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Analysis of early-design timber models for sound insulation
Abstract
Timber construction is associated with a low carbon footprint and offers a high degree of sustainability. However, it poses challenges considering sound insulation. Acoustic analyses, which could require major expensive and time consuming changes in the building design, are typically performed once the design is already in the detailed stage. By using building information modelling (BIM), it is possible to shift the planning of the building physics, including acoustic analysis, to earlier phases. To make this possible, building models must include all the information necessary to perform acoustic analyses. One important part of acoustic analysis is identifying junctions between elements and map them to the junction types in standards. Until now, this investigation involves tedious manual processing for extracting multiple topological dependencies between different elements. Hence, this paper presents a framework for a seamless workflow between building models and acoustic analysis tools, based on an analysis of data models. The framework extracts and analyzes the element types, their geometry, and the connections of the individual elements in relation to each other. Through topological reasoning, along with a set of logical rules, the proposed framework identifies fifteen types of junctions, which can be distinguished acoustically for timber construction. The approach was evaluated in a prototypical implementation using a real-world model based on Industry Foundation Classes (IFC) as an example, in which the potential connection types were successfully extracted. This paper shows that junction analysis can be done with a geometric analysis to fill in missing semantic information about junctions of elements from the original data model.
... The possibility of constructing sustainable buildings using less material offer a lot of advantage but raised some challenges especially related to the building acoustic. As highlighted in [53] building acoustics, especially sound insulation, have a major impact on the usability of the final building. The wood constructions being lightweight structures are more prone to vibrations than reinforced concrete because they have a higher stiffness to weight ratio. ...
... Another concept integrated in wood construction is the BIM-based methodology, proposed in [53] that will allow automated recognition of complex element junction and automatically map them. The augmented reality (AR) has multiple advantages and by using it in the wood construction process can bring a lot of benefits. ...
The context of this research is given by a socio-economic situation in which new and more demanding challenges appear. Using wood, a naturally occurring, renewable, and biodegradable material, in construction is becoming more and more necessary due to the awareness of the negative impact on the environment of the construction industry and the energy crisis limitations. The purpose of this study is to analyze what do we really know about the use of wood as a building material. The search for an answer to the research question implies the use of a scientometric literature analysis, followed by an in-depth and expert analysis. The research results indicate a major preoccupation for studying engineering wood structures, like the Cross laminated Timber, the structural behaviour of the structures, the implementation of new IT discoveries in wood construction technology and a more recent approach regarding the environmental impact of wood construction, mostly the possibility of using wood waste to prolong the life of wood as a building material. The results also show a need to create new models of understanding the structural behaviour of wood that consider the fibrous and cellular nature of the material. Wood as a construction material is an extremely complex material and for a better understanding of it, there is a need to have an interdisciplinary approach in which to combine the knowledge of construction with that of forestry, ecology, biology and others.
O uso de programas computacionais baseados em Building Information Modeling tornou-se uma prática crescente entre os escritórios prestadores de serviços para o setor da construção civil. Essa prática oferece inúmeras vantagens, como interoperabilidade e compatibilização entre as diferentes disciplinas ao longo das várias fases de um projeto arquitetônico. Este artigo apresenta uma breve visão da tecnologia BIM, do Building Performance Simulation, e o estado da arte, tanto da aplicação da tecnologia voltada para análise e predição acústicas, como da incorporação ao projeto de informações sob esta perspectiva. Foram determinados os buscadores e as palavras-chave a serem utilizados, com 253 artigos encontrados inicialmente. Após atender os critérios de seleção, 58 artigos foram analisados por meio do método de revisão sistemática da literatura e meta-análise. O “The Jornal of the Acoustical Society of America” foi o periódico com o maior número de publicações na temática e a área mais explorada dentre os trabalhos é a pesquisa por soluções em acústica de salas. As novas tecnologias, a exemplo da internet das coisas, gêmeos digitais e inteligência artificial, passaram a ser integradas nas últimas pesquisas e prometem oferecer inúmeros avanços à área. Conclui-se que os estudos nesse sentido são promissores, havendo um vasto campo a ser explorado, sobretudo de forma a possibilitar a operação dessa tecnologia facilitada na área de acústica para o usuário comum.
Semantic enrichment of BIM models is a process designed to add meaningful semantics to the information represented in a building model. Although semantic enrichment provides a valuable opportunity for BIM technology to reach its full potential, it is considered an emergent field of research. As such, the body of knowledge on the subject is incomplete and lacks formal definition of the process, possible applications, contributions, and computational approaches. In this work, an extensive literature review is performed to begin forming the body of knowledge in this field. A bibliometric analysis of relevant publications is implemented to identify previously explored approaches and methods for enrichment. Papers describing previous work in the field demonstrate the application of semantic enrichment to building information stored in accordance to the Industry Foundation Classes (IFC) schema as well as based on a web ontology. A detailed content analysis illustrates the benefits of semantic enrichment for various tasks in the BIM domain, including improvement of data exchange routines, design analysis and processing data obtained by remote sensing techniques. A formal definition for "semantic enrichment of BIM" is suggested based on the common features identified during the literature review. This work discusses the significance of semantic enrichment to a BIM workflow, pinpoints its current research gaps and describes direction for future research.
Building Information Modeling aims at the use of digital building data in all planning processes. However, several challenges arise when using BIM data in the IFC file format to create building simulation models. Complex, detailed or erroneous data and the lack of software interfaces complicate and delay the simulation preprocessing. One way to reduce the simulation expert's effort is to provide space boundary data, which can be applied in both CFD and BEPS. This paper presents an algorithm for the generation of space boundaries based on the IFC data model. The focus is on model error resistance and simultaneous support of CFD and BEPS to accelerate simulation preprocessing, avoid redundant geometric model setup, and simplify the simulation result exchange. Key innovations • Introduction of an automated preprocessing algorithm generating space boundaries • Application in the setup of simulation models for CFD and BEPS • Reduction of the required preparation time of a simulation model and removal of modeling errors Practical implications This paper introduces an algorithm for space boundary generation based on IFC building models. The proposed method simplifies and accelerates the application of IFC data in numerical building simulation software.
