BIM2BEM Flow - Continuous BIM-based energy efficient planning

Starting point / motivation

Continuous energy efficiency planning aims to apply building physics analyses and simulations from the early design phase to the completion of construction in order to keep the energy balance within a target corridor and to implement changes in the planning process with a high degree of automation. Today, a large number of software solutions are available internationally for building physics analyses and simulations, e.g. for the planning and optimization of heating, cooling, air conditioning, ventilation, lighting or shading.

In practice, however, the realization of consistent workflows for energy efficiency planning is still associated with major hurdles. The discussion currently often focuses on the exchange of data between tools.

On the one hand, there are authoring tools for the generation and data management of digital building models (Revit, Allplan, ArchiCAD, etc.), and on the other hand, there are the tools for building physics analysis and simulation. Data exchange between these tools and the different parties involved (architect, building physicist, TGA planner, etc.) is not yet a reality in broad practice today.

Contents and goals

BIM2BEM-Flow addresses the interoperability of tools, but goes beyond these technical issues. The goal is to further develop the process approach into a workflow approach for continuous energy efficiency planning.

Project participants are to be provided with a tool-based framework at the conceptual level, with which tool workflows can be generated on the basis of exchange requirements and integrated into BIM tools.

This should enable specific exchange scenarios to be ensured dynamically and automatically. The backbone of the framework will be the continuous selection, aggregation and versioning of parameters. This process on meta-data level shall enable the automated transformation of BIM data sets and the interoperability of the considered tools.

Methods

Established standards and tools are considered for the design of the BIM2BEM workflow framework, in particular IFC (Industry Foundation Classes) for data exchange, as well as attribute platforms. Model and data transformation techniques will then be used to realize the conceptual workflows at the level of BIM models and tools. The project will produce a proof-of-concept that includes daylighting and artificial lighting simulation, as well as energy balancing.

Expected results

The goal is to create a workflow framework that supports users from the construction and real estate industry to configure energy assessment workflows flexibly and without detailed knowledge of technical standards and data formats.

Project management

Institut für Konstruktion und Materialwissenschaften, Assoz. Prof. Dr.-Ing. Rainer Pfluger

Project or cooperation partners

• Bartenbach
• Passivhaus Institut Innsbruck
• Riederbau GmbH & Co KG
• Universität Innsbruck, Institut für Informatik, Quality Engineering

Josef Miller M.Sc.
Technikerstraße 13a
A-6020 Innsbruck
Tel.: +43 (512) 507-63611
E-mail: Josef.miller@uibk.ac.at
Web: https://www.uibk.ac.at/bauphysik/