Building Information Modeling (BIM) for Electrical System Design

Building Information Modeling (BIM) is used frequently when working across multiple disciplines, including mechanical, electrical, plumbing, and fire protection engineering, and also with other stakeholders such as architects and contractors. Data Center Design with BIM is one of the obvious examples to facilitate and streamline complex design teamwork and coordination.

Consulting engineers, on the other hand, are facing with the same challenges, including the increment of speed and complexity of projects, which evolve codes and standards and a continual push for the electrical discipline to advance in BIM.


While BIM has been around for 20 years and is used regularly by architects and both structural and civil engineers, adoption by mechanical, electrical, plumbing (MEP), and fire protection engineering firms has only started to take off in more recent years. Today, as more architects require all parties working on a project to engage with BIM, consulting engineers are demanding the tools necessary to advance BIM in the electrical space, such as the ability to access more information online and easier access to BIM models and manufacturer support and expertise.

An overall view of a building shows a single mechanical, electrical, plumbing, and fire protection (MEP/FP) design model representing accurate location and overall dimensions of equipment and systems. This image is rendered from a single Revit model containing MEP/FP disciplines along with IT and audio-visual (AV) disciplines representing accurate location and overall dimensions of equipment and systems.


The value of BIM is that it gets the right information to all the right people at the right time, enabling collaboration, productivity, and insight. However, there are some challenges, particularly in the electrical space, that must be overcome for BIM to reach its full value.

A partial model view shows electrical equipment, mechanical/plumbing equipment ducts and piping, along with a related pump schedule.


One key challenge to BIM adoption in the electrical space is the lack of accurate, relevant, and standardized BIM content. To date, to move forward with BIM implementation, many firms have had to develop their own content libraries - often by downloading from a repository of manufacturers' products online.

This poses challenges, as many products are subject to frequent manufacturer updates; which means that maintaining an up-to-date content library becomes difficult. For example, if a user downloads an electrical panelboard and leaves it on his or her hard drive for several years, the product information in the BIM environment will quickly become outdated as the downloaded content remains static, yet the actual product continues to evolve.

It's critical that product data remains up-to-date in BIM models. BIM is not just a design tool that stops being used after the construction phase of a project; rather, it is an overall lifecycle tool that uses the information from conception through design and commissioning and into operation and maintenance of the building.

The power of BIM lies in the information. At any point in the lifecycle of a project, the information must be accurate to help reduce time-consuming errors and rework. Additionally, it must be accessible from virtually anywhere, at any time, and by all the project stakeholders - and it must be actionable to help inform the decision-making process with simulation and analysis.

Bridging the gap between BIM environments and product data is critical to the advancement of BIM in the electrical space.



About us

Strategic Media Asia (SMA) is one of the approved CPD course providers of the Chartered Institution of Building Services Engineers (CIBSE) UK. The team exists to provide an interactive environment and opportunities for members of ICT industry and facilities' engineers to exchange professional views and experience.

SMA connects IT, Facilities and Design. For the other design considerations, please visit 

(1) Site Selection,
(2) Space Planning,
(3) Cooling,
(4) Redundancy,
(5) Fire Suppression,
(6) Meet Me Rooms,
(7) UPS Selection,
(8) Raised Floor,
(9) Code & Standards,
(10) Transformers and Harmonic Distortion,
(11) Multi-mode UPS Systems,

(12) Electrical Rooms,

(13) Generator Systems, etc.

All topics focus on key components and provide technical advice and recommendations for designing a data center and critical facilities.

Data Center Design with Building Information Modeling (BIM)

   

Data center design involves a lot of timing of schedules, organization, tracking of materials and changes, etc. with complex design teamwork and coordination. For this reason, the process of Building Information Modeling (BIM) is introduced to facilitate and streamline data center project designs:

Better project coordination

BIM allows everyone - architects, electrical and mechanical engineers, project managers, etc. - involved in the project to input their data into the shared model. Information is kept in one place, which helps with communication and project coordination. 

Faster fault detection and assessing problems

Using 3D computer models allows the project team to detect and evaluate errors or fault easily that could cause an issue during construction. Your mission-critical building is shown in scale, and you are able to enter manufacturer details / data into a 3D model, visualizing the whole project and important issues during the design.

Deeper design preparation with improved management

Data centers is designed for large amounts of IT equipment supported by critical facilities (MEP - mechanical, electrical, plumbing equipment). All of these equipment & facilities have high power consumption. They must be fit properly, have proper distribution and suit certain service clearances. The routing of BIM allows electrical & mechanical (EM) designers and structured cabling system designers ( for optical fiber, high voltage / low voltage cables, etc.) to know exactly where to model for heat dissipation and adjust for any electrical duct work, and allows engineers to adjust for proper air flow.

For the raised-floor, it can be especially tricky. Most floor installers do not model their installations — adjustments for structural bridging and support are typically made in the field. Creating a BIM model of the flooring allows the installer to understand where the MEP systems are located in relationship to the pedestal support systems.Flooring installers can see where they need to modify their support framing early in the process and fabricate the necessary bridging and support components to span across the MEP systems where necessary. This eliminates the time and effort it would take to do this in the field once the MEP systems are installed, thus decreasing the field installation time.

By incorporating computational fluid dynamic (CFD) simulations into the BIM model, engineers can evaluate and fine tune server layouts based on the thermal modeling. You’re able to visualize how the air will flow inside the data center and see the temperature variation based on the height and how the air is moving. It’s especially helpful in being able to see how the servers in a computer room receive cold air and how hot air is removed (hot aisle & cold aisle).

Smoother commissioning and operations & maintenance (O&M) tasks

Data centers require a series of precise commissioning process to ensure performance and reliability. Commissioning information tags for each piece of equipment and feeder can be added to the BIM model to keep a live database of commissioning process status. These information are so valuable to the operational staff, such as submittals, O&M manuals, as-built plans, balancing reports and commissioning reports. When this information is inserted into the BIM database, the information can be retained and viewed for each piece of equipment, rather than in separate volumes. Data center operators would benefit from a comprehensive set of information.

Source: BICSI - BIM in Data Center Design (www.youtube.com/watch?v=u3ExZq-3iMA)

About us

Strategic Media Asia (SMA) is one of the approved CPD course providers of the Chartered Institution of Building Services Engineers (CIBSE) UK. The team exits to provide an interactive environment and opportunities for members of ICT industry and facilities' engineers to exchange professional views and experience.

SMA connects IT, Facilities and Design. For the Data Center Consideration Series, please visit 

(1) Site Selection,
(2) Space Planning,
(3) Cooling,
(4) Redundancy,
(5) Fire Suppression,
(6) Meet Me Rooms,
(7) UPS Selection, and
(8) Raised Floor

All topics focus on key components and provide technical advices and recommendations for designing a data center and critical facilities.