Using Building Information Modeling (BIM), a model is developed through multiple design stages to satisfy various design and engineering requirements. The decisions made throughout the design stages, especially the early ones, steer a project's success and results. The impact of the decisions made in the early design stages is significant, as they form the basis of the following stages. In these stages, the uncertainty on how the design may evolve is high, as many decisions have not yet been made. Hence, several researchers have emphasized the advantages of complying to regulations and standards early on, to reduce the design space to feasible designs. This paper introduces a framework for exploring design options of train stations at the early stages. In more detail, two of the Deutsche Bahn regulation documents were analyzed, evaluated, and transformed into logical statements. Afterwards, based on the extracted rules, a parametric model was developed, where changing a parameter results into a new train station design option. The generation of a design option took into account the relationship between the parameters, avoiding any standard violations. The proposed approach was realized using the combination of both Autodesk Revit and Dynamo. The outcome of this study makes it possible to explore and evaluate the possible combination of design parameters, which supports design decisions.
A seamless integration of model analysis and simulations into the design process is a key for supporting the different decisions, including deciding upon the position, dimensions, and materiality of building elements. Such design options are explored from the early design phases, where a decision is taken based on their performance. A crucial analysis that is necessary for the different types of buildings, especially transportation hubs, is pedestrian flow dynamics, as it evaluates the occupants' comfort and ability to evacuating the building in case of emergency. Currently, analysing pedestrians' flow is decoupled from the BIM-authoring tools, requires multiple manual steps, and is time consuming. Hence, this paper proposes a framework that leverages the latest advancements of Deep Learning (DL) for replacing pedestrian dynamics simulations by an DL model providing intermediate feedback. In more detail, a representation of the building model, including simulation parameters, is proposed as input and a Convolutional Neural Network (CNN) architecture is developed and trained to predict pedestrians' flow density heatmaps and tracing maps.
Building Information Models (BIMs) and City Information Models (CIMs) have flourished in building and urban studies independently over the past decade. Semantic enrichment is an indispensable process that adds new semantics such as geometric, non-geometric, and topological information into existing BIMs or CIMs to enable multidisciplinary applications in fields such as construction management, geoinformatics, and urban planning. These two paths are now coming to a juncture for integration and juxtaposition. However, a critical review of the semantic enrichment of BIM and CIM is missing in the literature. This research aims to probe into semantic enrichment by comparing its similarities and differences between BIM and CIM over a ten-year time span. The research methods include establishing a uniform conceptual model, and sourcing and analyzing 44 pertinent cases in the literature. The findings plot the terminologies, methods, scopes, and trends for the semantic enrichment approaches in the two domains. With the increasing availability of data sources, algorithms, and computing power, they cross the border to enter each other's domain. Future research will likely gain new momentums from the demands of value-added applications, development of remote sensing devices, intelligent data processing algorithms, interoperability between BIM and CIM software platforms, and emerging technologies such as big data analytics.
Purpose
Building life cycle assessment (LCA) draws on a number of indicators, including primary energy (PE) demand and global warming potential (GWP). A method of constructing a composite index of weighted individual indicators facilitates their use in comparisons and optimization of buildings, but a standard for weighting has not been established. This study investigates the use of monetary valuation of building LCA results as a way to weigh, aggregate, and compare results.
Methods
A set of six recent German office buildings served as a case study. For these, standard LCA and life cycle cost (LCC) calculations were conducted. Monetary valuation models from the literature were investigated as a basis for evaluation. From these, maximum and minimum valuation was chosen and applied to the LCA results for the embedded impacts of the case study buildings. The buildings’ environmental costs (EC) were thereafter calculated and contributions of single impacts are analyzed. The EC—based on external costs—are subsequently compared with the life cycle costs (LCC)—based on market prices—of the respective buildings.
Results and discussion
Of the five standard environmental indicators used in Germany, GWP contributes approximately 80 to 95% of the overall EC. Acidification potential (AP) is the second largest contributor with up to 18%. Eutrophication (EP), photochemical oxidization (POCP), and ozone depletion potential (ODP) contribute less than 2.0%, 1.05%, and 2.4E−6% respectively. An additional assessment of the contribution of resource depletion to EC shows an impact at least as large as the impact of GWP. The relation between the EC and LCC strongly depends on the EC model used: if EC are internalized, they add between 1 and 37% to the life cycle costs of the buildings. Varying construction materials for a case study building shows that materials with low GWP have the potential to lower environmental costs significantly without a trade-off in favor of other indicators.
Conclusions
Despite their sensitivity to the monetary valuation model used, EC provide an indication that GWP and resource depletion—followed by AP—are the most relevant of the environmental indicators currently considered for the construction industry. Monetary valuation of environmental impacts is a valuable tool for comparisons of different buildings and design options and provides an effective and valuable way of communicating LCA results to stakeholders.
Current development in digital design, combined with the growing awareness of the importance of building performance, had drawn attention to performance-based design (PBD) in architecture. PBD benefits both design workflow and outcome, allowing one to control the performance of the design proposal since early design phases. The paper aims to explore its current application in the acoustic field, where its potential is still little exploited in architectural practice. A set of built case studies is collected and briefly analyzed with the aim to shed some light on the state of the art of the application of acoustic performance-based design (APBD) in practice. The analysis suggests that in order to encourage the application of APBD it is needed on one side to enhance the integration and interoperability among modeling and simulation tools, and on the other side to improve the acoustic knowledge and programming skills of the architectural practitioners.
