting process could be applied (extended) to the general architecture, engineering, and construction (AEC) industry.

BIM log mining: Exploring design productivity characteristics

Abstract A clustering-based building information modeling (BIM) log mining method is developed in this research to provide a data-driven knowledge discovery about the design productivity characteristics from a huge amount of BIM design log data. Since design behaviors are non-deterministic and subjective, a novel clustering algorithm named efficient fuzzy Kohonen clustering network (EFKCN) is utilized to produce informative clusters of different features. First, datasets are pulled out from the raw design logs and transformed into understandable forms for computers. Then, EFKCN clustering algorithm is performed in datasets at both individual and team level. Finally, analysis and prediction methods, like time analysis, regression and others, will further investigate the extracted clusters, which help managers to figure out the design preference and productivity of different designers. A case study is conducted in the real BIM design logs from an international architecture design firm with 853,520 records to illustrate the effectiveness of the proposed method. From a view of individuals, the personal design behaviors hidden in different clusters are served to arrange proper design work rationally during particular time periods. From a team perspective, the design productivity of different designers can be approximately evaluated as high, medium, and low levels in an objective and efficient manner. In the comparison of EFKCN with other popular clustering methods, EFKCN takes less time and iterations to complete the clustering process, and its clustering results achieve great compactness and separation according to the value of cluster validity indices (CVIs). Hence, this research contributes to performing the novel clustering-based BIM log mining, which acts as a powerful decision-making tool in evaluating design productivity and drawing up personalized work arrangements for a more efficient modeling process.

BIM Technologies In Building Construction Projects Management In Russia

The international experience of integrating building information modeling (BIM) into project management system with innovation implementation accent has been revealed in this article. The events carried out on federal and regional levels concerning the President of Russia directive on building construction industry modernization and construction objects transferring to life cycle management by means of BIM were analyzed. The large company experience of implementing BIM was summarized with describing some examples in different cities and regions of our country and thus the main directions of this technology development were determined. The key points of BIM and project management system pairing and impacting an innovation choice witch determine the project economic efficiency in the integrated management system were shown. The main reports of "Building construction projects technology and management: new practices and prospects" conference by Moscow Trade and Commerce Chamber were reviewed in this direction and problems of the new investment and construction project management technology implementation were shown. The ways to solve these problems were disclosed by work examples of PAO "Sberbank", and successfully working in our country firms Bilfinger Tebodin - BIM design and Beiten Burkhard -jurisdiction support. Some economic efficiency questions of BIM implementation were disclosed in the report delivered by The Plekhanov University of Economics (project and program management base department of Capital Group). Management system suggestions, regarding BIM implementation in Moscow construction were given.

Research on BIM Forward Design Based on Oblique Photogrammetry Reality Model

With the rapid development and steady advancement of Building Information Modeling (BIM) technology in China, traditional 2D Digital Line Graphic (DLG) data cannot visually display rich 3D spatial information, and it is difficult to meet the needs of BIM forward design. Aiming at the increasing demand for 3D spatial data in municipal project design, this paper proposes a forward design method based on oblique photogrammetry reality model. Firstly, the Quadric Error Metrics (QEM) algorithm is used to lighten the reality model. Secondly, the standard model library of municipal facilities is built in CATIA, and the lightweight reality model is integrated into CATIA for fine restoration. The refined reality model can provide BIM designers with reference to features, geomorphology, etc., avoiding unreasonable spatial planning, no external reference to model monomers, and missing model space location information. It is convenient for designers to design, display, compare and modify the scheme in the same platform to improve the efficiency of BIM design. Change the delivery form of traditional surveying and mapping data results, and encourage designers to use BIM technology for forward design from surveying and mapping, and accelerate the popularization and promotion of BIM technology in the whole life cycle of the construction industry.

