RESEARCH ARTICLE


Maintenance of Buildings Using BIM Methodology



A.Z. Sampaio*, Diogo Simões
Department of Civil Engineering, IST, ICIST, University of Lisbon, Lisbon, Portugal.


Article Metrics

CrossRef Citations:
4
Total Statistics:

Full-Text HTML Views: 1907
Abstract HTML Views: 2682
PDF Downloads: 2260
Total Views/Downloads: 6849
Unique Statistics:

Full-Text HTML Views: 833
Abstract HTML Views: 1453
PDF Downloads: 1547
Total Views/Downloads: 3833



Creative Commons License
© 2014 Sampaio and Simoes;

open-access license: This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International Public License (CC-BY 4.0), a copy of which is available at: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/legalcode. This license permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.

* Address correspondence to this author at the Department of Civil Engineering, IST, ICIST, University of Lisbon, Lisbon, Portugal; Tel: +351218418336; Fax: +351218497650; E-mail: zita@civil.ist.utl.pt


Abstract

Building maintenance is the responsibility of its owner which must use, whenever appropriate, a technician to perform the inspection. A good maintenance depends on the analysis of the anomalies detected during the inspection of the site. Building Information Models (BIM) have revealed themselves as a good tool when it comes to supporting maintenance actions, due to their ability to store enough information in one digital model. The aim of the proposed work was to implement the benefits provided by BIM on a software tool used as support to maintenance of buildings. During an inspection activity for maintenance purposes, the implemented application, containing a rigorous database, allows the user to identify each anomaly present in building components, directly onto the BIM model, automatically associating them with probable causes, repair methods and a photograph of the anomaly uploaded at the site. Therefore, gains in productivity and a decrease in the error probability can be achieved. The inspection data is stored in the BIM model, making it suitable for consultation when planning maintenance. Additionally, it was case study the interoperability between BIM modeling and visualizing software, regarding the preservation of information, especially in the standard format Industry Foundation Classes (IFC). This work contributed to demonstrate, not only that there are still problems concerning the interoperability between BIM software, but also the advantages of employing BIM for building maintenance purposes.

Keywords: BIM, interoperability, maintenance.