Case studies

The iBrIDS (intelligent Bridge Information Decision System) project, developed by the University of Padua, has been completed. The project is focused on the definition of an innovative methodology for the intelligent management of existing bridges and viaducts, through bidirectional integration, in a digital and automated context, of geometric, material, performance and structural information with the deterioration conditions of the artefacts and active sensors.

The project, the results of which were illustrated on March 24^th in a public webinar, was structured in three different research paths, concerning the construction technique, the digital survey and the digitization of infrastructures in the BIM environment, the integration and management of information derived from sensors from an IoT perspective.

As part of this last research path, Tecnoteca made its openMAINT platform available to the University of Padua, through a company participating in the project, to carry out experimental tests on the integration and management of BIM data based on open IFC and sensor data from IoT devices.

openMAINT, already operating in the area of ​​bridge and road infrastructure management, first of all made it possible to illustrate the functionality of a BMS platform adapted to current regulations.

As a data integration platform based on open-source solutions, it then allowed to import tests of four different files in IFC format constituting the BIM models of some existing or ad hoc modeled bridges, relating in particular to the “Carbonifera bridge” in Venice, the “Viale del Piave overpass” in Verona and a generic three-span bridge whose BIM model also included the registry, geometric and spatial hierarchical structure of some sensor networks.

The experimentation confirmed the potential of the system, and in particular:

• the ease of access from the application to information synchronized by BIM;
• the navigation compatible with the hierarchical-spatial structure defined by the BIM-IFC databases;
• the correspondence between the components involved in maintenance and the data structure of the models;
• the immediate access to the geometric-spatial characteristics of the artifacts and individual components through the IFC 3D viewer;
• the possibility of associating IoT data with sensors defined in the BIM model and imported into openMAINT.

Starting from the functionalities already present in the platform and from the results that emerged from the tests and from the mapping and display of information from the different databases, the research was able to advance hypotheses for the development of methodological processes for BMS of bridges and viaducts.

It has been considered the implementation of procedures for identifying the risk of critical events linked to the instantaneous reading of real data compared with the threshold values ​​indicated in the BIM model (information check), on the trend analysis of sensors time series through future developments of predictive algorithms, on the automatic generation of corrective maintenance activities, on the early activation of scheduled maintenance activities (inspections).

Finally, the remote use of on-site platforms was considered to support inspection / maintenance / intervention operations through direct and interactive access to information, usable by browsing and querying the integrated BIM databases.