APLICAÇÕES DE BIM E DESIGN PARAMÉTRICO PARA EFICIÊNCIA ENERGÉTICA DAS EDIFICAÇÕES: UMA ANÁLISE DE APLICAÇÕES PRÁTICAS

The buildings’ sector accounts for a large share of energy consumption on a global scale. This scenario generates the need to design and construct more efficient buildings and also requires new policies and incentives. The greatest opportunities for integrating energy efficiency strategies in construction occur at the design stage, in which decisions that will have significant impacts on the building’s life cycle are taken. Therefore, the use of Building Information Modeling (BIM) is considered, as well as parametric design: new design technologies that allow the analysis of multiple scenarios to support the decisions during the design stage. The purpose of this study is to provide, through a literature analysis, an overview about practical applications of BIM and parametric design for buildings’ energy efficiency in a recent research scenario. Studies were categorized according to their main approach and the main software used. In addition, benefits provided by the use of the technologies adopted were highlighted. Keywords: BIM, parametric design, energy efficiency.

BIM‐Based Digital Fabrication Process for a Free‐Form Building Project in South Korea

Since the concept of building information modeling (BIM) was introduced in South Korea in 2008, digital fabrication concerning free‐form shapes and complex parametric information has been expanding owing to the development of BIM software and tools. However, the digital fabrication process is inadequate in terms of efficiency and productivity because of the need to convert from conventional two‐dimensional (2D) drawings to a BIM design; this adversely affects the unified design, fabrication, installation, and inspection processes. Moreover, an optimized process has not been developed thus far because the productivity of digital fabrication has not been quantitatively verified for various projects in the field. This study proposes a BIM‐based digital fabrication process for prefabricated parts of buildings. In addition, a productivity analysis method based on the queuing model is proposed using personnel input and performance calculation data to verify productivity. It is expected that the digital fabrication process and productivity analysis model proposed here will be applied to complex digital fabrication works.

Building information modelling design and analysis of glass structures

The present article describes the importance of analysing, designing and maintenance of glass structures. Building Information Modelling is a work method that covers the entire lifecycle of a building by centralizing all the information inside a unique 3D model. Glass structures are a special case where precision and proper maintenance are vital for ensuring safe and economic exploitation. The article also illustrates a practical example of designing and maintaining a glass structure using different software solutions available on the market.

A cost-plus estimating framework for BIM related design and engineering services

More than ten years have passed since Building Information Modeling (BIM) was introduced in Korea, but the industry lacks established approaches to assist firms in estimating the costs of providing additional BIM services in the design phases of a project. The deficiency also inhibits government agencies to allocate discrete and reasonable budgets when requesting BIM related services. This research focuses on the Architecture and Engineering (AE) industry and provides a framework to estimate costs for BIM design services based on the cost-plus pricing approach. The framework utilizes cost data from 54 projects to estimate average man-hours, and ‘man-hour coefficients’ for standard and non-standard work items. The man-hours can further be broken down to different design phases, disciplines and at different levels of development. The framework was implemented in an Excel-based system, which allows users to produce estimates for 11 different building project types, while providing flexibility in selecting preferred BIM services. Validation showed that the system produces accurate estimates for specific projects with customized requirements. By providing an objective approach for estimating the costs of BIM services, it allows clients and AE firms to agree upon a fair cost, and thus expedite its adoption in Korea.

Use of LoD Decision Plan in BIM-projects

Building Information Modelling (BIM) is new to many companies, and the implementation is consequently challenging. Challenges include unstructured processes that often leads to time and cost overruns. This study assesses how the creative design processes can be scheduled in projects using BIM tools. More specifically, it seeks methods that assures a proper schedule by decision planning. One of the decision tools studied uses the theoretical concept of Level of Development (LoD) to structure design processes.This paper is based upon a literature review followed by four case studies. The cases, which are all using BIM, are studied through interviews and document studies of execution plans, decision plans and BIM-manuals. Three general interviews and twelve semi-structured interviews were conducted with key personnel from owners, contractors and consultants.The study reveals that decision plans are seldom used in the design process and decisions about design elements are seldom formally locked during the process. This demands much from the design manager who has to point out the critical path to assure keeping schedule. It also reveals that several models are delivered with a higher or lower LoD-level than necessary. This can lead to a high number of change orders.The paper concludes with a conceptual model of a LoD decision plan. Furthermore, the findings show that such a LoD decision plan can help owners, designers and contractors to communicate decisions in a timely manner and control the design process. In the long run, the conceptual model facilitates for knowledge transfer from one project to another.It is not common to use LoD decision plan in Norwegian BIM-projects. This conceptual model can be of use for companies who want better control over their BIM design processes.

