A common data environment for HVAC design and engineering

The Architecture, Engineering, and Construction (AEC) industry is transitioning toward using cloud-based Common Data Environments (CDEs) with interlinked BIM models. A CDE that engages all stakeholders of the building's design, construction, and operation phases represents the outset of BIM maturity level 3. This article introduces a CDE called Virtual Commissioning (VC), capable of commissioning an HVAC system before the physical commissioning of the HVAC system. The FSC diagram is introduced, to represent an HVAC BIM model within the VC CDE, and the Revit to FSC exporter, to serialize an HVAC object model from Revit to the FSC diagram. Three microservices were developed to exemplify the ease of developing independently scalable solutions for the VC CDE. Furthermore, the article proves that Modelica simulations can be run, using the microservice architecture of the CDE. To test the robustness of the system architecture for the CDE, two example models were introduced, one simple and one with a high level of complexity. Transferring the example models from Revit to the VC CDE was successful. Finally, in the roadmap for future development, it is proposed that future work should focus on using the CDE for advanced hydraulic simulations, using Modelica and Spawn-of-EnergyPlus.