The Use of the BIM Approach from the Conceptual Planning to the Construction Phase: The Case Study of the SHiP Experiment

Abstract

The Search for Hidden Particles (SHiP) experiment is a new purpose fixed target facility proposed for the CERN Super Proton Synchrotron accelerator to search for long-lived exotic particles associated with Hidden Sectors and Dark Matter. This paper reports on the development of BIM integrated design for the SHiP experiment, applied initially to the Decay Volume, a >2000 m3 conical steel vessel under a vacuum hosting several large particle physics detector systems. A BIM methodology is used to address all the design phases of the Decay Volume of the SHiP experiment from the conceptual planning to the constructive drawings production. This proposed workflow is a basic plan to be repeated for each sub-component of the SHiP experiment in order to have a full and overall integration of the experiment. In particular, the Decay Volume’s geometrical and structural design and the simulation of its assembly process, both in factory and on site, are proposed. Moreover, the use of collaborative platforms to speed up the ideas exchange, as the basis of a highly multidisciplinary and complex project, is discussed. The complexity, multidisciplinary nature, and size of the SHiP project severely challenge design information management. The final plan to solve this issue is to have a BIM integrated design of each experiment sub-component, such as that demonstrated in this work for the Decay Volume, in order to have a full and multidisciplinary integration of the overall project.