Analysis of Risk in Building Life Cycle Coupling BIM-based Energy Simulation and Semantic Modeling

Building Information Modeling (BIM) is being increasingly accepted by the building industry as an innovative method for integrating many different data related to a building. Part of this data concerns performance metrics expressed among others in terms of cost, energy consumption or system reliability. Such performance values are the focus of project stakeholders who try to optimize them already in building design phase. These values are computed by simulation software that reuses a subpart of the BIM data as input. This provides a better view of building performances but less on threats and underperformances in the building life cycle. Moreover, despite the existence of different risk analysis methods, these are still quite difficult to integrate into a BIM design process. This research aims at closing this gap by first, integrating risk information as well as related uncertainty sources into the BIM process. Second, a method is developed for simulating uncertainty and computing risk metrics. Finally, the evaluation of risk levels is supported by the use of semantic web technologies through a risk ontology.

BIM Open Source Software (OSS) for the documentation of cultural heritage

<p class="VARAbstract">The Building Information Modelling (BIM) software enables the users to communicate and design, understand appearance, performance and cost in the spatial and urban design process. Another important use of the BIM technology is the documentation and 3D reconstruction of cultural heritage monuments. The appropriate BIM software equips the users with tools to easily capture and analyse concepts and maintain the coordination of design data through documentation and 3D modelling. Many developments come up in the BIM field and software industry for design, construction-reconstruction, restoration and management of the cultural heritage 3D models, using BIM tools; mainly commercial as well as free or open source. Nevertheless, recently the growing popularity of open source has altered the landscape in software industry, as they attract many users.</p><p class="VARAbstract">This paper presents a review of some recent research on the topic. We review the recent developments focusing on the OSS that can be used at various stages of BIM process in the digital documentation of cultural heritage. The results show that there is more preference in the commercial software due to the fact that the OSS is not yet complete and covers all stages of the BIM process. However, lately we have the Edificius in architectural BIM design and “BIM Vision” as Industry Foundation Classes (IFC) model viewer that try to attract as many users as possible. These tools are free and they could well be used for the digital reconstruction of cultural heritage.</p>

BIM DESIGN FLOW FOR CONSTRUCTION SITE

Construction site planning is an important task in a design team whereas a proper design of construction activities has a great influence in time and cost saving as well as in workers’ safety. Designers need to focus on site planning since the preliminary phase of building design in order to point out construction criticalities of the project that can affect execution phase. On the contrary, a scarce attention to operational issues during design phase is detectable in industry. Despite of the rapid diffusion of Building Information Modeling (BIM), a lack of BIM tools specifically studied for site design is detectable. Then the purpose of this paper is to describe a workflow developed with the aim to integrate site planning in a BIM design process, gaining thus operational advantages. The development of the workflow follows designers’ needs collected through the active participation of the authors in several design teams. A strong coordination and information sharing with other disciplines is the main task of the workflow, so that design choices can take into consideration operational issues as well. In order to simplify and accelerate the tasks of the site designer, the system is based on the use of some tools (such as databases of construction site elements and automatic checking tools), specifically developed for the purpose. The satisfaction of the designers involved demonstrates the efficiency of the system, in particular concerning the decrease of design time and the assistance of design choices thanks to operational information management.

An Analysis of BIM Web Service Requirements and Design to Support Energy Efficient Building Lifecycle

Energy Efficient Building (EEB) design, construction, and operations require the development and sharing of building information among different individuals, organizations, and computer applications. The Representational State Transfer (RESTful) Building Information Modeling (BIM) web service is a solution to enable an effective exchange of data. This paper presents an investigation into the core RESTful web service requirements needed to effectively support the EEB project lifecycle. The requirements include information exchange requirements, distributed collaboration requirements, internal data storage requirements, and partial model query requirements. We also propose a RESTful web service design model on different abstraction layers to enhance the BIM lifecycle in energy efficient building design. We have implemented a RESTful Application Program Interface (API) prototype on a mock BIMserver to demonstrate our idea. We evaluate our design by conducting a user study based on the Technology Acceptance Model (TAM). The results show that our design can enhance the efficiency of data exchange in EEB design scenarios.

