Building Information Modeling Information Research Articles

BIM in facilities management applications: a case study of a large university complex

Purpose– Building information modelling (BIM) in facilities management (FM) applications is an emerging area of research based on the theoretical proposition that BIM information, generated and captured during the lifecycle of a facility, can improve its management. Using this proposition as a starting point, the purpose of this paper is to investigate the value of BIM and the challenges affecting its adoption in FM applications.Design/methodology/approach– Two inter-related research methods are utilised. The literature is utilised to identify the application areas, value and challenges of BIM in FM. Due to the lack of case studies identified in the literature review, and to provide empirical evidence of the value and challenges of BIM in FM, a case study of Northumbria University’s city campus, is used to empirically explore the value and challenges of BIM in FM.Findings– The results demonstrated that BIM value in FM stems from improvement to current manual processes of information handover; improvement to the accuracy of FM data, improvement to the accessibility of FM data and efficiency increase in work order execution. The main challenges were the lack of methodologies that demonstrate the tangible benefits of BIM in FM, the limited knowledge of implementation requirement including BIM for FM modelling requirements, the interoperability between BIM and FM technologies, the presence of disparate operational systems managing the same building and finally, the shortage of BIM skills in the FM industry.Originality/value– There is lack of real-life cases on BIM in FM especially for existing assets despite new constructions representing only 1-2 per cent of the total building stock in a typical year. The originality of this paper stems from both adding a real-life case study of BIM in FM and providing empirical evidence of both the value and challenges of BIM in FM applications.

BIM정보프레임워크 기반의 속성체계 표준화에 관한 기초연구

One of the benefits according to BIM(Building Information Modeling) application is that a single BIM data could be performed in various construction stages to maximize work efficiency. However, currently BIM data is generated and used for only one task. Therefore, architects should make each different types of BIM data in a same project. These individually different types of BIM data becomes an obstacle for its sharing and communicating among projects or cooperators. Eventually, it causes misunderstanding that BIM increases workload and it is too complicate to apply, so that proliferation of BIM has been delayed to the whole construction industry. In order to overcome these situations, common guideline and BIM standard that every main agents could share and utilize are needed among each stages or each disciplines. Based on these criteria, BIM library contents which have common properties should be developed to share standard and data. For this, property system standardization has to be preceded. This study suggests data schema for standardized BIM library property system based on BIM information framework and the schema provides not only common data implementation environment but also maximization of BIM efficiency through utilization of this standardized property system.

Construction-Centric Building Information Modelling to Facilitate Building Panel Prefabrication

Building information modelling (BIM) is an information technology that has the ability to change the Architecture, Engineering, and Construction (AEC) industry in terms of enhanced communication and productivity. With the rise of BIM, panelized/off-site construction is gaining momentum within the home building industry. However, BIM has not yet been leveraged to its full capability with regard to construction prefabrication, due in part to the fact that BIM models are only roughly designed by architects and engineers. Furthermore, some construction-centric information, such as drywall and sheathing layouts, which require substantial manual modelling efforts, is not presented explicitly in the BIM model. In this regard, this research exploits a BIMbased automatic approach for designing and modelling drywall and sheathing layouts in order to facilitate building panel production in the prefabrication plant. The prototype system is built on the basis of Autodesk Revit through the use of Application Programming Interface (API). This system, taking architectural BIM information as the input, generates a detailed constructioncentric BIM model in accordance with construction specifications, and further enables users to obtain shop drawings and a thorough quantity take-off and cut list in order to manage the plant production. In addition, the prototype system is capable of optimizing drywall and sheathing layout design with the objective of minimizing material waste and joint length. A case study of a wood-framed residential building is adopted to demonstrate the developed prototype system.

Extending BIM interoperability to preconstruction operations using geospatial analyses and semantic web services

Since the early 2000s, building information modeling (BIM) has been used through the entire project life cycle to facilitate effective project collaboration and integration of data to support project activities. Despite the successful applications of BIM in the design and construction stages, the use of BIM for preconstruction planning has not gained wide acceptance as in other project phases. The integration of BIM and geospatial analyses can offer substantial benefits to manage the planning process during the design and preconstruction stages. However, this integration suffers from a lack of interoperability across the geospatial and BIM domains. Semantic web technology is used in this study to convey meaning, which is interpretable by both construction project participants as well as BIM and geographic information systems (GIS) applications processing the transferred data. To achieve this, we first translate building's elements and GIS data into a semantic web data format. Then we use a set of standardized ontologies for construction operations to integrate and query the heterogeneous spatial and temporal data. Finally, we use a query language to access and acquire the data in semantic web format. Through two scenario examples, the potential usefulness of the proposed methodology is validated.

