Automated BIM-based process for wind engineering design collaboration

Building information modeling (BIM) can be considered a collaborative design process that allows all project stakeholders in different disciplines to contribute during the design phase of a construction project. However, interoperability issues between wind, structural engineering tools, and BIM design authoring software platforms have acted as a barrier to such collaborative design processes. This research pursued an evaluation-based approach to propose and develop a workflow for resolving the interoperability issues as well as automating significant parts of the collaborative design process. In this paper, the development of an automated modelling system to facilitate integrated structural design and wind engineering analysis using BIM is presented. The research was focused on pre-engineered building (PEB) as a case study. This research introduces some novel BIM concepts to facilitate the implementation of automation in the model development processes. These concepts facilitate engineering analysis integration and overcome challenges associated with creating and working with different level of development (LOD) models. The proposed system uses a central element level database and outputs a 3D model of the building and the computational domain for use by the computational fluid dynamics software. A BIM-based application program interface (API) and stand-alone software was developed to evaluate the proposed concepts and process and their feasibility. The results suggest a successful integration that could significantly improve the building design quality and further facilitate wind, or other, engineering design collaborations. It is also observed that the resulting process could be applied (extended) to the general architecture, engineering, and construction (AEC) industry.