Ontology-based semantic approach for construction-oriented quantity take-off from BIM models in the light-frame building industry

In building information modeling (BIM), the model is a digital representation of physical and functional characteristics of a facility and contains enriched product information pertaining to the facility. This information is generally embedded into the BIM model as properties for parametric building objects, and is exchangeable among project stakeholders and BIM design programs – a key feature of BIM for enhancing communication and work efficiency. However, BIM itself is a purpose-built, product-centric information database and lacks domain semantics such that extracting construction-oriented quantity take-off information for the purpose of construction workface planning still remains a challenge. Moreover, some information crucial to construction practitioners, such as the topological relationships among building objects, remains implicit in the BIM design model. This restricts information extraction from the BIM model for downstream analyses in construction. To address identified limitations, this study proposes an ontology-based semantic approach to extracting construction-oriented quantity take-off information from a BIM design model. This approach allows users to semantically query the BIM design model using a domain vocabulary, capitalizing on building product ontology formalized from construction perspectives. As such, quantity take-off information relevant to construction practitioners can be readily extracted and visualized in 3D in order to serve application needs in the construction field. A prototype application is implemented in Autodesk Revit to demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed new approach in the domain of light-frame building construction.

Near-Miss Information Visualization Tool in BIM for Construction Safety

AbstractAlthough the number of fatalities experienced by the U.S. construction industry has been declining, the magnitude of the decrease has stagnated in recent years. Several improvements have been realized in visualizing construction-project information through building information modeling (BIM). One improvement in construction safety can be found in the collection, analysis, and visualization of safety-leading indicator data including near-miss events. Furthermore, the visualization of reported near misses can assist safety managers to identify high-frequency and high-severity events within a construction site for mitigation or hazard removal techniques. The objective of this research is to provide a framework for near-miss data collection and visualization within a BIM platform. A near-miss database was created in a commercially available BIM design software to allow construction-site personnel to report near misses and visualize within an existing BIM. Algorithms were created to enable filtering fo...

Green Template for Life Cycle Assessment of Buildings Based on Building Information Modeling: Focus on Embodied Environmental Impact

The increased popularity of building information modeling (BIM) for application in the construction of eco-friendly green buildings has given rise to techniques for evaluating green buildings constructed using BIM features. Existing BIM-based green building evaluation techniques mostly rely on externally provided evaluation tools, which pose problems associated with interoperability, including a lack of data compatibility and the amount of time required for format conversion. To overcome these problems, this study sets out to develop a template (the “green template”) for evaluating the embodied environmental impact of using a BIM design tool as part of BIM-based building life-cycle assessment (LCA) technology development. Firstly, the BIM level of detail (LOD) was determined to evaluate the embodied environmental impact, and constructed a database of the impact factors of the embodied environmental impact of the major building materials, thereby adopting an LCA-based approach. The libraries of major building elements were developed by using the established databases and compiled evaluation table of the embodied environmental impact of the building materials. Finally, the green template was developed as an embodied environmental impact evaluation tool and a case study was performed to test its applicability. The results of the green template-based embodied environmental impact evaluation of a test building were validated against those of its actual quantity takeoff (2D takeoff), and its reliability was confirmed by an effective error rate of ≤5%. This study aims to develop a system for assessing the impact of the substances discharged from concrete production process on six environmental impact categories, i.e., global warming (GWP), acidification (AP), eutrophication (EP), abiotic depletion (ADP), ozone depletion (ODP), and photochemical oxidant creation (POCP), using the life a cycle assessment (LCA) method. To achieve this, we proposed an LCA method specifically applicable to concrete and tailored to the Korean concrete industry by adapting the ISO standards to suit the Korean situations.

