TECHNICAL | DIGITAL/BIM
BIM-BASED GROUND MODELLING FOR TUNNEL PROJECTS
The trend for digitalisation in geotechnics and tunnelling has been spearheaded by developments in BIM. But despite advances, BIM ground modelling remains a challenge due to the inherent
heterogeneity and uncertainty of ground conditions, which are difficult to describe and model. This paper presents a new concept and framework for ground modelling in BIM. It looks at state of the art use of the approaches on Austria’s Angath Tunnel project and discusses also what is required still to enable industry-wide adoption. The work on BIM ground modelling contributes to standardised and comprehensible work processes, and also gives a stronger foundation in data to support decision-making
Authors: Georg H. Erhartera,b,c,, Jonas Weild, Lisa Bache a, Frederic Heile, Peter Kompolschekf ageo.zt gmbh; b
Institute of Rock Mechanics and Tunnelling, TU Graz;
cNorwegian Geotechnical Institute (NGI), d eÖBB-Infrastruktur AG; f
INTRODUCTION Being part of the global trend of digitalisation, the past decade has seen a rapid increase in the interest in digital techniques for geotechnics and tunnelling. Developments range from augmented reality, an increased use of scanning technology (laser-scanning/ photogram- metry) and artificial intelligence to applications of robots and unmanned aerial vehicles inside tunnels (Marcher et al., 2020; Huang et al., 2021). One of these topics is building information modelling
(BIM) and, for example, Borrmann et al. (2019) define it as “... a comprehensive digital representation of a built facility with great information depth. It typically includes the three-dimensional geometry of the building components at a defined level of detail. In addition, it also comprises non-physical objects, such as spaces and zones, a hierarchical project structure or schedules....”. BIM is, therefore, a way of modelling buildings
digitally before their construction to detect flaws as soon as possible. While the development of BIM is already far advanced
in structural engineering, BIM in geotechnics and tunnelling is currently seeing a rapid development and a transition from academic and pilot use cases to ‘real world’ applications and common practice. Despite general publications on BIM in tunnelling
(Daller et al., 2016; Berdigylyjov and Popa, 2019; DAUB, 2019, 2020; Kapogiannis and Mlilo, 2020; Huang et al., 2021; Ninic et al., 2021), several recent publications address specific aspects of BIM in tunnelling, such as ‘BIM to FEM’ approaches (Alsahly et al., 2020; Fabozzi et
12 | October 2023
iC consulenten Ziviltechniker GesmbH; DI Arch. Peter Kompolschek
al., 2021), settlements (Providakis et al., 2020, Providakis et al., 2021) and others (Ninic et al., 2020). Published case studies on applications of BIM for tunnelling projects are for example Cudrigh-Maislinger et al. (2020); Weichenberger et al. (2020); Wenighofer et al. (2020); Mitelman and Gurevich (2021); Wang and Zhang (2021). While there is extensive literature on different aspects
of (engineering) geological 3D models from past decades (e.g., Gong et al. (2004); Caumon et al. (2009); Horner et al. (2016); Erharter et al. (2021)), the specific literature about BIM ground models (BIMGM) is rather sparse with few examples (Kessler et al., 2015; Daller et al., 2016; Weil, 2020). The referenced publications mostly address specific technical tunnel-related topics, while this paper will focus on the geotechnical ground model as a part of the overall BIM coordination model of a tunnelling project. We first present background information on the state
of the art and current developments in BIM ground modelling on which the presented concepts are based (Section 2). In accordance with these developments, we then
contextualise the BIMGM within a construction project’s overall BIM structure and also within a project’s life cycle (Section 3). The section also addresses different possible use cases of the BIMGM. In Section 4, we present the concepts of selected
‘sub-discipline models’ of a BIMGM which are then applied to the real-world case study – Angath Tunnel’, in Section 5.
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