The early stages of building design involve the consideration of different design variants and their assessment regarding various performance criteria including energy consumption and costs. During the design process, the involved experts from different disciplines frequently exchange building information to develop a design that satisfies the project's requirements and objectives. In the course of this iterative process, the building design evolves throughout multiple refinement stages. At the same time, different variants are developed. In BIM-based projects, the maturity of the design information provided by the model is expressed by the notion of Level of development (LOD). So far, however, there is no method to formally define the information requirements of a LOD. In particular, there are no means for expressing the uncertainty involved with the provided information. By contrast, despite the insufficient information available in early design stages, a BIM model appears precise and certain. This situation leads to false assumptions and model evaluations, for example, in the case of energy efficiency calculations or structural analysis. Hence, this paper presents an overview of a set of approaches that were developed to alleviate and preserve the consistency of the designed solutions. The approach includes the development of a multi-LOD meta-model, which allows one to explicitly describe the LOD requirements of each building component type incorporating the possible uncertainties, e.g. concerning the building dimensions. On the basis of this multi-LOD model, methods for evaluating a building design's performance regarding the building's structure and life cycle energy performance are proposed that take the defined uncertainties into account. To support the management of design variants in one consistent model, a graph-based approach is introduced. Finally, a minimized communication protocol is described to facilitate the workflow and communicate the evaluation results for supporting the decision-making process.
The acoustics of architecture has a large influence on the physical and psychological state of people, impacting on their communication, concentration and behaviour. Nevertheless, the sound issues of the interior of common spaces are often faced in the last stage of the design process, as an accurate acoustic design requires a high level of expertise. Owners, companies, public administration, and so on face this issue by selecting off-the-shelf acoustic panels or furniture, which might not always respond to the acoustic requirements, specific for each space. This leads to unsatisfying acoustic conditions, consequently increasing the initial investment. Nowadays, a new awareness on the topic of architectural acoustics design has pushed towards finding new integrated methodologies able to deliver tailored solutions for the design with sound, which embed performance criteria early in the design phase by means of simulation and computational techniques. This paper describes a workflow developed in the frame of the research project: “EcoAcustica. Sustainable and innovative surfaces for adaptive acoustics”, aimed at creating acoustic surfaces and customised to improve the interior acoustics in a global geometry scale. The design of the new ABC Department Digital Fabrication Lab at Politecnico di Milano is used as a case study for the proposed methodology.
Except for various properties, accurate and intuitive 3D representations of building elements and spaces are embedded in Building Information Models (BIMs). Thus, better understanding of spatial features of building elements and spaces is possible, which brings new opportunity in code compliance checking, indoor navigation, visualization, etc. With large amount of fine-grained 3D spatial data collected quickly and continuously, there is an urgent need for new methods to overcome problems like improper spatial expression, insufficient mining and utilization of information that exist in traditional methods. This research reviews state-of-the-art of related research and provides a summary of achievements and challenges in this area. Then, a framework consists of management, analysis, and application of 3D spatial data of BIM and a detailed discussion of each part are proposed, which would give the readers an overview of relevant methods, technologies, and tools. Moreover, potential research directions and open issues for future work are also discussed. The paper enables researchers to get a comprehensive understanding of 3D spatial data analytics of BIM as well as suggestions for future work, and thus makes a solid contribution in this area.
Acoustic regulations for housing, educational buildings and some other building categories now exist in most countries in Europe, but findings from comparative studies show that extent and strictness as well as descriptors vary considerably across Europe. The acoustic performance areas dealt with are e.g. airborne and impact sound insulation, reverberation time, traffic noise, service equipment noise. Comparing countries, there is in general no consistency of contents, structure or enforcement of acoustic regulations. Building acoustic regulations are typically valid for new buildings only, including buildings converted to other uses, but most often not for renovated buildings, if uses are unchanged. Consequently, large parts of the building stock constructed in periods with missing or weak acoustic regulations still suffer from poor acoustic quality, in spite of other qualities being upgraded. In most countries, the first acoustic regulations were for housing, in some countries in the 1950'es or earlier, and the next acoustic regulations were made stepwise for e.g. educational buildings, kindergarten, hospitals etc. The paper includes examples from comparative studies of the current regulatory acoustic requirements in Europe, thus illustrating the diversity in the actual situation. The examples will include cases from the Nordic countries and encourage more harmonization of acoustic regulations in the Nordic countries as well as in Europe.
The design of a building is a collaborative process among experts from multiple disciplines. Using Building Information Modeling (BIM), a model is developed through multiple refinement stages to satisfy various design and engineering requirements. Such refinements of geometric and semantic information are described as levels of development (LOD). Thus far, there is no method to explicitly define an LOD's requirements nor to precisely specify the uncertainties involved. Furthermore, despite the insufficient information in the early design stages, a BIM model appears precise and certain, which can lead to false assumptions and model evaluations, for example, in the case of energy efficiency calculations or structural analyses. Hence, this paper presents a multi-LOD meta-model to explicitly describe an LOD's requirements , incorporating the potential fuzziness of both, geometric and semantic information of individual elements. The explicitly defined fuzziness can be taken into account when applying simulations or analyses for assessing the performance of different building design variants. To support the continuous elaboration of a building from the conceptual to the detailed design stages, the multi-LOD model makes it possible to ensure the consistency of the geometric and semantic information as well as the topological coherence across the different LODs. The feasibility of the approach is demonstrated by its prototypical implementation as a web-server and user-interface, providing a means for managing and checking the exchange requirements both at the meta-level and for concrete building model instances. The paper is concluded with a case study of a real-world construction project that demonstrates the use of the meta-model to support model analysis and the decision-making process.
