IFC-Based Framework for Evaluating Total Performance of Building Envelopes

Abstract

Evaluating the overall performance of buildings has emerged as a trend in building engineering in recent years. Several programs that evaluate building performance have been developed or are being developed in different regions of the world. The building envelope performance assessment tool was initiated at Concordia University based on the feedback received from manufacturers. After briefly introducing the development of the tool, this paper presents an integrated framework which applies information technology and the international standard Industry Foundation Classes (IFC) to ensure that the building envelope satisfies energy requirements as well as other requirements such as moisture and thermal performance, concurrently. The framework is designed to extract geometric and material layers’ data of a house from computer-aided design (CAD) drawings in IFC data model, link to performance evaluation applications, such as HOT2000 and MOIST3.0, and compare evaluation results with a set of criteria. To demonstrate the functionalities of this framework, a prototype system has been developed including a preprocessor that imports the building model from an IFC-compatible CAD application, an application integrator, and a postprocessor. Finally, a case study, which aims to validate this prototype system, is discussed in detail.