Development of a BIM-Based Data Management System for Structural Health Monitoring with Application to Modular Buildings: Case Study

Abstract

Modular buildings or off-site construction of building units are increasingly gaining momentum. Although such construction practices have advantages in terms of cost competitiveness and delivery time, they have many issues related to structural integrity and secondary stresses from vibration during transit and misalignment during installation. Therefore, monitoring the vibration, strain, and deformation of the modules using structural health monitoring (SHM) techniques is important. The primary purpose of this study is to explore building information modeling (BIM) techniques to facilitate effective data management and the representation of sensory components of the SHM system in a building and to render or visualize the damage or distress in building components based on the interpretation of sensor data. The proposed framework consists of two main modules: (1) an automated sensor-based data acquisition and storage module, which extracts sensor data for a structure from a corresponding relational database; and (2) an automated data and damage visualization module, through which sensor data are interpreted to identify damage or anomalies in the structure and the affected building components are highlighted and tagged in the BIM of the building to facilitate visualization. The damaged or near-damaged elements of the modules are highlighted in the BIM model through color-coding based on predefined threshold strain values. Because detecting buckled or yielded steel members (local damages) in a building or a module is challenging given that these components are often hidden behind fireproof coating and drywall, the proposed SHM-based condition assessment system will contribute—especially in the preinstallation and operational phases—to providing efficient, near-real-time health monitoring of buildings and increasing the efficiency of the structural condition assessment process. These benefits could be particularly useful for modular buildings, for which the modules are constructed in a plant and transported to the site for installation. In these stages, a module may undergo hidden or visible damage, the installed sensors are expected to provide a mechanism to assess such damage, and the entire process can be managed through BIM. Importantly, note that although a similar concept was explored by other researchers to integrate SHM with BIM, the present study provides a more comprehensive methodology through the complete implementation of the system to demonstrate the concept through a case study.