BIM- Building Information Modelling

[kurnal]

BIM is a hot topic and the Govt will require 3D BIM on all its projects from this year. Whilst this is straightforward for some elements of fire safety, for example alarm, lighting and sprinkler designers and installers, I am curious as to how CFD modelling for fire engineered solutions will integrate iwith  the iBIM system.

CFD modelling for fire engineering  relies on very specific and bespoke software such as FDS and it seems to me this software creates unique demands and produces  specialist 3D CAD models unique to the discipline and incompatible with other elements of the BIM . Is this a  potential problem or am I worrying unnecessarily?

I have asked several key players and bodies how this will work but nobody  has so far answered my question.  Does anyone have any thoughts or information on this?

[David Rooney]

Not sure exactly how this may impact but Hochiki are doing a webinar that may be of interest .....

http://www.hochikieurope.com/hochiki/eventslist.php?eventID=37

[wee brian]

In respect ofthe CFD software. It'll need to be compatible with the state of the art electronic design information. I'm sure the people that produce this stuff will be on the case - or out of work!

I think this is still some way off.

[kurnal]

FDS the most widely used and arguably the best system in the market especially as it's free.It  is produced by NIST in the US. They are unlikely to be driven by politics in the UK. There may or may not be issues with incompatibility- I don't know how integrated the 3D CAD  systems have to be to be to meet the BIM requirements, or if for example presentation of the drawings on the current autcad software would meet the requirements. Are the systems required to integrate with each other for BIM? There are many similarities between CAD requirements between ventilation systems and fire modelling but many differences too.

[Fishy]

I'm not sure that it's strictly necessary for fire & smoke modelling to be integrated with the BIM.  FDS (other CFD packages are available) might use the CAD output from the BIM Model as input, but typically the output from the CFD simply shows you whether or not what's currently in the Model works (in fire safety terms) or not - it doesn't directly alter the Model - that has to be done manually.  I see it as input to the model but it doesn't necessarily have to form part of the model itself.

We work within a multi-disciplinary design organisation where we routinely operate at BIM Level 2+ using Autodesk Revit - we sometime use FDS to inform the design, but we've never had any requests to try & make FDS 'talk' directly to BIM, & to be honest I'm not sure why it would be a useful function to have.

[Tom Sutton]

The web seminar THE IMPACT OF BIM ON FIRE SAFETY is on at 1300 today.

http://www.hochikieurope.com/hochiki/eventslist.php?eventID=37

[Fishy]

They mean, of course, the impact of BIM on that part of fire safety that involves the kit that sniffs and wails...

It is actually a big issue for the product / system suppliers because they should already have much of their product data available in a common data format so that the Model can use it.  If the installers alter the design when they install they should also feed those alterations back so the alterations get incorporated in the Model... (like that's going to happen)!

[Tom Sutton]

If you would like to see the BIM seminar check out https://youtu.be/tQSFaZKIosk