WITTHUHN, TYLER1; SHARIF, SHANI2; GENTRY, RUSSELL3; ELDER, JEFF4

1) Graduate Research Assistant, Georgia Institute of Technology, School of Civil Engineering, tyler.witthuhn@gmail.com

2) Doctoral Student, Georgia Institute of Technology, School of Architecture, shani@gatech.edu

3) Associate Professor, Georgia Institute of Technology, School of Architecture, russell.gentry@coa.gatech.edu

4) Sales Manager, Interstate Brick, jeff.elder@paccoast.com

This research focuses on the development of an infrastructure for the data representation and information exchange of masonry units in the life-cycle of a building project. This effort, entitled as Masonry Unit Model Definition (MUMD), is part of the Building Information Modeling for Masonry Initiative in North America. Specifically, this paper discusses the required information for the design, procurement, and construction with masonry products. The primary deliverable is a proposed structure for the Masonry Unit Database (MUD), a data model for the representation of all the geometric and non-geometric information needed to select, specify and purchase masonry units. In this regard, the paper discusses the classification of masonry units at two levels: at the high level in conformity with existing classification systems, and at the low level based on the similarities of materials and other attributes. Finally the paper discusses in detail the workflow of two design and construction sub-processes – structural design, and masonry procurement – with their associated BPMN and ER database models.

Keywords: Building Information Modeling, BIM, Masonry Units, Data Schema