Building Information Modeling (BIM 6D) and Its Application to Thermal Loads Calculation in Retrofitting

Abstract

The purpose of this study is to propose optimal actions to improve the energy efficiency of large office buildings in tropical regions with cooling systems, while ensuring the users' comfort at a reasonable cost. In tropical climates, the building envelope plays a crucial role in saving thermal energy as buildings are exposed to significant climatic impacts and require a significant amount of energy to achieve optimal indoor comfort conditions. In this context, BIM-3D simulation is considered to be effective since it can provide results very similar to those of its physical counterpart, which can be useful for decision making. For this purpose, a public building in Costa Rica is used as a case study, which is modeled in Revit 2019 to obtain a BIM-3D model and simulate its thermal behavior using the BIM tools of the referred software. The architectural characteristics are evaluated in the climatic context of the building, and results are simulated with different configured materials. The obtained results lead to the conclusion that simulation together the previous economic analysis is a valuable decision-making tool for design, enabling significant savings during construction and subsequent building use.