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Neighbourhood noises in newly erected residential buildings are problems which are more and more frequently raised by their inhabitants. Pursuant to the binding European norms, the way of testing acoustic insulation properties has been standardized, however both required values and indices used to express them remain at the discretion of individual countries of the European Community. In the article, single-number acoustic insulation indices for air sounds used in Europe are presented and the methods of converting them are described. Current national requirements concerning acoustic insulation properties for interior walls within the apartment and between apartments in multi-family buildings as well as their comparison with requirements applicable in selected countries of the Western, Central and Southern Europe are presented. Based on the provided data, the evaluation of national requirements regarding acoustic insulation properties for interior walls was carried out. It was concluded that Polish acoustic requirements for interior walls are at a low level not only compared to the countries of the Western Europe, but also Central and Southern Europe.
Generally, the acoustics design of civil structures and indoor spaces at early design stage is neither cared nor organized so much for buildings not devoted to fulfil specific acoustic performances such as noise protection or sound quality. This does not mean that the final acoustical quality of the building is arguable, indeed it is often excellent, but simply that the acoustic design has not been carried out based on either customary or standardized methods. Whereas such approach for building and room acoustic design is common and accepted for architects and civil engineers practices, even the largest ones, giving to each project its own uniqueness, for those buildings which can be defined as "ordinary", or for companies like design firms and global contractors, process standardization would offer advantages. Aiming to building acoustic design standardization and making simpler the construction elements selection, it has been drafted the internal procedure here described, inspired by the standards and the procedures for the design and the construction of sound insulation for piping systems. Main feature of the procedure is a proposed classification scheme for the two building categories generally located in industrial complexes: the ones used to confine noisy machineries and the ones where protection from outdoor noise is required. Once selected the acoustic class of building, this labelling will be used in the BIM 3D Model from which extract project documents referred to the architectural drawings that shall be given to the construction company. The classification scheme includes also the acoustic parameters necessary for the assessment of the indoor sound quality, to avoid excessive reverberant field or let speech communication be suitable. Directions on how to proceed with building and architectural acoustic design and acceptability criteria complete the methodology.
As we advance towards high-performance buildings, it is becoming necessary to reinforce and extend the role of building information modelling (BIM) to better support performance-based design. To achieve an optimally functioning building that fulfils the need of the end-user and is designed in an environmentally conscious manner necessitates considering energy performance, environmental performance, indoor air quality, lighting, and acoustics. To consider these multiple criteria, use of computer-based modelling tools and comprehensive simulation methods becomes essential. These criteria are typically assessed after the main phases of architectural design of the building, and the knowledge is passed on to the engineers for development of the technical design. During the technical design process, the exchange of data between the design model and a selected building performance aspect may occur. This paper investigates the potential of BIM-based models at the core of providing input data required for performance-based simulations (BPS) to enable iterative multi-criteria assessment towards high performance buildings. A comprehensive literature review of 249 documents was conducted to identify the current state of knowledge and provide future directions for design and simulation tools to better quantify and evaluate the performance aspects. Furthermore, it explains and clarifies stakeholders' current ability, needs, barriers, and potentials in using BIM for assessing building performance through nineteen expert interviews of key BIM stakeholders in Finland.
This paper aims to develop an artificial neural network (ANN) to predict the energy consumption and cost of cross laminated timber (CLT) office buildings in severe cold regions during the early stage of architectural design. Eleven variables were selected as input variables including building form and construction variables, and the values of input variables were determined by local building standards and surveys. ANNs were trained by the simulation data and Latin hypercube sampling (LHS) method was used to select training datasets for the ANN training. The best ANN was obtained by analyzing the output variables and the number of hidden layer neurons. The results showed that the ANN with multiple outputs presented better prediction performance than the ANN with single output. Moreover, the number of hidden layer neurons in ANN should be greater than five and preferably 10, and the best mean square error (MSE) value was 1.957 × 10³. In addition, it was found that the time of predicting building energy consumption and cost by ANN was 80% shorter than that of traditional building energy consumption simulation and cost calculation method.
The Industry Foundation Classes (IFC) is a semantically rich data model providing necessary information to support extraction of information necessary for the setup of building energy simulations. Often, 2nd-level space boundary data contained in IFC, are missing or incorrect. To facilitate the connection between BIMs and energy simulation programs, the Common Boundary Intersection Projection (CBIP) algorithm is introduced. CBIP uses the geometric representations of building entities obtained from IFC files to generate the building's 2nd-level space boundary topology. A prototypical implementation of the CBIP algorithm is used in a complex geometry building, as a verification of the capability of the algorithm to properly identify space boundaries.
leanWOOD tackles process innovation at the interface of design and production planning. Against the background of a growing complexity of timber building construction the paper discusses main constraints and potentials influencing the performance of design teams and demonstrates a strategy to streamline planning processes and thus increases the effect of collaboration of architects, engineers, special planners and timber production planners and manufacturers. leanWOOD presents a strategy for the documentation of the decision-making process in execution planning and represents a way to map plan format and specification of contents according to the hierarchy of building elements and components. The study aims at a checklist to support the planning process and management of expert planer teams. An optimized planning process in timber construction according to the recommendations of leanWOOD will significantly improve team performance and is an important contribution to the current development of BIM processes. Full collaboration through sharing information at the beginning of a project will most likely deliver the expected outcome: fast, efficient, effective, and cost bound buildings.
Building energy simulation is valuable during the early stages of design, when decisions can have the greatest impact on energy performance. However, preparing digital design models for building energy simulation typically requires tedious manual alteration. This paper describes a series of five automated steps to translate geometric data from an unzoned CAD model into a multi-zone building energy model. First. CAD input is interpreted as geometric surfaces with materials. Second, surface pairs defining walls of various thicknesses are identified. Third, normal directions of unpaired surfaces are determined. Fourth, space boundaries are defined. Fifth, optionally, settings from previous simulations are applied, and spaces are aggregated into a smaller number of thermal zones. Building energy models created quickly using this method can offer guidance throughout the design process.
