Acoustic integration in BIM models

The aim of this paper is to provide an overview of the process involved in the acoustic study of a 65.000 m2 building in Luxembourg designed with BIM and to outline the necessity of improving information exchange processes between acoustic models and BIM models. The building consists of several types of rooms with different acoustic requirements. Throughout the analysis, the latest technology has been used in order to simplify the analysis and automate the process. The project whose aim is to obtain the BREEAM Excellent certificate, involved all the acoustic analysis from environmental noise impact, acoustic insulation between rooms, façade design, building services noise control, reverberation time analysis and electroacoustic simulations. Among the software used in the project were : SONarchitect which has allowed us to model the whole building at once, CadnaA, EASE and MagiCAD, which has been used to provide noise levels from the noise source through the duct path to the grille of each room from the BIM model. The objective is to highlight the necessity of being able to exchange information bidirectionally between the acoustic software and architectural software in order to avoid discrepancies during the design process and integrating acoustics within BIM models.