Fire Engineering Analysis for Complex Geometry Building Based on BIM Integrated Simulation Platform

Based on the promotion of BIM in the construction industry, building approval, issue of construction permit and building commissioning by the Ministry of Housing and Urban–Rural Development of the PRC and Shenzhen, the use of BIM model for the fire safety design and analysis for a landmark project have been discussed in this paper. Due to the special architectural design of the project, fire engineering approach has been adopted to cater for the design features that were not covered by the prescriptive fire codes. Fire spread analysis based on CFD simulation which was developed from the BIM model has been carried out. An interactive VR platform based on the architectural BIM model and simulation results has also been developed to assist the authority and expert panel during the project special fire approval process. It was found that the integration of BIM model in the fire engineering analysis has significantly increased the design efficiency since the design process has been simplified. The platform has also facilitated the fire approval process since the authorities and experts can understand the fire issues and solutions in a direct way. The experience presented in this paper can be used as the example for the use of BIM in fire design and approval process on similar projects.