Building Information Modeling (BIM) in tunnelling

The goal of this scientific project is to develop, under consideration of existing theoretical models as well as the requests of the constructing authorities and operators, a basis for the usage of BIM in order to optimise the maintenance and services during the operation phase of tunnels. At first it is important to establish which kind of information, that has been drawn in a building’s planning and construction phase, is relevant for its operating phase. This will be decided on typical constructive characteristics of different methods of building and the affects it has on the operation phase of a construction. For example, is the difference in size of a joint significantly affecting the tightness of an immersed tunnel during its operation phase, although this constructive detail is exclusively of importance for this special type of building and cannot be identified with different constructions. In addition to that are only tunnels based on a mining construction  across the mountains equipped with drainages for mountain water and their corresponding shaft structures, that have to be maintained and cared for in a specific way during the tunnels life cycle. Those differences need to be displayed by digital models. Furthermore it needs to be distinguished between normal operation and emergency operation of tunnel buildings of  the federal road network and these differences need to be included in a BIM model. Apart from the realization of BIM models, possible applications have to be identified which help to improve the potential of BIM structures that optimize the maintenance and service of a building. For this, suitable conceptional solutions  and approaches  need to be formulated such as for Life cycle analyzations or inspections of constructions.