BIM-BASED ENERGY PERFORMANCE EVALUATION OF A BUILDING ENVELOPE IN SEMI-ARID CLIMATE ZONE IN THE MIDDLE EAST

Abstract

ABSTRACT The BIM building envelope integrates a BIM building’s internal and external environments, improving energy efficiency and substantially lowering energy usage. This research aimed to assess the energy efficiency of typical building envelope materials in Iran. To do this, we used Autodesk RevitR to generate a generic model and DesignBuilderR to conduct an energy analysis. The BIM building envelope integrates a BIM building’s internal and external environments, improving energy efficiency. A BIM building envelope energy analysis was performed on 58 local wall constructions material in Iran. Then, the energy consumption of a BIM building’s HVAC system was then compared against the costs of all external wall alternatives to determine the optimal layer combination. Consequently, the energy simulation results demonstrated that the double external wall structure, 2AAC block core, with XPS (CFC) insulation exterior wall and the single external wall, PERLEX Ultra-Lightweight (PUW) wall performed better. In addition, the clay block wall is found to be the optimum solution for the case study location. The applicability of the proposed system is validated with a case study of a traditional residential building.