A Thermal Simulation Tool for Building and Its Interoperability through the Building Information Modeling (BIM) Platform

Abstract

This paper describes potential challenges and opportunities for using thermal simulation tools to optimize building performance. After reviewing current trends in thermal simulation, it outlines major criteria for the evaluation of building thermal simulation tools based on specifications and capabilities in interoperability. Details are discussed including workflow of data exchange of multiple thermal analyses such as the BIM-based application. The present analysis focuses on selected thermal simulation tools that provide functionalities to exchange data with other tools in order to obtain a picture of its basic work principles and to identify selection criteria for generic thermal tools in BIM. Significances and barriers to integration design with BIM and building thermal simulation tools are also discussed

A critical analysis of Building Information Modelling systems used in construction projects

“…The literature refers to, at least, four types of interoperability. These include syntactic, technical, semantic and organisation interoperability [9,16,17,53,55]. This study looks at syntactic interoperability.…”

“…This study looks at syntactic interoperability. Simply, this refers to the ability of two or more separate systems or software programmes to communicate and exchange data (or information) with each other and use the data that has been exchanged [9,55]. The successful information exchange between systems depends on the data file formats that facilitate the importing and/or exporting into/and from other software systems.…”

A state-of-the-art review of built environment information modelling (BeIM)

“…It is the ability of a system, or components of a system, to provide information portability across other systems or components. Interoperability is characterized by systems intelligence that enhances the cooperation between component information systems (Bishr 1998) and has been described to be in order of levels in the literature ( Charalabidis et al 2004;Charalabidis et al 2008;Veer and Wiles 2008;Bahar et al 2013;Rezaei et al 2014a). The interoperability between GIS systems has been broken down to six different levels ( Figure 2).…”

Prototype Development for BIM based Thermal Insulation and Condensation Performance Evaluation of Apartment Housings

“…In other words, the traditional process may lead to data inaccuracy, considerable time and effort consumption, and additional expenses. Exchanging models and other data between different software platforms remains one of industry' s biggest challenges undertaken by fully integrated and collaborative project teams (Bahar et al 2013). One of the obstacles for the limited use of BIM in environmental analysis domain is the lack of interoperability between BIM models and performance analysis programs (Moon et al 2011).…”