Search

Argues that the conventional Delphi procedure offers decision makers a user-friendly, rigorous, and systematic strategy for collecting and disseminating critical information. Reviews literature related to the Delphi procedure, provides a rationale for its use, describes its distinctive features, reviews points of contention, and provides an indication of past and present uses. (DSK)

This paper reports an empirical study that tested the usefulness of Web-based four-dimensional (4D) construction visualization in collaborative construction planning and scheduling. Several recent construction projects have employed 4D visualization to better understand the construction schedule and make proactive decisions to prevent logical errors in the construction sequence. Other groups have shown that construction information management with asynchronous Web-based communication can improve decision making among dispersed industry practitioners. It seems reasonable to anticipate that combining 4D visualization with Web-based information management would facilitate dispersed industry practitioners to make collaborative decisions for construction planning and scheduling. The empirical study presented here reports how experiment participants at separate locations collaboratively detected logical errors in a construction schedule when the 4D visualization model of the schedule was represented on the Web browser. Our results show that teams using 4D models detected logical errors more frequently, faster, with fewer mistakes, and with less team communication, than teams using 2D drawings and bar charts. These findings show industry practitioners empirical evidence that Web-based 4D construction visualization can improve team collaboration on construction planning and scheduling. DOI: 10.1061/(ASCE)0733-9364(2007) 133:6(447) CE Database subject headings: Construction management; Computer aided scheduling; Internet; Empirical equations; Imaging techniques.

This paper presents a framework for integrating building information modelling (BIM) and object-oriented physical modelling-based building energy modelling (BEM) focusing on thermal simulation to support decision-making in the design process. The framework is made of a system interface between BIM and Modelica-based BEM and the visualization of simulation results for building designers. The interface consists of the following two major features: (1) pre-processing BIM models to add required thermal parameters into BIM and generate the building topology and (2) translating BIM to Modelica-based building energy modelling automatically and running the thermal simulation. The visualization component presents the simulation results in BIM for designers to understand the relationship between design decisions and the building performance. For the framework implementation, we have created a ModelicaBIM library and utilized the Modelica Buildings library developed by the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory. We conducted a case study to demonstrate and validate the framework simulation results. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

This paper presents a new approach to translate between Building Information Modeling (BIM) and Building Energy Modeling (BEM) that uses Modelica, an object-oriented declarative, equation-based simulation environment. The approach (BIM2BEM) has been developed using a data modeling method to enable seamless model translations of building geometry, materials, and topology. Using data modeling, we created a Model View Definition (MVD) consisting of a process model and a class diagram. The process model demonstrates object-mapping between BIM and Modelica-based BEM (ModelicaBEM) and facilitates the definition of required information during model translations. The class diagram represents the information and object relationships to produce a class package intermediate between the BIM and BEM. The implementation of the intermediate class package enables system interface (Revit2Modelica) development for automatic BIM data translation into ModelicaBEM. In order to demonstrate and validate our approach, simulation result comparisons have been conducted via three test cases using (1) the BIM-based Modelica models generated from Revit2Modelica and (2) BEM models manually created using LBNL Modelica Buildings library. Our implementation shows that BIM2BEM (1) enables BIM models to be translated into ModelicaBEM models, (2) enables system interface development based on the MVD for thermal simulation, and (3) facilitates the reuse of original BIM data into building energy simulation without an import/export process. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Evaluates the substantive literature relating to the Delphi procedure, provides a rationale for its use and describes the distinctive features. Derivation of the term `Delphi'; How to use the Delphi technique; Selection of expertise.

• Method of performance evaluation for climate-adaptive building envelopes. • Integration of CABE behavior generation and performance simulation using a BEM. • Improvement of the validity of CABE performance. • Assessment of alternative complex three-dimensional CABE geometries. • Assessment of alternative patterns of a CABE's adaptive operation. This research presents a new method for evaluating the energy performance of climate-adaptive building envelopes (CABEs) called parametric behavior maps (PBMs). There are three main challenges when evaluating a CABE for energy performance that are not overcome by the currently accepted process: (1) representing complex three-dimensional dynamic geometry; (2) generating various candidate CABE control scenarios by integrating environmental factors and their thresholds; and (3) representing a CABE's time-varying behavior within a single building energy model (BEM). To overcome these challenges, the PBM method was developed. This method makes two key contributions to the field of performance-driven building design. First, it is capable of generating hourly CABE operation scenarios to evaluate CABE performance using a single BEM, regardless of dynamic operation and any geometric complexity. Second, the PBM method is superior at handling the effects of thermal energy storage with dynamic operations than is the currently accepted process. The reliability of the PBM method was validated by comparing indoor temperature profiles obtained from a PBM and the existing method. The new method enables designers to integrate the energy performance of a CABE system with multiple control scenarios, ultimately improving the building design process. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper presents a new approach to translate between Building Information Modeling (BIM) and Building Energy Modeling (BEM) that uses Modelica, an object-oriented declarative, equation-based simulation environment. The approach (BIM2BEM) has been developed using a data modeling method to enable seamless model translations of building geometry, materials, and topology. Using data modeling, we created a Model View Definition (MVD) consisting of a process model and a class diagram. The process model demonstrates object-mapping between BIM and Modelica-based BEM (ModelicaBEM) and facilitates the definition of required information during model translations. The class diagram represents the information and object relationships to produce a class package intermediate between the BIM and BEM. The implementation of the intermediate class package enables system interface (Revit2Modelica) development for automatic BIM data translation into ModelicaBEM. In order to demonstrate and validate our approach, simulation result comparisons have been conducted via three test cases using (1) the BIM-based Modelica models generated from Revit2Modelica and (2) BEM models manually created using LBNL Modelica Buildings library. Our implementation shows that BIM2BEM (1) enables BIM models to be translated into ModelicaBEM models, (2) enables system interface development based on the MVD for thermal simulation, and (3) facilitates the reuse of original BIM data into building energy simulation without an import/export process. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper presents a new approach to translate between Building Information Modeling (BIM) and Building Energy Modeling (BEM) that uses Modelica, an object-oriented declarative, equation-based simulation environment. The approach (BIM2BEM) has been developed using a data modeling method to enable seamless model translations of building geometry, materials, and topology. Using data modeling, we created a Model View Definition (MVD) consisting of a process model and a class diagram. The process model demonstrates object-mapping between BIM and Modelica-based BEM (ModelicaBEM) and facilitates the definition of required information during model translations. The class diagram represents the information and object relationships to produce a class package intermediate between the BIM and BEM. The implementation of the intermediate class package enables system interface (Revit2Modelica) development for automatic BIM data translation into ModelicaBEM. In order to demonstrate and validate our approach, simulation result comparisons have been conducted via three test cases using (1) the BIM-based Modelica models generated from Revit2Modelica and (2) BEM models manually created using LBNL Modelica Buildings library. Our implementation shows that BIM2BEM (1) enables BIM models to be translated into ModelicaBEM models, (2) enables system interface development based on the MVD for thermal simulation, and (3) facilitates the reuse of original BIM data into building energy simulation without an import/export process.