Here’s where AEC firms and owners are getting the most bang
for the buck when using BIM/VDC to coordinate data center projects.
Data centers are among the most complex building types,
requiring a significant amount of coordination among Building Team members,
often with a compressed schedule and in tight spaces. Perhaps no other project
type stands to benefit more from coordination using building information
modeling and virtual design and construction than data centers.
“Everyone speaks to the benefits of BIM for coordination and
clash detection on projects, but when you talk about all of the lines of
conduit and other elements that you’re running through what are ultimately very
tight spaces, it’s a steroidal environment when you’re talking about a data
center,” says Bryant Farland, Senior Vice President and Leader of Skanska’s
Mission Critical Center of Excellence. “Coordination becomes just that much
more important, therefore, BIM becomes that much more useful.”
Building Design+Construction reached out to several AEC
professionals who specialize in data centers to identify the areas of planning,
design, and construction where they’re getting the most value out of BIM/VDC
coordination. They pinpointed the following:
1. Planning the space
Data centers have huge mechanical and electrical capacities
for their footprint—as many as 30 times the typical office building.
Furthermore, the equipment is typically concentrated outside the server halls
to reduce risk to the IT equipment. Together, these factors create incredibly
dense equipment spaces and major duct, pipe, and conduit distribution paths,
says Tom Boysen, Senior Project Manager with Sellen Construction
(www.sellen.com).
“BIM helps data center designers confirm that the equipment
and distribution can all fit, verify maintenance and service clearances, and
analyze pressure drop and voltage drop with the actual routing,” says Boysen,
who leads Sellen’s data center work. “Underground electrical feeders can be so
dense that they could overheat and melt down if not designed properly. BIM’s
precise routing allows electrical designers to model the heat dissipation and
adjust the electrical duct bank configuration accordingly.”
2. Coordinating
prefabrication
Data center clients, whether wholesale operators, tech
firms, or financial institutions, are pushing the pace of new construction and
retrofit projects. Fast track is passé. Uber fast track is the new standard as
clients look to get their facilities online sooner.
To help speed construction, AEC firms are prefabricating
many of the building systems and components, from the enclosure to the
mechanical and electrical systems. BIM/VDC is vital for designing and testing
prefabrication concepts with respect to material handling, path of travel, and
installation sequence.
“We’re constantly pushing the amount and types of items we
fabricate at our facilities,” says Jason Rahn, Group Vice President with The
Hill Group (www.hillgrp.com). “This allows us to minimize the amount of fit-up
and welding in a field environment, and it allows us to maintain excellent
quality assurance due to the majority of our work being built in a controlled,
shop atmosphere.”
Rahn points to a recently completed data center that
required 450 welds for the piping systems, of which only 20 needed to be
performed in the field. “The reduction in field welding required us to have
only one welding machine on site,” he says. “It also decreased the field
installation time from about 20 working days to just five.”
One prefabrication tip from Rahn: Make sure to include
hangers in the BIM model. “It allows us to fabricate all piping supports and
hangers en masse, deliver to the site early, and have installation completed
prior to piping and ductwork material deliveries.”
3. Managing project
phasing
Data center projects are typically phased to avoid building
out expensive capacity that is not needed on day one. Often, the initial
capacity target shifts during design and construction due to leasing activity
and the difficulty of projecting the need for computer power, says Boysen.
“By adding a phasing element to the BIM model, the team can
analyze the cost, schedule, and energy consumption at different phase steps,”
says Boysen. “BIM supports phasing by quickly allowing the team to modify the
design documents, adding or subtracting modules of power and cooling. Then,
after the day-one construction is complete, BIM supports future development
with an accurate record of the installed condition, allowing the team to plan
future deployments with confidence.”
4. Integrating
raised-floor layouts
Raised access floors can be especially tricky, says Rahn,
because most floor installers do not model their installations—adjustments for
structural bridging and support are typically made in the field. Creating a BIM
model of the flooring allows the installer to understand where the MEP systems
are located in relationship to the pedestal support systems.
“By coordinating and integrating this into the modeling
process, flooring installers can see where they need to modify their support
framing early in the process and fabricate the necessary bridging and support
components to span across the MEP systems where necessary,” says Rahn. “This
eliminates the time and effort it would take to do this in the field once the
MEP systems are installed, thus decreasing the field installation time.”
5. Keeping the
routing free of conflicts
Transmitting the capacity out of the densely packed
equipment requires multiple layers of stacked conduit, duct, and piping. Using
the model, the detailers can pick up where the designers left off, adding
intelligence to the individual elements. “Tight project schedules don’t allow
for field routing to solve conflicts, so the routing must be solved during the
detailing stage to allow for 99.99% conflict-free installation,” says Boysen.
6. Enabling
commissioning and O&M tasks
Data centers require a robust commissioning process to
ensure performance and reliability. Commissioning information tags for each
piece of equipment and feeder can be added to the BIM model to keep a live
database of commissioning process status.
“As with any new facility construction, the information that
is so valuable to the operational staff—namely submittals, O&M manuals,
as-built plans, balancing reports, and commissioning reports—is sometimes never
transmitted to them, and then often lost over the years as the personnel turn
over,” says Boysen.
When this information is inserted into the BIM database, the
information can be retained and viewed for each piece of equipment, rather than
in separate volumes. “Whether they are facing a problem or trying to improve
energy efficiency, data center operators would benefit from a comprehensive set
of information,” he says.
7. Analyzing air flow
By incorporating computational fluid dynamic (CFD)
simulations into the BIM model, engineers can evaluate and fine tune server
layouts based on the thermal modeling. “By incorporating that process into the
Revit model, we’re able to visualize how the air will flow inside the data
center and see the temperature variation based on the height and how the air is
moving,” says Luis Cetrangolo, AIA, Associate at Integrated Design Group
(www.idgroupae.com). “It’s especially helpful in being able to see how the
servers in a computer room receive cold air and how hot air is removed.”
Cetrangolo says the CFD modeling is used more as a
verification of engineering calculations than as a design tool. “It’s really a
fine-tuning process.”
Source: BDC
Network
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