Significant difficulties remain in exchanging information between building information modeling (BIM) tools. The industry foundation classes (IFC) exchange schema is too generic to capture the full semantic meaning needed for direct use by different construction project stakeholders’ BIM tools. Although BIM standards that prescribe model view definitions (MVD) for domain-specific exchanges are under development, insufficient semantic definition of exchanges prevents achievement of the full potential of BIM through seamless interoperability. We propose an innovative approach for supplementing an IFC exchange file with semantically useful concepts inferred from the explicit and implicit information contained in the building model. A prototype software was implemented to test the applicability of the approach. It consists of a rule-processing engine and allows composition of inference rule-sets that can be tailored for different domains. The tests demonstrate semantic enrichment with precast concrete building models, adding inferred joint, slab aggregation and connection concepts.
Data definitions that represent a given building conform to the internal data structure of the CAD software that is used to define the building. They include data which facilitate the representation of the building in CAD, but do not necessarily by themselves define any other pertinent information about the building. CAD representations of buildings are based on detailed definitions of building geometry; those definitions include significant amounts of information needed by CAD tools but not by other types of tools, which need only rudimentary definitions of building geometry to operate. Building energy performance simulation tools, as well as many other types of building simulation and analysis tools, have their own internal data models for building geometry. These internal data models are typically simpler than those in CAD and represent views of building geometry used by the disciplines which are served by these tools. Most simulation and analysis tools define building geometry as systems of surfaces called "space boundaries" that delineate spatial zones (such as thermal or acoustical zones) and are the critical part of the building geometry definitions for non-CAD tools. This paper clarifies and systematizes information about building geometry that energy performance and similar simulation and analysis tools must contain, and explains the five types (here in referred to as "levels") of space boundaries. The paper briefly discusses space boundary testing and applicable testing tools, as well as the implications of space boundary definition on software development and use. While the discussion emphasizes the use of space boundaries in sophisticated building energy performance simulation tools like EnergyPlus, it is pertinent to other simulation and analysis tools that need building geometry data to run.
Building Information Models (BIM) are comprehensive digital representations of buildings, which provide a large set of information originating from the different disciplines involved in the design, construction and operation processes. Moreover, accessing the data needed for a specific downstream application scenario is a challenging task in large-scale BIM projects. Several researchers recently proposed using formal query languages for specifying the desired information in a concise, well-defined manner. One of the main limitations of the languages introduced so far, however, is the inadequate treatment of geometric information. This is a significant drawback, as buildings are inherently spatial objects and qualitative spatial relationships accordingly play an important role in the analysis and verification of building models. In addition, the filters needed in specific data exchange scenarios for selecting the information required can be built by spatial objects and their relations. The lack of spatial functionality in BIM query languages is filled by the Query Language for Building Information Models (QL4BIM) which provides metric, directional and topological operators for defining filter expressions with qualitative spatial semantics. This paper focuses on the topological operators provided by the language. In particular, it presents a new implementation method based on the boundary representation of the operands which outperforms the previously presented octree-based approaches. The paper discusses the developed algorithms in detail and presents extensive performance tests.
The construction industry attempts to produce buildings with as lower environmental impact as possible. However, construction activities still greatly affect environment; therefore, it is necessary to consider a sustainable project approach based on its performance. Sustainability is an important issue to consider in design, not only due to environmental concerns but also due to economic and social matters, promoting architectural quality and economic advantages. This paper aims to identify the phases through which a design project should be developed, emphasising the importance and ability of earlier stages to influence sustainability, performance, and life cycle cost. Then, a selection of sustainability key indicators, able to be used at the design conceptual phase and able to start predicting environmental sustainability performance of buildings is presented. The output of this paper aimed to enable designers to compare and evaluate the consequences of different design solutions, based on preliminary data, and facilitate the collaboration between stakeholders and clients and eventually yield a sustainable and high performance building throughout its life cycle.
Abstract Spatial reasoning is very important for cartography and GISs. Most known methods translate a spatial problem to an analytical formulation to solve quantitatively. This paper shows a method for formal, qualitative reasoning about cardinal directions. The problem addressed is how to deduce the direction from A to C, given the direction from A to B and B to C. It first analyzes the properties formal cardinal direction system should have. It then constructs an algebra with the direction symbols (e.g., {N, E, S, W}) and a combination operation which connects two directions. Two examples for such algebras are given, one formalizing the well-known triangular concept of directions (here called cone-shaped directions) and a projection- based concept. It is shown that completing the algebra to form a group by introducing an identity element to represent the direction from a point to itself simplifies reasoning and increases power. The results of the deductions for the two systems agree, but the projection bases system produces more 'Euclidean exact' results, in a sense defined in the paper.
A simple and efficient algorithm for finding the closest points
between two convex polynomials is described. Data from numerous
experiments tested on a broad set of convex polyhedra on
R 3 show that the running time is roughly constant
for finding closest points when nearest points are approximately known
and is linear in total number of vertices if no special initialization
is done. This algorithm can be used for collision detection, computation
of the distance between two polyhedra in three-dimensional space, and
other robotics problems. It forms the heart of the motion planning
algorithm previously presented by the authors (Proc. IEEE ICRA,
p.1554-9, 1990)
Spatial relations are important in numerous domains, such as Spatial Query Languages, Image and Multimedia Databases, Reasoning and Geographic Applications. This paper is concerned with the retrieval of topological and direction relations using spatial data structures based on Minimum Bounding Rectangles. We describe topological and direction relations between region objects and we study the spatial information that Minimum Bounding Rectangles convey about the actual objects they enclose. Then we apply the results in R-trees and their variations, R+-trees and R*- trees, in order to minimise the number of disk accesses for queries involving topological and direction relations. We also investigate queries that express complex spatial conditions in the form of disjunctions and conjunctions, and we discuss possible extensions.
