Title:

Conception and development of a standardized evaluation database for software-based structural analysis according to VDI 6201 for the use of structural analysis and design software in BIM-based process chains

Funding:

Federal Institute for Research on Building, Urban Affairs and Spatial Development (BBSR) as part of the Research initiative “Future Building”

Term:

07/2016 - 03/2019

Brief summary:

In the future, planning processes in the construction industry will be almost exclusively software-based. Digitalization requires clear standardization of the software used with regard to its reliable use in an automated BIM process chain. So far, developments and applications of software for structural analysis are hardly regulated. In Germany, structural analysis software can be brought onto the market by anyone and can also be used by anyone. There are no specific requirements or even rules for quality assurance, neither on the part of the producers nor on the part of the user. The data flows in complex, holistic building models, which are unavoidable in continuous BIM planning, will make the evaluation and checking of software-based structural analysis much more difficult in the future.

The research project "Conception and development of a standardized evaluation database for software-based structural analysis according to VDI 6201 for the use of structural analysis and design software in BIM-based process chains", which is funded as part of the Zukunft Bau research initiative, is intended to enable quality assurance of structural analysis software in the future by means of evaluation examples. 19 project participants from research and industry ensure the development of a practical example database.

VDI 6201 part 2 gives hints for the design of evaluation examples. Examples should be chosen "for which error bounds can be specified for the solution, the exceeding of which leads to the assumption that the software is faulty or which should show whether a certain performance feature (e.g. consideration of shear deformations) is included in a software".

Reference solutions must comply with the generally accepted rules of technology, i.e. it is not mandatory to use the best possible scientific theory and thus the most realistic solution as a basis, but the calculation method corresponding to the accepted state of the art. The verification examples should help software producers and their software developers to uncover their own conceptual errors. They should enable software users to determine the suitability of a software product for their specific problem.

Research partners:

Further information and results:

• Evaluation database

• Research Report

Harte, R., Stopp, K., Müller, N. (2020) Konzeption und Aufbau einer standardisierten Beispieldatenbank für softwaregestützte Tragwerksberechnung in Anlehnung an VDI 6201 für den Einsatz von Statik-Software in BIM basierten Prozessketten. Final report, Forschungsinitiative Zukunft Bau F 3198, Stuttgart: Frauenhofer IRB Verlag

Free download via the publisher "Frauenhofer IRB Verlag" here

• Article VDI-annual edition 2018/2019 Bauingenieur

The article about the research project published in the VDI annual edition 2018/2019 of the magazine "Bauingenieur" has also been published as an offprint and can be downloaded here (http://www.bauingenieur.de).