Service-oriented Architecture for Data Exchange between a Building Information Model and a Building Energy Model

Building energy simulation has become an important method for reducing energy use and carbon dioxide emissions in sustainable building design. In the last decade, we have witnessed the employment of building information model (BIM) and internet technologies to be harnessed for energy-efficient building design. In this research the data exchange between a Building Information Model (BIM) and a Building Energy Model (BEM) is investigated. In previous research energy simulation engines are integrated into the BIM application for BIM users to evaluate the design directly at the conceptual design stage. After the conceptual design stage the energy analysis task is shifted to professional engineers. In a conventional process, engineers analyse the BEM, which has been previously exported manually from the BIM, and optimize the parameters in the BEM. These results are then used to manually update the BIM used in design. However, this process is cumbersome and error-prone as it is hard to keep the BEM up-to-date with the BIM, and the optimization of the parameters on the BEM cannot be easily synchronized back to the BIM model. The increasing uses of the internet for data exchange and new database technologies have the potential to change this. We employ service-oriented architecture (SOA) to connect the components of services in each side of BIM and BEM. Based on a critical study of data and schema in the BIM and the BEM model, we propose a SOA based BIM and BEM exchange framework that can be used to support the collaboration and information synchronization among the participants in a sustainable design project. This framework is exemplified using a case study.