There is an urgent need in the architecture, engineering, and construction industries for new programs and methods of producing reliable energy simulations using building information modeling (BIM) technology. Current methods and programs for running energy simulations are not very timely, are difficult to understand, and lack high interoperability between BIM and energy simulation software. It is necessary to improve on these drawbacks as design decisions are often made without the aid of energy modeling leading to the design and construction of nonoptimized buildings with respect to energy efficiency. The goal of this research project is to develop a new methodology to produce energy estimates from a BIM model expeditiously and to improve interoperability between the simulation engine and BIM software. In the proposed methodology, the extracted information from a BIM model is compiled into an input file and run in a popular energy simulation program on an hourly basis for a desired period. The c...

This study proposes a 3D intelligent object model in highway construction to electronically represent a large amount of information in highway projects based on the international standard ISO 10303. Also known as STEP (Standard for the Exchange of Product), ISO 10303 is an open standard, and has been used for data exchange in building projects of the AEC industries. Motivated by the success from the building industry, this research attempts to apply an object based intelligent model in 3D highway modeling. In order to test the feasibility of the proposed approach, a prototype was developed and tested on a highway project in Seoul, Korea with a team led by Korean Institute of Construction Technology (KICT). The proposed 3D intelligent model was applied to build a 3D model and automatically derive cost/schedule estimates from the 3D object model. To develop a 3D object model in highway road construction, this paper explores different options such as Industry Foundation Classes (IFCs) and LandXML and establish a comprehensive object model for highway structures with different components such as roads, a bridge, and a tunnel as well as topographical representations that could be used for cost/schedule estimation.

Until now, the process of obtaining spatial information for facilities management (FM) has been laborious and tedious, even with the use of computer-aided facility management tools. The proposed research utilizes BIM-based workflow to capture object attributes such that the building data created in a BIM model may be brought seamlessly into a facilities management system rather than recreated. The proposed system not only imports geometry of walls, doors, windows, columns, and so on, but also retrieves attribute data associated with these objects. Therefore, queries can be executed to obtain needed information, generate graphic or data-based reports, and identify interesting trends in facilities operations and maintenance for appropriate management. Because the proposed approach is object-based, the system will calculate automatically or display the area of each space, and add additional information about each space, such as occupant information, capacity, type, equipment, and so on. Open BIM standards are used to retrieve or store information in a BIM model as that will facilitate the exchange of information among different FM systems. A prototype of the proposed system was developed in collaboration with the University of North Carolina at Charlotte (UNCC) FM department. The prototype was tested for its applicability and flexibility for the UNCC FM operations and maintenance management.

This study proposes a 3D visualization model in highway design/construction that electronically represents information of highway projects. The 3D model will be based on the Standard for the Exchange of Product (STEP) model data, which is an open standard, so it can be used as data structures. Because the design model includes integrated resources to represent 3D geometric shape and project management information of the infrastructure, the built visualization model will allow end users to extract the necessary data from the object-based 3D intelligent model. This integrated data model is expected to provide practical engineering information to improve the design/construction process. This study presents the framework for the integration of application programs, such as existing 3D CAD programs used in practice by applying the STEP-based information model and information technologies. With the system integration framework comprised of the information model, data repository, application program, and application programming interface, this research proposes establishing a prototype system according to the system integration framework so that end users can manage information of an infrastructure in an integrated computing environment. The final output of this research is to present a methodology to generate a construction schedule automatically from infrastructure facility design information. This method is performed by the full connection between construction quantity take-off analysis and design information by using the information model.