In recent years semantic web ontologies have improved data interoperability within architecture, engineering, construction, and operation of buildings. One of the persisting issues inhibiting quality ...assurance is a lack of robust model validation of BIM models used for HVAC flow system simulation and analysis. This article provides a novel approach for automating the BIM validation process using SHACL shapes and FSO/FPO ontologies. Using this approach will ensure that the BIM model contains the required HVAC information for simulating hydraulic systems. The paper presents multiple shapes developed to identify and validate typical HVAC design details in buildings.
•The AEC industry needs a common language to describe flow systems.•The proposed ontology FSO supports describing mass and energy flows in systems.•Using linked data and semantic web technologies to ...describe a flow system.•Supported use cases span both design and operation of buildings.•A research roadmap points out paths for future developments building on FSO.
The interoperability of information from design to operations is an acknowledged challenge in the fields of architecture, engineering and construction (AEC). As a potential solution to the interoperability issues, there has been increasing interest in how linked data and semantic web technologies can be used to establish an extendable data model. Semantic web ontologies have been developed for the AEC domain, but an ontology for describing the energy and mass flow between systems and components is missing. This study proposes the Flow Systems Ontology (FSO) for describing the composition of flow systems, and their mass and energy flows. Two example models are expressed using FSO vocabulary. SPARQL Protocol and RDF Query Language (SPARQL) queries are performed to further demonstrate and validate the ontology. The main contribution consists of developing FSO as an ontology complementary to the existing ontologies. Finally, the paper introduces a roadmap for future developments building on FSO.
The Architecture, Engineering, and Construction (AEC) industry is transitioning toward using cloud-based Common Data Environments (CDEs) with interlinked BIM models. A CDE that engages all ...stakeholders of the building's design, construction, and operation phases represents the outset of BIM maturity level 3. This article introduces a CDE called Virtual Commissioning (VC), capable of commissioning an HVAC system before the physical commissioning of the HVAC system. The FSC diagram is introduced, to represent an HVAC BIM model within the VC CDE, and the Revit to FSC exporter, to serialize an HVAC object model from Revit to the FSC diagram. Three microservices were developed to exemplify the ease of developing independently scalable solutions for the VC CDE. Furthermore, the article proves that Modelica simulations can be run, using the microservice architecture of the CDE. To test the robustness of the system architecture for the CDE, two example models were introduced, one simple and one with a high level of complexity. Transferring the example models from Revit to the VC CDE was successful. Finally, in the roadmap for future development, it is proposed that future work should focus on using the CDE for advanced hydraulic simulations, using Modelica and Spawn-of-EnergyPlus.
•The AEC industry needs to use common data environments (CDE) to raise the BIM level to 3•We introduce a common data environment called Virtual Commissioning (VC) which includes a centralized BIM database•There is a need to describe a flow system through an object model•Microservice architecture is used to make scalable web-based applications•A research roadmap points out paths for future developments building on the VC CDE
In current building design practices, the operation and performance of heating, ventilation and air conditioning (HVAC) systems are rarely documented in detail. This is mainly caused by the manual ...burden of generating detailed HVAC simulation models. To lower the barrier for detailed HVAC simulations, this paper presents an automated toolchain that generates and simulates models in Modelica language utilizing building information structured in a web-based common data environment. This approach differs from previous approaches by its focus on HVAC systems and integration with a common data environment over file-based BIM, which increases interoperability and allows users to run simulation studies in the cloud. The tool successfully generated and simulated a model of the HVAC systems in a small building under ideal and faulty operation of the heating system and thus demonstrated a fully interoperable data exchange between a common data environment and a simulation environment while showcasing the potential of analyzing HVAC systems with Modelica.
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