Traditional construction planning, which depends on historical data and heuristic modification, prevents the integration of managerial details such as productivity dynamics. Specifically, the distance between planning and execution brings cost overruns and duration extensions. To minimize variations, this research presents a Building Information Modeling (BIM)-integrated simulation framework for predicting productivity dynamics at the construction planning phase. To develop this framework, we examined critical factors affecting productivity at the operational level, and then forecast the productivity dynamics. The resulting plan includes specific commands for retrieving the required information from BIM and executing operation simulations. It consists of the following steps: (1) preparing a BIM model to produce input data; (2) composing a construction simulation at the operational level; and (3) obtaining productivity dynamics from the BIM-integrated simulation. To validate our framework, we applied it to a structural steel model; this was due to the significance of steel erections. By integrating BIM with construction operation simulations, we were able to create reliable construction plans that adapted to project changes. Our results show that the developed framework facilitates the reliable prediction of productivity dynamics, and can contribute to improved schedule reliability, optimized resource allocation, cost savings associated with buffers, and reduced material waste.

This paper presents an algorithm to translate building topology in an object-oriented architectural building model (Building Information Modeling, BIM) into an object-oriented physical-based energy performance simulation by using an object-oriented programming approach. Our algorithm demonstrates efficient mapping of building components in a BIM model into space boundary conditions in an object-oriented physical modeling (OOPM)-based building energy model, and the translation of building topology into space boundary conditions to create an OOPM model. The implemented command, TranslatingBuildingTopology, using an object-oriented programming approach, enables graphical representation of the building topology of BIM models and the automatic generation of space boundaries information for OOPM models. The algorithm and its implementation allow coherent object-mapping from BIM to OOPM and facilitate the definition of space boundaries information during model translation for building thermal simulation. In order to demonstrate our algorithm and its implementation, we conducted experiments with three test cases using the BESTEST 600 model. Our experiments show that our algorithm and its implementation enable building topology information to be automatically translated into space boundary information, and facilitates the reuse of BIM data into building thermal simulations without additional export or import processes.