BIM APPLICATION IN BUILDING LIFE CYCLE
To ease our discussion, let us simply divide the lifecycle of a facility into 4 phases:
plan, design, construct and operate.
In the planning stage, the overall plan to meet the owner’s needs is made.
In the design stage, the plan is further developed through conceptual design into
detailed design.
Then, the construction stage begins and the design is realized through actual
construction tasks into a physical facility.
Once the facility is constructed, it goes into the operation and maintenance stage
until the end of its service life.
We may use this popular BIM Uses figure to discuss BIM applications in facility
lifecycle.
A BIM use may be defined as a method of applying Building Information Modelling
during a facility's lifecycle to achieve one or more specific objectives.
Or it may be simply defined as a task, outcome or deliverable that a BIM model is
used for.
In this sense, BIM uses are BIM applications.
From the figure, we can see 25 key BIM uses across the lifecycle, with 14 primary
ones and 11 secondary ones.
In this course, besides basic BIM modelling for getting needed BIM models ready for
further applications, we will focus on three BIM applications.
The first one is model integration and clash detection for the design review and 3D
coordination BIM uses.
The second one is quantity take-off for the cost estimation BIM use.
The third one is 4D construction progress management for the 3D control and
planning BIM use.
In addition, in this session, we will briefly introduce two more BIM applications.
The first one is green BIM that covers the energy analysis, lighting analysis, and
green building evaluation BIM uses, and more.
The second one is the COB i.e. standard for the Record Model BIM use as well as
other BIM uses in the operation and maintenance phase.
Because BIM applications on model integration and clash detection, quantity take-
off, and 4D construction progress management will be discussed in later sessions of
this course, the following discussions in this session will be just on green BIM and
BIM for facility management.
Green BIM may be defined as BIM applications for sustainable design and
construction of a facility, which is often, call green facility or a green building if the
facility is a building type.
The outcome of a green BIM application is a green facility, which is also known as
green construction or sustainable facility.
The concept of green facility or green building is used to refer to a structure and
using process that is environmentally responsible and resource-efficient throughout a
facility’s or building's life-cycle.
The common objective of green buildings is to reduce the overall impact of the built
environment on human health and the natural environment by:
Efficiently using energy, water, and other resources;
Protecting occupant health and improving employee productivity;
Reducing waste, pollution and environment degradation.
There are several green building certification systems in the world, for example,
LEED from the US, BREEAM from the UK, etc.
Let us use the green building certification system in Taiwan, called EEWH, as an
example, to demonstrate what aspects are usually concerned in green buildings.
We can see the system comprises nine (9) indicators that fall into four (4) categories
- ecology, energy saving, waste reduction and health.
The ecology category includes biodiversity, foliage, water soil content (infiltration
and retention), water conservation, garbage and sewage improvements;
The energy saving category contains energy savings (for the building envelope,
lighting and HVAC);
The waste reduction category addresses CO2 emissions reduction, construction
waste reduction;
and the health category concerns indoor environmental quality for human health.
With the 3D BIM model as a digital representation of the physical and functional
characteristics of a facility,
we can perform several simulations early in the design stage and before the
construction stage to evaluate the performance of the facility in terms of indoor
lighting, natural ventilation, energy consumption, carbon dioxide emission, waste
reduction, green building certification, and so on.
These simulations can effectively help the owners, designers, and engineers to make
good decisions for achieving sustainable facility design and construction.
They can also help evaluate many aspects concerned by the green building
certification system, as discussed previously, for the owners to obtain required
certification.
Let me use a case study conducted at National Taiwan University as an example to
demonstrate how BIM simulation can help on evaluating energy performance of
BIPV buildings in the design stage.
BIPV stands for Building Integrated Photovoltaic and is a typical solar energy
technology product for carbon reduction for buildings.
We use architectural design method to integrate photovoltaic products, such as solar
panels, into building envelope as part of building materials to take advantage of
renewable energy.
In this case study, a BIPV Experiment House of the ITRI at Hsinchu, Taiwan is used
to study the BIM process for modelling and conducting energy analysis of BIPV
buildings and confirming the accuracy of the analysis.
The BIPV Experiment House installs four types of BIPV systems and has five
pyranometers to record solar radiation.
Its monitoring and demonstrating system includes monitoring of PV module
electricity production, cooling loading, energy saving, and environment control.
With sun studies in BIM energy analysis, the solar radiation collection for BIPV
panels was simulated throughout a year, as shown in the left figure.
The corresponding electricity production of a solar panel system was then calculated,
as shown in the right figure.