Building information modelling (BIM) is trying to overcome the issue of interoperability by promoting the collaboration between different professions, which enables Building Performance Assessments (BPA) to take place earlier in the design process. Nevertheless, the interoperability is rarely perfect and information is lost during translation from BIM authoring tool to simulation software or the interoperability is limited to the translation of the geometry. The discrepancies in data translations from BIM authoring tool to specific Calculation Virtual Environments (CVE) for energy and acoustic evaluation are considered. For the energy performance evaluation two software tools are tested in the present research paper, namely the Design Builder and IES VE , using IFC and gbXML as data exchange formats. Furthermore, a solution is proposed for overcoming the interoperability issue about acoustic evaluation by adapting programming language in Dynamo Graphical Interface for calculation of acoustic parameters, namely the Reverberation time and Schroeder’s frequency, which allow room quality evaluation to take place earlier in the design process as they are crucial for educational and other facility usage buildings.
While considered a relatively emergent area of research (Bloch and Sacks in Autom Constr 91:256–272, 2018), Semantic Enrichment (SE) and Semantic Web services are among the prominent topics and trends in BIM research (BIM handbook a guide to building information modeling for owners, designers, engineers, contractors, and facility managers, John Wiley & Sons Inc, New Jersey). SE computational approaches provide valuable means to overcome current BIM limitations such as interoperability, topology relationships, extensions to standard schemas, among many others. Therefore, the study herein consists of a semi-systematic literature review on BIM-based SE systems and applications developed during the last decade. The article describes the computational methods and approaches identified, a classification of the screened papers according to their primary BIM Use (https://bim.psu.edu/uses/), as well as reported limitations and recommendations for future developments. From the selected articles, main developments in SE techniques encompass multidisciplinary approaches comprising the use of Semantic Web technologies; inference rules, and rule processing engines; artificial intelligence methods; ontology mapping and semantic similarity; application of Industry Foundation Classes (IFC) libraries; and custom plugins. Considering BIM Uses, research was mostly focused on "Capture Existing Conditions" and "Validate Code Compliance". Other identified BIM Uses " verified three or fewer occurrences. Reported limitations state that more user-friendly interfaces are required to handle SPARQL queries (Lee et al. in Autom Constr 68:102–113, 2016). Moreover, the ontologies development process is deemed as time-consuming (Zhong et al. in Build Environ 141:127–142, 2018), and constraints were identified when trying to share semantic data between BIM and Geographic Information System (GIS) platforms (Zhong et al. in Build Environ 141:127–142, 2018). Future research may be expected in transitions to a more extended BIM paradigm, such as the formalization of Digital Twinning processes; discussions concerning a standard format for SPARQL query results (Karan and Irizarry in Autom Constr 53:1–12, 2015); as well as enhanced support through the transition to Linked Data and ontology-based systems.
The building industry is the world’s largest consumer of raw materials. In an effort to reduce the rate of consumption there is an urgent need to adopt more efficient recycling and reuse practices in the building industry. Emerging to support this need is the circular economy framework (circularity) – a concept that aims to separate ‘economic growth from environmental destruction’. Using the framework of circularity this research critically evaluates the ‘reuse’ performance of a key area of modern construction; the external envelope layers of timber framed buildings.
The research collates circular assessment criteria relevant to the evaluation of building envelope layers from literature. In conjunction with real-world deconstruction tests and the aforementioned circularity assessment criteria the study identifies two key trends limiting circularity in the building envelope; the widespread presence of fixings that irreversibly damage components, and the widespread use of chemically modified materials (i.e treated and/or engineered timber). Given the prevalence of such building methods in New Zealand, Australia and North America there is a clear need for research that proposes fixing and material technologies for building envelopes that meet circular economy design criteria.
Despite the unprecedented permeation of Building Information Modelling (BIM) and collaboration platforms, architects and structural engineers, for the most part, act as separate entities. That is, linking architectural models with those of structural engineers remains labour-intensive and cumbersome; structural engineers can generate few alternatives for any given architectural model. This paper is an attempt to address these problems. It provides an automated procedure, computational details and the configuration of toolsets in the form of a proof of concept (PoC) prototype that: binds architectural models with structural ones for tall buildings; automatically generates and updates alternatives for structural models, based on the input extracted from the architectural model; and provides engineers with an optimum design that fulfils the set criteria. The prototype is developed based on an initial needs assessment study – to determine the requirements of practitioners. The practicality of the solution is assessed in a case project. The paper contributes to the field by presenting one of the first solutions capable of automated generation of optimised structural design based on architectural models. Designed for tall buildings to incorporate immense complexity, the solution acts as a blueprint in developing similar systems for simpler buildings.
The acoustic modelling of timber constructions is a major concern since wood construction technology has started to tackle multi-storey buildings. The recent update of the EN ISO 12354:2017 package of standards introduced indications relative to lightweight timber structures and a distinction between CLT and frame buildings that is related to the different characterisation of flanking transmissions. Within this framework, this work presents the results of a measurement campaign conducted on CLT junctions to study the influence of the connection on the vibration reduction indices. The investigation regards the influence of the kind and number of connectors, the hierarchy of the transmission paths and the use of the resilient interlayers. The experimental data show that the transmission of vibrations between CLT panels is strongly related to the metallic connectors that characterise the junction. The analysis on the damping of CLT panels suggests that the reverberation time does not strictly depend on the adjacent elements; a comparison between the loss factor normalised data and the geometry normalised data is finally proposed.