The challenges and potentials of utilizing building information modelling in facility management: the case of the Center for Properties and Facilities of the University of Helsinki

Despite the promise of using building information modelling (BIM) during the whole life cycle of a building, there are only few studies of the actual uses of BIM and other information systems in facility management. We contribute to the discussion by analysing the Center for Properties and Facilities of the University of Helsinki. We ask (1) what kind of information tools for facility management the maintenance personnel use; (2) how the design data was handed over in the University’s central library project; and (3) how designers and facility managers find the possibilities of integrating BIM models and maintenance information systems. In the library project, the data was handed over and archived for potential later use. The information for the maintenance manual, however, was collected separately by an outside consultant. The designers thought that models should be simplified to meet the needs of the maintenance. The representatives of the Center did not see that uses of BIM models would provide a significant added value in relation to the potential provided by the maintenance information systems already in use. They found as a possible next step the transfer of some information from BIM models to their facility management and maintenance systems. A partial, stepwise integration of the systems seems to be a realistic way forward.

Developing a physical BIM library for building thermal energy simulation

Insufficient interoperability resulting from complex data exchange between architectural design and building energy simulation prevents the efficient use of energy performance analyses in the early design stage. This paper presents the development of a Modelica library for Building Information Modeling (BIM)-based building energy simulation (ModelicaBIM library) using an Object-Oriented Physical Modeling (OOPM) approach and Modelica, an equation-based OOPM language. By using the ModelicaBIM library, our project investigates system interfaces between BIM and energy simulation, which can perform semi-automatic translation from the building models in BIM to building energy modeling (BEM) using a BIM's authoring tool's Application Programming Interface (API). The ModelicaBIM library consists of OOPM-based BIM classes and OOPM-based BIM structure. OOPM-based BIM classes represent building component information. OOPM-based BIM structure consists of test case models that demonstrate (i) how building information in BIM can be transformed to OOPM and (ii) how design operations in BIM, such as changing a building geometry and editing building components, can be translated into BEM. A case study for simulation result comparisons has been conducted using (i) OOPM-based BIM models in the ModelicaBIM library and (ii) LBNL Modelica Buildings library (a Modelica-based building thermal simulation library developed by Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory). Our implementation shows that the ModelicaBIM library enables (i) objects in BIM to be translated into the OOPM-based energy models and (ii) existing OOPM library to be utilized as a simulation solver for BIM-based energy simulation.

Application of Cloud Storage on BIM Life-Cycle Management

Because of its high information intensity, strong consistency and convenient visualization features, building information modelling (BIM) has received widespread attention in the fields of construction and project management. However, due to large amounts of information, high integration, the need for resource sharing between various departments, the long time-span of the BIM application, challenges relating to data interoperability, security and cost all slow down the adoption of BIM. This paper constructs a BIM cloud storage concept system using cloud storage, an advanced computer technology, to solve the problem of mass data processing, information security, and cost problems in the existing application of BIM to full life-cycle management. This system takes full advantage of the cloud storage technique. Achievements are reached in four areas of BIM information management, involving security and licensing management, file management, work process management and collaborative management. The system expands the time and space scales, improves the level of participation, and reduces the cost of BIM. The construction of the BIM cloud storage system is one of the most important directions of the development of BIM, which benefits the promotion and further development of BIM to better serve construction and engineering project management.

Building Information Modeling (BIM) for existing buildings — Literature review and future needs

Abstract While BIM processes are established for new buildings, the majority of existing buildings is not maintained, refurbished or deconstructed with BIM yet. Promising benefits of efficient resource management motivate research to overcome uncertainties of building condition and deficient documentation prevalent in existing buildings. Due to rapid developments in BIM research, involved stakeholders demand a state-of-the-art overview of BIM implementation and research in existing buildings. This paper presents a review of over 180 recent publications on the topic. Results show scarce BIM implementation in existing buildings yet, due to challenges of (1) high modeling/conversion effort from captured building data into semantic BIM objects, (2) updating of information in BIM and (3) handling of uncertain data, objects and relations in BIM occurring in existing buildings. Despite fast developments and spreading standards, challenging research opportunities arise from process automation and BIM adaption to existing buildings' requirements.

