An Ontological Approach to Building Information Model Exchanges in the Precast/Pre-stressed Concrete Industry

Building Information Modeling realm is expanding with the advent of new technologies, processes and software for Architecture, Engineering, Construction and Facility Management industry. The importance of robust knowledge sharing between different stakeholders in a project is of highest priority in such scenarios. model diew definitions provides an empirical specification for the implementation of the Industry Foundation Class (IFC) schema by software companies. The objective of this research is to create an ontological framework, which makes the IFC definitions more formal and consistent. A formal specification of IFC entities to create taxonomy of classes and subclasses between them is adopted for this research. Such an approach will make model view specifications unambiguous and reusable thereby reducing the development time of model views. The precast/pre-stressed concrete industry is selected as the domain for the ontology definitions. Case studies developed illustrating the exchange of a fabrication model between architect/engineer, precast detailer and fabricator shows the feasibility of this approach. The outcome of this research provides the mechanism for applications such as modular MVDs, smart and complex querying of building models, making data sharing across applications simpler with limited rework.