ABSTRACT
Transport infrastructures such as roads, railways and runways are under increased traffic loading and their rehabilitation has to be performed in an efficient way, structurally and financially. In this process, monitoring of structural and functional capacity of transport infrastructures using nondestructive tests is performed in a systematic way. It is important to take advantages of these measurements to plan a future rehabilitation.
Using the Building Information Modelling (BIM) methodology, it is possible to obtain a model that, besides containing the three-dimensional graphic representation of the pavement or rail track and its physical and mechanical characteristics, also has information regarding the structural condition resulting from the continuous inspections.
The authors developed case studies of BIM applied to roads, runways and railways for the integration of structural capacity in the modelling, the study of transition zones and their behavior and the modelling of rehabilitation solutions for existing infrastructures.
To minimize compatibility problems between the various software based on this methodology, a standard format called Industry Foundation Classes (IFC) has been developed. This allows the user to have access to all the information without being limited to the source software of the model.
In this paper, the application of IFC to railways projects was evaluated. Therefore, basic criteria that allow IFC to store all the essential information for the railway design were presented in this study. Their implementation in a case study of a railway structural assessment is still under development. The main troubleshooting and consideration reached so far are presented herein, identifying the advantages of BIM approach.
