Heritage-BIM for energy simulation: a data exchange method for improved interoperability

ABSTRACT

The use of Building Information Modelling (BIM) for Building Energy Simulation (BES) is challenged by inadequate data integration and unreliable data and geometry conversion. Despite recent efforts to address critical interoperability issues, the effective exchange of data between the two digital environments remains a non-truly fulfilled promise of the digital transformation agenda for the industry. To contribute to the broader community effort in mitigating this deficiency, the present article proposes an alternative method for securing an improved BIM to BES workflow for existing and heritage buildings. The proposed method suggests an alternative way for integrating environmental analysis data to the Heritage BIM model, as well as an easy to develop visual programming process for missing data recovery, through auxiliary exchange operations. The article also presents lessons learned for the geometrical conversion of BIM elements with non-standard and irregular attributes, evaluated through the energy retrofit application of a colonial heritage building. The proposed method demonstrates how visual programming tools and common data exchange formats can supplementary assist existing practises to deal with major interoperability obstacles. The overall findings contribute to current efforts in the field, for the establishment of good practices of using Heritage BIM for energy retrofit architectural interventions.

KEYWORDS:

• Heritage Building Information Modelling (H-BIM)
• Building Energy Simulation (BES)
• energy retrofit
• green building extensible markup language (gbXML)
• interoperability

Acknowledgements

The case study and the BIM to BES interoperability workflow presented in this article comprises an integral part of the scope and research objectives of the ENI-CBC-MED project BEEP: Building Information Modelling for Energy Efficiency in the Public Sector. The BEEP project aims to provide local public administrations with a methodology for the energy retrofitting of the public building stock based on the use of BIM.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Notes

1 Dynamo is an open-source visual scripting platform for computational design, integrated in the BIM software Autodesk Revit.

2 Notepad⁺⁺ is a free text and source code editor for Microsoft Windows.