3D CAD modeling and visualization of the tunnel construction process in a distributed simulation environment

Computer simulation has been successfully implemented in the construction industry for the decision making process; however, current modeling approaches focus mainly on process modeling and cannot integrate or assimilate information from different software. For a more complex project, 3D CAD models will help decision makers to improve integrity between design and construction process simulation, and process visualization will help them to detect deficiencies during the construction phase. High Level Architecture-based distributed simulation as a new simulation technique in construction facilitates integration and collaboration among various simulation models and allows us to standardize the integration process for computer software. It therefore enables us to integrate CAD models and 3D animation to visually control as-planned and as-built information. This paper proposes a methodology to integrate 3D modeling and visualization techniques with the tunneling construction simulation. The feasibility of the proposed methodology is validated in a real-life tunnel project in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada.