Preliminary research in dynamic-BIM (D-BIM) Workbench development

Past and ongoing research efforts toward seamless integration of building design and analysis have established a strong foothold in the building community. Yet, there is lack of seamless connectivity between Building Information Modeling (BIM) and building performance tools. D-BIM Workbench provides an essential framework to conduct integrated building performance assessments within BIM, an environment familiar to all stakeholders. With tighter tool integration within BIM, this open-source Workbench can be tailored to specific analysis such as energy, environmental, and economic impact of buildings. The Workbench, currently under development, will enable on-the-fly simulations of building performance tools to design, operate, and maintain a low/Net Zero Energy (NZE) built environment and beyond. This paper discusses the preliminary research in D-BIM Workbench development such as the Workbench architecture, its open-source environment, and other efforts currently under progress including integration of 3D heat transfer in the Workbench.