The American Concrete Institute (ACI) announced the formation of a new technical committee on building information modeling (BIM) of concrete structures.
BIM allows project designers to create a digital model that represents a building or structure to ensure proper interface among building systems and materials before construction begins. ACI believes BIM's main advantage lies is that the digital model is "data-rich and intelligent, not merely lines representing a structure. Its clash-detection feature is of an immediate economic benefit since it identifies conflicts during design, eliminating errors that would have then been fixed during construction."
"In projects that use multiple building materials, like steel and concrete, all materials need to be included in the BIM model," said Peter Carrato, chair of the new ACI Technical Committee on BIM. "The steel industry has been using BIM consistently for about a decade, so there's a definite need for the concrete industry to step up."
The new ACI Technical Committee 131, Building Information Modeling of Concrete Structures, will hold its inaugural meeting during the ACI Fall 2009 Convention in New Orleans Nov. 8-12. Individuals interested in applying to join this new committee or attending the meetings are encouraged to visit ACI's website at www.concrete.org and click on "Committees."
Committee membership includes engineers, architects, software developers, academia, contractors, and government entities.