Semantic enrichment of building models adds meaningful domain-specific or application-specific information to a digital building model. It is applicable to solving interoperability problems and to compilation of models from point cloud data. The SeeBIM (Semantic Enrichment Engine for BIM) prototype software encapsulates domain expert knowledge in computer readable rules for inference of object types, identity and aggregation of systems. However, it is limited to axis-aligned bounding box geometry and the adequacy of its rule-sets cannot be guaranteed. This paper solves these drawbacks by (1) devising a new procedure for compiling inference rule sets that are known a priori to be adequate for complete and thorough classification of model objects, and (2) enhancing the operators to compute complex geometry and enable precise topological rule processing. The procedure for compiling adequate rule sets is illustrated using a synthetic concrete highway bridge model. A real-world highway bridge model, with 333 components of 13 different types and compiled from a laser scanned point cloud, is used to validate the approach and test the enhanced SeeBIM system. All of the elements are classified correctly, demonstrating the efficacy of the approach to semantic enrichment. © 2017 This work is made available under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International license,.
This paper presents a literature overview of the acoustic studies dedicated to lightweight wooden constructions. The reviewed articles contain prediction models, laboratory and field measurements, finite element or computational investigations as well as subjective survey describing the vibro-acoustic behaviour of a large range of wooden structures. The review analyses different type of timber constructions and investigates the acoustic research methodologies highlighting the following aspects: airborne sound insulation, impact noise reduction, flanking transmissions, human perceptions and pros and cons of the presented methods. Furthermore, an in-depth analysis of impact noise of bare floors focuses on how impact sound reduction could not be as efficient as in heavyweight constructions; the comparison between the different approaches on prediction of airborne sound insulation of multilayer timber partitions compared to traditional heavy building materials is shown. Finally a subjective method survey is provided, underlining the weakest point of timber buildings: low frequency sound insulation.
This paper presents a literature overview of the acoustic studies dedicated to lightweight wooden constructions. The reviewed articles contain prediction models, laboratory and field measurements, finite element or computational investigations as well as subjective survey describing the vibro-acoustic behaviour of a large range of wooden structures. The review analyses different type of timber constructions and investigates the acoustic research methodologies highlighting the following aspects: airborne sound insulation, impact noise reduction, flanking transmissions, human perceptions and pros and cons of the presented methods. Furthermore, an in-depth analysis of impact noise of bare floors focuses on how impact sound reduction could not be as efficient as in heavyweight constructions; the comparison between the different approaches on prediction of airborne sound insulation of multilayer timber partitions compared to traditional heavy building materials is shown. Finally a subjective method survey is provided, underlining the weakest point of timber buildings: low frequency sound insulation.
The residential construction industry relies mainly on elementary two-dimensional (2D) design and shop drawings. Building Information Modeling (BIM) and parametric design have proven to be an effective technology for integrating design and construction while maintaining low cost and producing more benefits to owners, designers, and builders. However, architects, engineers, and designers may lack the time and resources needed to generate accurate BIM models or to be able to use the model information to benefit the construction process. In this paper, we propose a methodology for the automation of shop drawings for the wood-framing design of residential facilities based on a parametric model that is incorporated into a 3D-CAD model. The proposed methodology is tested in a number of virtual scenarios within the CAD environment, and is implemented as a computer program referred to in this paper as FRAMEX, a tool developed using Visual Basic for Applications (VBA) as an add-on to AutoCAD. FRAMEX adopts the guidelines at the foundation of BIM technology to generate shop drawings in which the information is consistent at every level of detail, from the studs to the panels to the home where all the panels are joined to form a single entity. It also reduces the time required for drafting design by automating the process based on 3D-CAD and parametric modeling.
The construction industry has been criticised as one of the major greenhouse gas (GHG) emitters and a relatively unregulated sector in the management of carbon emissions. As the pressure on climate change related risks is mounting, a major cut in carbon emissions from construction operations is becoming a top priority if construction firms are to meet increasingly stringent emission controls. This study describes prototype architecture for implementing a carbon emission prediction and a simulation tool for construction projects using virtual prototyping technologies that is little investigated, analysed and modelled in the existing literature. The estimated emissions of the construction operations for each activity are calculated, tabulated and plotted to visually demonstrate the emission rates side by side with the integrated 4D models of the construction project. The presented virtual prototype (VP)-based model allows project teams to visualise the predicted emissions at different times in the construction processes, analyse the emission peaks, and allow the project team to take proactive measures against potential emissions. A real-life public housing construction project in Hong Kong is adopted to demonstrate the application of the emission prediction visualisation tool. By simulating likely carbon emissions during project planning phases in advance of actual construction activities, it is hoped that the tool can encourage exploration of possible strategies to minimize carbon emissions in construction sector.
The quality of the execution of the early project phases may dramatically influence the project performance. In spite of this, early project phases have only attracted limited attention in past research. In this article we address two factors of key importance for project performance, i.e. uncertainty and the influence of project stakeholders. To shed light on the challenges encountered in the early phase we also report findings from a large-scale research project in the construction and building industry. We highlight managerial and theoretical implications.
A spatial query language for building information models enables the spatial analysis of buildings and the extraction of partial models that fulfill certain spatial constraints. Among other features, the developed spatial query language includes metric operators, i.e., operators that reflect distance relationships between spatial objects, such as mindist, maxdist, isCloser and isFarther. The paper presents formal definitions of the semantics of these operators by using point set theory notation. It further describes two possible implementation methods: the first one is based on a discrete representation of the operands' geometry by means of the hierarchical, space-partitioning data structure octree. The octree allows for the application of recursive algorithms that successively increase the discrete resolution of the spatial objects employed and thereby enables the user to trade off between computational effort and the required accuracy. By contrast, the second approach uses the exact boundary representation (B-Rep) of both spatial objects resulting in precise distance measurements. Here, the bounding facets of each operand are indexed by a so-called axis-aligned bounding boxes tree (AABB tree). The algorithm uses the AABB-tree structure to identify candidate pairs of facets, for which an exact but expensive distance algorithm is employed. The article compares both approaches by means of detailed investigations on the runtime performance of the developed algorithms.
