Work

Advancing wharf structural health monitoring with openBIM: Evaluating and extending IFC for enhanced interoperability

Year: 2026

Type: article

Abstract: The increasing awareness of the economic and social impacts associated with the ageing, deterioration, and extreme events affecting wharves, critical marine infrastructure, has highlighted the necessity of advanced Structural Health Monitoring (SHM) during the Operation and Maintenance (O&M) stage. Effective implementation of SHM systems requires seamless integration of data across the lifecycle of a wharf, multiple stakeholders and diverse disciplines, involving technologies like Building Information Modeling (BIM), Internet of Things (IoT), and Digital Twin (DT). A significant challenge in this process is addressing interoperability and compatibility issues in the processing and integration of information from various disciplines, platforms, or software. To tackle this, Industry Foundation Classes (IFC), an extensible schema grounded in the openBIM concept, is proposed as a data schema solution for Wharf Structural Health Monitoring (WSHM) in this research, based on its widely-recognized application in other engineering domains. To validate IFC's applicability for the WSHM field, we establish a comprehensive WSHM system framework tailored to wharf-specific requirements, and Level of Development (LOD) definitions of structural and monitoring components within this framework. Using these LOD guidelines, we then map the WSHM system to the IFC 4.3 schema, modeling components via EXPRESS-G to assess representation coverage. The findings reveal that the IFC 4.3 schema effectively represents 57% of wharf components and 50% of monitoring system components. However, 19% of wharf components and 50% of monitoring system components are only partially represented, and 24% of wharf components are unrepresented. To address these deficiencies, this study explores extensions to the IFC schema to enhance its capacity for representing incomplete and non-expressible components. This research contributes to advancing openBIM initiatives in WSHM, providing a foundation for enhanced interoperability and data integration in this critical field.

Source: Ocean Engineering

DOI: 10.1016/j.oceaneng.2026.125317

Authors: Jing Jia, Ailin Xi, Yiqing Ding, Guohao Wang

Institutions: Ocean University of China, University College London

Language: English

Topic: BIM and Construction Integration

Subfield: Building and Construction

Field: Engineering

Domain: Physical Sciences

SDG: Industry, innovation and infrastructure

Open Access status: hybrid

Estimated APC paid: $4,150