Automated optimization of formwork design through spatial analysis in building information modeling

Formwork construction for reinforced cast-in-place concrete work is costly, often time-consuming and complex to plan and design. Even though the process of calculating the proper formwork design is lengthy and complex, the responsibility is usually left to a field manager/engineer which may not have enough time and resources identifying all possible options to select the most effective formwork. The design aspects that go into formwork include several parameters such as concrete pressure, bending, deflection, and horizontal shearing. Even though there are equations and calculations for each of those parameters in the design of concrete formwork, the process of performing the calculations for each concrete formwork application is still lengthy. Therefore, construction managers often rely on their previous work experiences and apply similar formwork designs for most situations. By developing a BIM (Building Information Modeling) based automatic formwork design system, this research aims to optimize the formwork design process required to perform the calculations for the design of the formwork by automatically extracting the properties and data from a BIM model. The case study shows that the proposed formwork design approach successfully automates the formwork design in BIM modeling using IFC extension by comparing the different materials and costs. The result of the case study reveals that the efficiency of the formwork design process could be greatly improved by utilizing the proposed formwork design system.