Today's construction industry relies heavily on high-performing building information modelling (BIM) systems. By deploying the Industry Foundation Classes (IFC) as a description language, these systems offer building information in a widely interoperable format, so that several applications are able to infer extra information. For a certain functionality, IFC shows limitations however. Existing semantic web technology may be able to overcome these limitations, thereby enabling a range of significant improvements and possibilities for automation in building design and construction. This paper gives a short overview of the functionality of IFC as a language, compared to the functionality of languages deployed in the semantic web domain. The improvements generated by deploying semantic web languages are briefly discussed, after which a concrete implementation approach is presented for a semantic rule checking environment for building design and construction. An implemented test case for acoustic performance checking illustrates the improvements of such an environment compared to traditionally deployed approaches in rule checking.
In most countries in Europe, building regulations specify sound insulation requirements for dwellings. The requirements are expressed by descriptors defined in standards. Within building acoustics, ISO standards are implemented as European (EN) standards and national standards.Sufficient sound insulation between dwellings is important to protect against noise from neighbours and to provide privacy and possibilities for activities without causing annoyance. In 2008 a comparative study investigating the legal requirements for sound insulation between dwellings was carried out. This paper is a result of that study and describes and discusses the main requirements for airborne and impact sound insulation in 24 countries in Europe. The comparison shows considerable differences in terms of descriptors, frequency range and level of requirements.It is concluded that regulatory sound insulation requirements need tightening in some countries. As a starting point for further discussion, suggestions for airborne and impact sound insulation criteria providing “standard” and “increased” comfort are given. While tightening regulations implies a growing need for exchange of information and experience, the diversity in Europe creates difficulties for efficient cooperation, and harmonization of descriptors is needed. The benefits of harmonizing descriptors include facilitating the exchange of construction data, design details and development of design tools. Based on experience, legal requirements and classification criteria could be adjusted and optimized.It is proposed to establish cooperation in Europe and to prepare an “acoustical” housing directive with a related strategy paper “Research for quieter European homes in 2020” in the same way as with European initiatives for environmental noise. The noise issue has also received increasing attention from WHO. In a large analysis of European housing coordinated by WHO, neighbour noise was identified as a health problem, and reduction of noise exposure in the home was included in the proposed main objectives for a housing policy.This paper is one of two related papers about sound insulation of dwellings, dealing with requirements and descriptors in building regulations in Europe. This paper focuses on requirements, the other paper, [1], focuses on descriptors for requirements, including suitability considerations, one of them being the correlation with subjective evaluation.
A spatial query language enables the spatial analysis of building information models and the extraction of partial models that fulfill certain spatial constraints. Among other features, the developed spatial query language includes directional operators, i.e., operators that reflect the directional relationships between 3D spatial objects, such as northOf, southOf, eastOf, westOf, above and below. The paper presents in-depth definitions of the semantics of two new directional models for extended 3D objects, the projection-based and the halfspace-based model, by using point-set theory notation. It further describes the possible implementation of directional operators using a newly developed space-partitioning data structure called slot-tree, which is derived from the objects’ octree representation. The slot-tree allows for the application of recursive algorithms that successively increase the discrete resolution of the spatial objects employed and thereby enables the user to trade-off between computational effort and the required accuracy. The article also introduces detailed investigations on the runtime performance of the developed algorithms.
Current CAD tools are not able to support the conceptual design phase, and none of them provides a consistency analysis for sketches produced by architects. This phase is fundamental and crucial for the whole design and construction process of a building. To give architects a better support, we developed a CAD tool for conceptual design and a knowledge specification tool. The knowledge is specific to one class of buildings and it can be reused. Based on a dynamic and domain-specific knowledge ontology, different types of design rules formalize this knowledge in a graph-based form. An expressive visual language provides a user-friendly, human readable representation. Finally, a consistency analysis tool enables conceptual designs to be checked against this formal conceptual knowledge.In this article, we concentrate on the knowledge specification part. For that, we introduce the concepts and usage of a novel visual language and describe its semantics. To demonstrate the usability of our approach, two graph-based visual tools for knowledge specification and conceptual design are explained.
Following reviews of previous approaches to spatial reasoning, a completely qualitative method for reasoning about cardinal directions, without recourse to analytical procedures, is introduced and a method is presented for a formal comparison with quantitative formulae. We use an algebraic method to formalize the meaning of cardinal directions. The standard directional symbols (N, S, E, W) are extended with a symbol 0 to denote an undecided case, which greatly increases the power of inference. Two examples of systems to determine and reason with cardinal directions are discussed in some detail and results from a prototype are given. The deduction rules for the coordination of directional symbols are formalized as equations; for inclusion in an expert system they can be coded as a look-up table (given in the text). The conclusions offer some direction for future work.
of the Thesis Presented in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy (in Spatial Information Science and Engineering) May, 2000 Cardinal directions are frequently used as selection criteria in spatial queries or for assessing similarities of spatial scenes. Current models for cardinal directions use crude approximations in the form of the objects' minimum bounding rectangles or their generalizations to points. To overcome the limitations of these models so that improved reasoning can be performed, the coarse direction-relation matrix is introduced. It partitions space around a reference object and records into which direction tiles an extended target object falls. The detailed direction-relation matrix captures more details by recording the ratio of the target object in each direction tile or the number of separations per tile. This multi-resolution model provides a better approximation for direction relations of complexly structured spatial objects than the approach with minimum bounding rectangles.
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