A new frontier of BIM process: Geotechnical BIM

Building Information Modeling (BIM) is widely used by civil engineers and architects to design structures and infrastructures. Actually, geological and geotechnical data are not used at all in the BIM design process, even though most of the risks and uncertainties of a construction derive from the unknown underground conditions. The paper presents an application of BIM design process in Geotechnical Engineering through the case study of the historical centre of Sant'Agata de' Goti in the south of Italy. The numerous boreholes performed on site were imported into the BIM software to create the interfaces between soil layers and the 3D geometry of the entire cliff. Finally, the design of a soil nail reinforcement of the hill was modeled. The paper highlights the advantages of geotechnical design in the BIM process in terms of accuracy of the model, the ease in retrieving and managing complex informations and interoperability between softwares employed in the different design phases.