The simulated electricity production was then compared with the measured one for
all four types of solar panel systems installed on the experiment house.
The one shown on this slide is the monthly electricity production comparison for the
sloping roof solar panel system.
Although the overall simulation underestimates the electricity production in this case,
the simulation predicts well about the trend over the year and can still provide a
reasonably good information for design decision-making.
From the facility’s lifecycle business model as shown here, we can easily see that
most life of a facility is in its utilization stage.
In the utilization stage, if we like to have sustainable good-quality service from the
facility throughout its designed life, we need to do well on management of the
facility’s operation and maintenance.
For efficient and effective facility maintenance and operation, we need good facility
information management.
But where and how can we get sufficient facility information for facility
management?
Traditionally, after a facility is constructed, information about the facility in a set of
2D CAD drawings and associated documents, all in paper format, is handed over to
the owner or facility manager.
Not mentioning the handover information is only partly relevant to facility
management,
it is very difficult for the facility manager to be efficient and effective in searching for
the information needed for operation and maintenance, and maintaining consistency
among information on papers.
With BIM, a 3D digital model can be a deliverable that integrates all geometric and
non-geometric information needed for facility management.
The information in the model can be easily searched and the consistency of
information in the model is automatically maintained.
In BIM application to facility management, for capturing and recording important
facility information at the point of origin during the planning, design and
construction stages, an international standard called COBie is usually used.
COBie stands for Construction Operations Building Information Exchange.
It is an internationally recognized data exchange standard that is used to help
capture and record important facility asset information,
including space and equipment, when the information is first generated during the
planning, design, and construction stages.
COBie aligns with the open IFC format and gives users options for different delivery
formats, including the most popular spread sheet format.
COBie is mainly concerned with the structure and format of the data for fulfilling
information exchange requirements during the planning, design, construction, and
handover stages.
It serves as a good starting point for the owner to define clearly at the early stage of
a construction project what asset data and classification system are needed for later
facility management.
This figure shows the structure of COBie data model.
The key items are components and spaces.
The component in COBie is for equipment that needs maintenance and operation
and the space is for rooms that need management.
Currently, several BIM modelling tools allow the user to export COBie data from the
BIM model into COBie sheets of various formats.
For example, Revit provides a COBie Extension tool for its user to produce COBie-
compliant deliverables from a Revit model.
In this session, we are going to discuss BIM applications in facility lifecycle.
To ease our discussion, let us simply divide the lifecycle of a facility into 4 phases:
plan, design, construct and operate.
In the planning stage, the overall plan to meet the owner’s needs is made.
In the design stage, the plan is further developed through conceptual design into
detailed design.
Then, the construction stage begins and the design is realized through actual
construction tasks into a physical facility.
Once the facility is constructed, it goes into the operation and maintenance stage
until the end of its service life.
We may use this popular BIM Uses figure to discuss BIM applications in facility
lifecycle.
A BIM use may be defined as a method of applying Building Information Modelling
during a facility's lifecycle to achieve one or more specific objectives.
Or it may be simply defined as a task, outcome or deliverable that a BIM model is
used for.
In this sense, BIM uses are BIM applications.
From the figure, we can see 25 key BIM uses across the lifecycle, with 14 primary
ones and 11 secondary ones.
In this course, besides basic BIM modelling for getting needed BIM models ready for
further applications, we will focus on three BIM applications.
The first one is model integration and clash detection for the design review and 3D
coordination BIM uses.
The second one is quantity take-off for the cost estimation BIM use.
The third one is 4D construction progress management for the 3D control and
planning BIM use.
In addition, in this session, we will briefly introduce two more BIM applications.
The first one is green BIM that covers the energy analysis, lighting analysis, and
green building evaluation BIM uses, and more.
The second one is the COBie standard for the Record Model BIM use as well as other
BIM uses in the operation and maintenance phase.
Because BIM applications on model integration and clash detection, quantity takeoff,
and 4D construction progress management will be discussed in later sessions of this
course, the following discussions in this session will be just on green BIM and BIM
for facility management.
Green BIM may be defined as BIM applications for sustainable design and
construction of a facility, which is often call green facility or a green building if the
facility is a building type.
The outcome of a green BIM application is a green facility, which is also known as
green construction or sustainable facility.
The concept of green facility or green building is used to refer to a structure and
using process that is environmentally responsible and resource-efficient throughout a
facility’s or building's life-cycle.
The common objective of green buildings is to reduce the overall impact of the built
environment on human health and the natural environment by:
Efficiently using energy, water, and other resources;
Protecting occupant health and improving employee productivity;
Reducing waste, pollution and environment degradation.