Management of Architectural Heritage Information in BIM and GIS: State-of-the-Art and Future Perspectives

Information management technology is widely used in a variety of fields and it proved its great potentials also for the Cultural Heritage (CH) sector. Considering the management of architectural heritage information, there exists a distinctive factor which does not exist in any other field: a multi-layered spatial character in the third (or even fourth) dimension. Moreover the semantical enrichment of three-dimensional (3D) digital models by integrating heterogeneous datasets has a crucial importance. Nevertheless, the organization and structuring of such information is considerably difficult although very useful for better conservation and management purposes. Accordingly, researchers have recently developed different techniques for the coherent and reliable management of information related to architectural heritage. The approaches so far developed have pros and cons since data processing and visualization is not a simple and straight-forward process. The paper presents a review of the current management approaches for architectural heritage information with Building Information Modeling (BIM) and Geographic Information Systems (GIS) tools, illustrating up-to-date approaches and describing possible future research directions.

Designing a Framework for Exchanging Partial Sets of BIM Information on a Cloud-Based Service

This paper reviews the rationale for using a partial data set in Building Information Modeling (BIM) exchanges, influenced by the recognized difficulty of exchanging data at element or object level which depends on the information requiring compatible hardware and software, in order for the data to be read and transferred freely between applications. The solution was not to introduce a new schema in contrast to the industry's existing open exchange model ‘Industry Foundation Classes' which has been in existence since the 1980's, but for the authors to re-engineer an existing Simplified Markup Language ‘BIM XML' into subsets via XML Style Sheet Transition. The language of XML was chosen because Web services, which are developed from XML data representation format and Hypertext Transfer Protocol (HTTP) communication protocol, are platform neutral, widely accepted and utilized and come with a wide range of useful technologies. Furthermore, they support Service Oriented Architecture (SOA) – the internet platform that enables interoperability between different software programs. The methodology involved developing a full hybrid research model based on mixed methods, ‘quantitative and qualitative', interlaced into two main phases. The first phase comprised of a main survey questionnaire, focus groups, two Delphi questionnaires, semi-structured interviews and a case study. The final phase, ‘product design and testing', used semantic methods and tools, such as Business Process Management Notation. The final case study (a prototype test) successfully itemized the potential of combining three applications asynchronously in real-time. The interoperable capabilities of Web services APIs for exchanging partial sets of BIM data enabled assumptions with a higher amount of detail to be reviewed at the feasibility design stage. Future services will be built upon existing Web Ontology languages such as SPARQL descriptions to be used in conjunction with several web services connecting together on a Cloud platform to produce a knowledge ‘Semantic Web'.

Interoperability Building Information Modeling and acoustical analysis software—A demonstration of a performance hall design process

By sharing and managing the database for a building model, Building Information Modeling (BIM) facilitates the design process at less cost. Some of BIM software has capabilities for acoustical analysis, but it is limited to noise level demonstration of MEP system in a building. Sophisticated acoustical analysis programs, such as EASE and CATT, provide the useful parameters to determine the sound quality of a space with graphs, A/V systems, material database, and auralization. This research explores how BIM with discipline-specific data reinforced with acoustical information will be beneficial to both architects and acousticians, by allowing them to communicate efficiently. The design process for a performance hall is used to demonstrate how to interoperate between BIM system and acoustical analysis programs. Revit Architecture and EASE program are used as design and analysis tools for for the project. A model is developed to improve the process of embedding acoustic information in BIM and sharing knowledge in an integrated delivery process.

초고층 건축물 전력관리 시스템에 BIM 적용을 위한 기초적 연구

This study aims to provide power monitoring system for super tall buildings with 3D BIM (Building Information Modeling) technology. In order to realize this subject, standard specifications for BIM objects and attributes were studied through analyzing processes and elements of electrical utilities for power management systems applied for super tall buildings. These standard BIM specifications could be used by designers, contractors and facility operators, and thus could be helpful to realize BIM information sharing between multiple disciplines and construction phases. And further study has been suggested to develop standard specification and applications from this study.

Structural BIM: discussion, case studies and latest developments

AbstractThis paper discusses the current state of building information modelling (BIM) from the structural point of view, incorporating the migration from 2D to 3D solutions. Open interfaces are also considered and how they provide access to BIM information away from the specialist modelling solutions to more conventional software tools, allowing closer design team collaboration. Two case studies are also highlighted to identify the benefits obtained from the structural BIM solution. Copyright © 2007 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.