Validation of technical requirements for a BIM model using semantic web technologies

While progressing through the different stages of a project in the architecture, engineering, and construction (AEC) sector, a project must continuously comply with several requirements. Yet, human skills are often essential when it comes to validating these requirements, which can be error-prone and contributes to the loss of information in the information stream of a project. As has been indicated before, higher levels of automation can be achieved by describing, querying, and validating AEC project data using the technology stack offered by the Semantic Web (SW). Particularly the logical basis of these technologies (semantic rulechecking) is promising, as it allows a more consistent representation and checking of such requirements. As part of the development of a decentralized rule-checking system using SW open standards, this study investigates particularly to what extent the more challenging requirements can be checked, such as 3D geometric requirements and more ambiguous or vague requirements. Tangible and clear results described in this report are (1) a concise classification of rule types that apply to BIM models, (2) a system architecture for a semantic rule-checking system, and (3) a demonstration of this system through three use cases. The results show how 66% of a document containing human-readable requirements can be validated automatically. Furthermore, a clear indication is given of how the semantic compliance check can be combined with 3D geometric compliance checks into a scalable web-friendly architecture.