Modeling and simulating spatial requirements of construction activities

Spatial conflicts often occur on construction sites and can have significant impact on the total construction progress. However, the specification and calculation of spatial requirements for construction processes is very time-consuming. For this reason, spatial aspects are often not considered adequately in practice. In this paper an approach for modeling spatial requirements of construction activities using building information models is introduced. Based on the Partial Model Query Language (PMQL) some extensions have been developed to define spatial requirements efficiently. To identify and solve spatial conflicts, the spatial requirements can be integrated into a constraint-based simulation approach. During the simulation run, processes are evaluated regarding their spatial requirements. If spatial conflicts are detected, processes are rescheduled accordingly by increasing process durations or postponing start dates.