Going beyond BIM with FCP`s engineering experts

2 minutes read.
Last modified: October 2022

Simulated wind streamlines around apartment building design for architecture competition.

Rheologic and the BIM experts of FCP have teamed up to explore optimization options for digital engineering workflows around BIM. Specifically, the teams wanted to get a first idea about exchanges of design and BIM data, level-of-detail information, and effective ways to automate a full wind-comfort assessment from the design model to the re-import of the finished simulation into the design model.

The teams had barely met for an hour (shout-out to DigitalFindetStadt for introductions) when they decided on the spot to move forward with a concrete project example for an architectural competition. The teams quickly agreed on the data exchange format - Industry Foundation Classes (ifc), which is quickly becoming an international standard and is one of our recommended data formats.

Wind simulation through structural steel construction.

Two days after the meeting, the first designs were transmitted and discussed. 3 days after the design freeze, the simulation was started, and final renders were transmitted 2 days later. Along the way, the teams had to solve a couple of issues: First, there was the complex geometry of the steel lattice in the design, which was fully resolved for the simulation to live up to Rheologic’s principle of delivering high-fidelity simulations. Secondly, there was the issue of the open staircase structure, which allows airflow horizontally but not vertically, which we had to implement for the CFD solver to compute the flow correctly.

Despite the tight time-frame, the teams managed to deliver the full results on time for the competition deadline, where our elegant streamline renders underlined FCPs attention to detail and their commitment to go the extra mile with their designs.

Since both teams were quite happy with the cooperation, they agreed to explore further options to collaborate in fields like urban green architecture simulations, fast fire simulations and possibly storm / tornado simulations in the field of resilient city modeling. We are also fully committed to streamlining our workflow even further, so that high-fidelity, overnight simulations, delivered in fully interactive 3D, will give our customers a real edge in their work!

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