BIM-FEM interoperability for the modelling of a traditional excavated tunnel

The Building Information Modelling approach started to be implemented recently for the infrastructure design such as roads, railways, bridges, tunnels, although the BIM model not always integrates the digital terrain model that requires the availability of site surveys and specific tools to interpolate the available data into a 3D model. The present work recognizes the possible development of this innovative design approach compared with the possible integration of the geological-geotechnical information for the definition of the digital terrain model and its potential applicability to infrastructures and, more in general, to geotechnical structures and works (e.g. excavations, foundations, soil reinforcement, dams, underground structures). Focusing on these aspects, a possible procedure to implement geotechnical information into a BIM model has tested for a benchmark case history of tunnelling with conventional heading in the urban area of Naples.