Integrating building information modeling and life cycle assessment in the early and detailed building design stages

With inappropriate design or construction, the functions and service life of buildings begin to decline from the day of official use until they are demolished and resulting in extremely high cumulative cost throughout the building life cycle (BLC). However, the development of building information modeling (BIM) provides a solution for short BLCs and massive cumulative cost caused by errors occurring during the building design and construction phases. BIM is an innovative technique applicable to building design and construction management that has been vigorously developed in the construction industry. The development of BIM technology is now a global trend that can not be ignored, similar to 2D CAD before. BIM can be further developed into several aspects and applied during the construction phase, most important of all, enhance the overall building functionality and save operating cost throughout the BLC.

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Building-information-modeling enabled life cycle assessment, a case study on carbon footprint accounting for a residential building in China

Journal of Cleaner Production ◽

10.1016/j.jclepro.2018.02.070 ◽

2018 ◽

Vol 183 ◽

pp. 729-743 ◽

Cited By ~ 39

Author(s):

Xining Yang ◽

Mingming Hu ◽

Jiangbo Wu ◽

Bin Zhao

Keyword(s):

Life Cycle Assessment ◽

Life Cycle ◽

Carbon Footprint ◽

Building Information Modeling ◽

Residential Building ◽

Information Modeling ◽

Building Information

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Development of green template for building life cycle assessment using building information modeling

Journal of Fundamentals of Renewable Energy and Applications ◽

10.4172/2090-4541.c1.006 ◽

2015 ◽

Vol 05 (06) ◽

Author(s):

Sungho Tae

Keyword(s):

Life Cycle Assessment ◽

Life Cycle ◽

Building Information Modeling ◽

Information Modeling ◽

Building Information ◽

Building Life Cycle

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A Two-Stage Building Information Modeling Based Building Design Method to Improve Lighting Environment and Increase Energy Efficiency

Applied Sciences ◽

10.3390/app9194076 ◽

2019 ◽

Vol 9 (19) ◽

pp. 4076 ◽

Cited By ~ 2

Author(s):

Sha Liu ◽

Xin Ning

Keyword(s):

Life Cycle ◽

Optimal Design ◽

Building Information Modeling ◽

Design Method ◽

Building Design ◽

Information Modeling ◽

Optimized Design ◽

Building Information ◽

Lighting Environment ◽

Building Designs

Buildings are one of the largest energy consumers in the world, and have great energy saving potential. Thermal systems and lighting systems take most of the energy in a building. Comparing with the optimization solutions developed for a thermal system, the research of improving the lighting system is insufficient. This study aims to improve the lighting environment and reduce the energy by optimizing the building design, which has the largest potential for cutting energy economically compared with the other stages in the life cycle of a building. Although many approaches have been developed for building design optimization, there is still one big problem obstructing their successful practices, in that the designers who take the responsibility of making building designs are not experts in building physics, thus they are not capable of calculating the most appropriate parameters and operating the professional software to optimize their designs. Therefore, this study proposes a user-friendly method for designers to improve building designs. Firstly, Building Information Modeling (BIM) and particle swarm optimization algorithm are applied to build an intelligent optimal design search system. The optimized design from this system can largely use daylighting for internal illumination and save energy. Secondly, different types of lighting control systems are compared and the one which can save maximal energy is added to the selected optimal design. A case study demonstrates that optimized designs generated by the proposed design method can save large amounts of life cycle energy and costs, and is effective and efficient.

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Development of a Carbon Emissions Analysis Framework Using Building Information Modeling and Life Cycle Assessment for the Construction of Hospital Projects

Sustainability ◽

10.3390/su11226274 ◽

2019 ◽

Vol 11 (22) ◽

pp. 6274 ◽

Cited By ~ 8

Author(s):

Kun Lu ◽

Xiaoyan Jiang ◽

Vivian W. Y. Tam ◽

Mengyun Li ◽

Hongyu Wang ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Life Cycle Assessment ◽

Life Cycle ◽

Carbon Emissions ◽

Building Information Modeling ◽

Green Building ◽

Information Modeling ◽

Analysis Framework ◽

Inventory Analysis ◽

Systematic Analysis ◽

Building Information

Buildings produce a large amount of carbon emissions in their life cycle, which intensifies greenhouse-gas effects and has become a great threat to the survival of humans and other species. Although many previous studies shed light on the calculation of carbon emissions, a systematic analysis framework is still missing. Therefore, this study proposes an analysis framework of carbon emissions based on building information modeling (BIM) and life cycle assessment (LCA), which consists of four steps: (1) defining the boundary of carbon emissions in a life cycle; (2) establishing a carbon emission coefficients database for Chinese buildings and adopting Revit, GTJ2018, and Green Building Studio for inventory analysis; (3) calculating carbon emissions at each stage of the life cycle; and (4) explaining the calculation results of carbon emissions. The framework developed is validated using a case study of a hospital project, which is located in areas in Anhui, China with a hot summer and a cold winter. The results show that the reinforced concrete engineering contributes to the largest proportion of carbon emissions (around 49.64%) in the construction stage, and the HVAC (heating, ventilation, and air conditioning) generates the largest proportion (around 53.63%) in the operational stage. This study provides a practical reference for similar buildings in analogous areas and for additional insights on reducing carbon emissions in the future.

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