There are several green building certification systems in the world, for example,
LEED from the US, BREEAM from the UK, etc.
Let us use the green building certification system in Taiwan, called EEWH, as an
example, to demonstrate what aspects are usually concerned in green buildings.
We can see the system comprises nine (9) indicators that fall into four (4) categories
- ecology, energy saving, waste reduction and health.
The ecology category includes biodiversity, foliage, water soil content (infiltration
and retention), water conservation, garbage and sewage improvements;
the energy saving category contains energy savings (for the building envelope,
lighting and HVAC);
the waste reduction category addresses CO2 emissions reduction, construction
waste reduction;
and the health category concerns indoor environmental quality for human health.
With the 3D BIM model as a digital representation of the physical and functional
characteristics of a facility,
we can perform several simulations early in the design stage and before the
construction stage to evaluate the performance of the facility in terms of indoor
lighting, natural ventilation, energy consumption, carbon dioxide emission, waste
reduction, green building certification, and so on.
These simulations can effectively help the owners, designers, and engineers to make
good decisions for achieving sustainable facility design and construction.
They can also help evaluate many aspects concerned by the green building
certification system, as discussed previously, for the owners to obtain required
certification.
Let me use a case study conducted at National Taiwan University as an example to
demonstrate how BIM simulation can help on evaluating energy performance of
BIPV buildings in the design stage.
BIPV stands for Building Integrated Photovoltaic and is a typical solar energy
technology product for carbon reduction for buildings.
We use architectural design method to integrates photovoltaic products, such as
solar panels, into building envelope as part of building materials to take advantage
of renewable energy.
In this case study, a BIPV Experiment House of the ITRI at Hsinchu, Taiwan is used
to study the BIM process for modelling and conducting energy analysis of BIPV
buildings and confirming the accuracy of the analysis.
The BIPV Experiment House installs four types of BIPV systems and has five
pyranometers to record solar radiation.
Its monitoring and demonstrating system includes monitoring of PV module
electricity production, cooling loading, energy saving, and environment control.
With sun studies in BIM energy analysis, the solar radiation collection for BIPV
panels was simulated throughout a year, as shown in the left figure.
The corresponding electricity production of a solar panel system was then calculated,
as shown in the right figure.
The simulated electricity production was then compared with the measured one for
all four types of solar panel systems installed on the experiment house.
The one shown on this slide is the monthly electricity production comparison for the
sloping roof solar panel system.
Although the overall simulation underestimates the electricity production in this case,
the simulation predicts well about the trend over the year and can still provide a
reasonably good information for design decision-making.
From the facility’s lifecycle business model as shown here, we can easily see that
most life of a facility is in its utilization stage.
In the utilization stage, if we like to have sustainable good-quality service from the
facility throughout its designed life, we need to do well on management of the
facility’s operation and maintenance.
For efficient and effective facility maintenance and operation, we need good facility
information management.
But where and how can we get sufficient facility information for facility
management?
Traditionally, after a facility is constructed, information about the facility in a set of
2D CAD drawings and associated documents, all in paper format, is handed over to
the owner or facility manager.
Not mentioning the handover information is only partly relevant to facility
management,
it is very difficult for the facility manager to be efficient and effective in searching for
the information needed for operation and maintenance, and maintaining consistency
among information on papers.
With BIM, a 3D digital model can be a deliverable that integrates all geometric and
non-geometric information needed for facility management.
The information in the model can be easily searched and the consistency of
information in the model is automatically maintained.
In BIM application to facility management, for capturing and recording important
facility information at the point of origin during the planning, design and
construction stages, an international standard called COBie is usually used.
COBie stands for Construction Operations Building Information Exchange.
It is an internationally recognized data exchange standard that is used to help
capture and record important facility asset information,
including space and equipment, when the information is first generated during the
planning, design, and construction stages.
COBie aligns with the open IFC format and gives users options for different delivery
formats, including the most popular spread sheet format.
COBie is mainly concerned with the structure and format of the data for fulfilling
information exchange requirements during the planning, design, construction, and
handover stages.
It serves as a good starting point for the owner to define clearly at the early stage of
a construction project what asset data and classification system are needed for later
facility management.
This figure shows the structure of COBie data model.
The key items are components and spaces.
The component in COBie is for equipment that needs maintenance and operation
and the space is for rooms that need management.
Currently, several BIM modelling tools allow the user to export COBie data from the
BIM model into COBie sheets of various formats.
For example, Revit provides a COBie Extension tool for its user to produce COBie-
compliant deliverables from a Revit model.
