Brazilian BIM Objects Technical Standard: a first approach on Acoustics parameters

The Building Information Modeling (BIM) has increased worldwide as a new approach on the building design, construction, and facilities management. Given this panorama, the Brazilian Government enforced a regulation in 2019, Decreto 9983, which outlines a roadmap for the BIM implementation in the Brazilian construction ecosystem. As one of its guidelines is to publish the necessary technical standards, a special committee, ABNT CEE 134, was hosted at the Brazilian organization for Technical Standardization with a dedicated WG for establishing BIM objects parameters. In the framework of the WG, a subgroup on Acoustics analysis aimed to deal on how to incorporate acoustic requirements to the BIM Object. In this paper, the authors describe the development of this feature, unprecedented so far. The approach adopted for incorporating acoustic requirements into BIM objects at the Brazilian BIM Standard aimed to facilitate the workflow of acoustic consulting, while adapting it to the limitations imposed by the existing software and the construction market culture in Brazil. This paper also provides some guidelines on how this issue could be addressed in future standards revisions.

Procedural Modeling-Based BIM Approach for Railway Design

Building information modeling (BIM) is a powerful methodological approach for designers that has revolutionized the field of architecture and construction for some years now, minimizing errors and making the entire design, construction, and management process more efficient. The first results have been so encouraging that many countries, from Europe to the United States to Asian countries, have adopted specific regulations to promote its development and use. BIM models are based on the Industry Foundation Classes (IFC) standard, i.e., an object-based file format with a data model developed by building SMART to facilitate interoperability. Objects are characterized by properties, such as geometry, material, cost, and all related construction process information, such as scheduling or the maintenance process. The 3D modeling of these objects geometric information is parametric, in order to make the design more flexible. This research work offers an insight into the possibilities offered by different BIM-based tools for parametric modeling applied in the railway sector whereby an example of a railway section model is presented. Indeed, the focus will be on the creation of parametric objects representing railway components, as existing BIM object libraries lack them in the IFC2 × 3 standard format.

Integration of Life Cycle Data in a BIM Object Library to Support Green and Digital Public Procurements

To reduce the environmental and economic impacts of the construction sector it is essential to follow sustainable models in each stage of the design process, including the procurement phase. Construction costs are generally calculated at this stage, overlooking life-cycle impacts. Since 2016, the Italian code of public procurement requests to comply with environmental minimum criteria and introduced the mandatory use of digital methods and tools. Given the opportunity to exchange information through BIM objects, this research explores the possibility to manage environmental and economic data with digital methods and tools in public procurement. This paper presents an evaluation system and a workflow to support the decision makers in considering the life cycle of a construction, optimizing environmental and economic impacts. The evaluation system developed is based on parameters, focused on environmental and economic impacts. Parameters have been collected analyzing and comparing sustainability norms and protocols. Results show that the developed system not only can support a public body during the procurement phase, but also delivers a database for further project phases, such as operation and end of life.

Enabling the diffusion of sustainable product innovations in BIM library platforms

Building Information Modelling (BIM) objects represent buildingproducts in design, simulation, and procurement processes. This paper explores how BIM objects could be created and exchanged to enable the diffusion of innovative products with enhanced sustainability performance. Two BIM library platforms were examined by taking a new approach that integrates the concepts of sustainable value, diffusion of innovations, information, software usability, and platform ecosystems. The findings show that the diffusion of sustainable products can be inhibited due to problems with the mechanisms for creating and exchanging BIM objects, quality of BIM objects, the usability of BIM library platforms, and participation on the platforms. This study deepens understanding of the problems by focusing on ventilation products in Sweden. Identified shortcomings in the current practices of BIM platform owners and participants would be reduced by effective platform strategies, certification schemes for BIM objects, and BIM object creation processes integrated with product lifecycle management.