The Application Evaluation of Autodesk Storm and Sanitary Analysis for the Low Impact Development Design in the Park Area

The impermeability layer has decreased the surface storage ability, groundwater level and the time of concentration, and increased the peak flow of storm water runoff and urban floods. Due to the fact that developing the drainage functions in urbanized areas requires a considerable amount of burden in public expenses, which in reality makes it difficult to proceed with, it is necessary to apply the Low Impact Development (LID) concept and transform the drainage-oriented water management to water use and environment- friendly management. As the direction of recent design methods has been shifted to BIM (Building Information Modeling) and GIS (Geographic Information System), it is expected that the LID design will also be shifted to the same direction. Therefore, the related analytical solution is needed, and by using Autodesk® Storm and Sanitary Analysis (SSA) it will enable an interpretation of the city outflow and analysis by making connections with BIM and GIS, and this study’s analysis included making a connection with the runoff model of another city SWMM. This study helped to minimize data loss and rework the process of constructing the network data using the BIM design method and the public GIS followed by the analytical work, and to quickly construct the current network writing by utilizing the public GIS.

A Case Study on BIM-enabled Evaluation of Design Alternatives for an Actual Remodeling Project in Korea - Focusing on the Spatial Program Review in Early Phase of Design -

This paper depicts a case study of the BIM (Building Information Modeling)-enabled evaluation of design alternatives for an actual remodeling project in Yeongwol, Korea. The increase of urban population and income followed by the growth of economy has derived massive supply of grand scale housing project in Korea since 1970s. Consequently, building remodeling became one of the feasible resolutions for renovating such old housings in these days. This paper aims to introduce a technical approach to such remodeling projects based on BIM-enabled applications focusing on quantitative analysis of design alternatives. Among the technical issues of such building remodeling projects, this paper focuses on the BIM-enabled area analysis and comparison between design alternatives to support decision-making even in early phase of remodeling design process. BIM and its variety of applications have broadly influenced the domain of AEC-FM (Architecture, Engineering, Construction, and Facility Management) within the lifecycle of buildings. As one of the applications facilitated by BIM, the automated area calculation and scenario-based comparison between alternatives can play an important role in the early phase of remodeling project. We modeled three design alternatives (buildings) and three housing modules (units) based on the actual case in Yeongwol city, Korea using a BIM design authoring tool. Nine combinatorial BIM models were demonstrated for the BIM-enabled review process described in this paper. To determine the most optimal design scenario among nine alternatives, this paper demonstrates a result of the conducted spatial program review. The main subject includes specific spatial program issues on; 1) the number of unit spaces; and 2) area of individual/grouped and private/shared spaces.

Analysis of critical features and evaluation of BIM software: towards a plug-in for construction waste minimization using big data

The overall aim of this study is to investigate the potential of Building Information Modelling (BIM) for construction waste minimization. We evaluated the leading BIM design software products and concluded that none of them currently support construction waste minimization. This motivates the development of a plug-in for predicting and minimizing construction waste. After a rigorous literature review and conducting four focused group interviews (FGIs), 12 imperative BIM factors were identified that should be considered for predicting and designing out construction waste. These factors were categorized into four layers, namely the BIM core features layer, the BIM auxiliary features layer, the waste management criteria layer, and the application layer. Further, a process to carry out BIM-enabled building waste analysis (BWA) is proposed. We have also investigated the usage of big data technologies in the context of waste minimization. We highlight that big data technologies are inherently suitable for BIM due to their support of storing and processing large datasets. In particular, the use of graph-based representation, analysis, and visualization can be employed for advancing the state of the art in BIM technology for construction waste minimization.

Effective digital collaboration in the construction industry – A case study of BIM deployment in a hospital construction project

Building information modeling (BIM) and related digital innovations can serve as a catalyst for more transparency, tighter integration, and increased productivity in the architecture, engineering, and construction industry. Yet, many project teams struggle with how to work based on the new technology. Collaborative design based on shared information systems like BIM requires changing traditional and institutionalized work practices and routines. A case study of integrated BIM design in a large healthcare construction project serves as an example for how commonly experienced challenges can be overcome. The project has been awarded BuildingSMART's 2015 award for ‘outstanding open BIM practice’ making it Norway's role model for BIM practice. Based on diffusion of innovations theory, we identified the following set of key factors enabling digital collaboration in this project: change agents, new roles and responsibilities, a cloud computing infrastructure, BIM contracts, and a BIM learning environment. The findings presented in this article may serve as an example for BIM implementation and collaborative work in construction projects.