Table of Contents
Carbon Analysis Documentation
Standard Operating Procedure
The iTwin Experience introduces a robust new feature for Carbon Analysis. Engineers and designers can now seamlessly visualize embodied carbon within a digital twin, exploring various options to minimize the construction's carbon footprint. This integration leverages a bi-directional link with EC3, and One Click LCA, both of which perform embodied carbon calculations. By addressing infrastructure-related greenhouse gas emissions, this functionality aligns with sustainable development goals and enhances the resilience of critical infrastructure.
The iTwin Experience product streamlines continuous carbon reporting through the following process:
Prepare Bill of Quantities
iTwin iModels & Grouping
Associate Carbon and Environmental Data
Partner Integration
One is EC3, Embodied Carbon in Construction Calculator
Another Partner is One Click LCA – (Life Cycle Assessment)
Interpret the results and adjust the Proposed Design
iTwin Visualization
We can connect the Carbon report effectively and then visualize the data in the iTwin Experience Product.
iTwin- iModels & Grouping
Introduction to the groupThis step organizes the material and prepares a bill of quantities for the design. We are creating groups of design elements that will use the same construction materials so we can quantify them for the report.
When constructing any structure, it is inevitable to generate a carbon footprint, which varies based on the size of the structure and the materials used, such as concrete, wood, glass, or steel. Bentley's iModel provides the capability to calculate the volume of the structure, and by integrating a third-party library, it can estimate the carbon footprint for each material component. For instance, a stadium may have different sections made of fiber, glass, wood, concrete, or steel, each contributing differently to the overall carbon footprint. The iModel's volume calculation, combined with the third-party library's standards, allows for an accurate assessment of the carbon emissions associated with the construction materials used.Visit iTwinexperience.Bentley.com and select your project from the dropdown menu in the top left corner of your screen. Please note that any projects created on the Bentley Infrastructure Cloud will be automatically synchronized with the iTwin Experience product.
Start with the iModel Selection: Locate the iModel within the project. There should be one model available for this process.
Open the iModel: Access the existing data prepared within the iModel for the carbon calculation process.
Visualize the Design: Observe the standard iTwin visualizer in the main portion of the screen.
Access the Model Tree: Find the model tree on the right-hand side of the screen, which is similar to other iTwin tools.
Grouping
Initiate the Grouping Process: Use the group's widget on the left-hand side of the screen to start grouping the elements in the design into common material sets.Determine Material Sets: The goal is to group all elements based on the material for the carbon report based on the volume or quantity of material and the type of material. Inspect Individual Components: Click on components of the design to view their details. Depending on the maturity, you may have more or less information about the types, such as glass type and thickness.
- Create Material Groupings: Prepare different material groupings as part of the design.
- Add Group: Click on Add Group and let's explore the first method "Selection"
Selection Method: Zoom in and select an element within the viewer first, then check the properties on the left-hand side.
To do the group selection – tick the User label, so that it will select all the elements matching the User Label.
It will automatically Colorize and Zoom into Groupings for better visualization.
Add the Group by providing a Name and Description (Optional) – click on the Save button. A name can only contain letters, underscores, or digits.
If you like to see the added group again – turn on the color by Group option.
Query Keywords Method: You can also select elements using Query Keywords – in this example – type "Concrete" wall.
Click "Apply" to select the elements that match the Query Keyword
Manual Method: You can also add the Group – based on the Manual Method.
Calculated Properties
Assign Calculated Properties: Within this grouping, you need to create calculated properties that will be included in the final report. First is to select the material property, under custom calculation - and the material name in this example "concrete"- While generating the final Report by submitting this data out to our partners, EC3 and One Click LCA, all of the elements that are in this group will include a property with the name concrete. So that's the material property.
It'll also include a volume property and, if you don't have any property information to pull from in the design information, you can use a calculated property in this case of a volume calculation. This is pulling from the geometric data that is in the design elements themselves. And so, there's a couple of different options here. Depending on what the material type is and the layout, you can choose different information. We can use volume information, length, area, etc.
As you are aware - For example, for the glass, we can choose area, but for concrete or steel, we might use volume. This calculated property information is very flexible.
So, using the calculated properties and then also the custom calculation field, you can build up a rather complex calculation to include as a property within the report.
Mapped Properties
One other available property type is called Mapped properties, and this can be especially valuable if the design has some property information filled in, but it's potentially coming from a couple of different design formats and maybe inconsistent design standards. How this works is that if you have property information available, but maybe it's split across a couple of different property values coming from different design files, we can programmatically consolidate those into a single final field.
This is a huge time savings for users, who may have disorganized design information coming from different design teams, different design files, and inconsistent design data.
So now we have completed the iTwin iModels & Grouping, which is the first step in the process.
Partner Integration
EC3 Export
You then as a user can associate Carbon and Environmental Data to integrate with EC3 or to integrate with one click LCA You can visualize the carbon report, by the integration with EC3.
You need to have an account with EC3, provide your login credentials to the login prompt, and then we submit that.
We'll submit the report through that account that you have, and you need to update the dataset here.
If haven't added any reports yet. Click the button to create your first report.
Now in this step, we are exporting the group information and property information that you've prepared within the grouping widget, to the external system.
Updating the dataset for the first time can take a bit of time, especially if there have been changes in the grouping widget. You may need to update the dataset to reflect these changes. Additionally, if the iModel has been updated with new design information, this new information will become part of the design. Consequently, the groups will automatically update to incorporate these design changes, including any new or altered elements, properties, volume, and area information. This ensures that when you submit, you are providing the most recent information based on the updated design and grouping configuration. Once the data set is updated, you can click the export button.
Then it'll be submitted to EC3 as a new building project on the EC3 website. Let's check that by clicking on the Open in EC3 button.
On this report in EC3, scroll down and you can see the data that we've exported. Within the system, you can expand this and check the class group.
Addition Info: Within EC3, you can potentially define multiple materials.
So, for example, maybe within your concrete elements, you also want to represent the steel rebar included within the concrete. So, this configuration, allows you to define multiple material types to be submitted to EC3.
With this, you can understand the realized carbon coming from each one of these different areas of your design. Now you can utilize the functionality here to associate the EPDS and the different environmental data with the information that's coming from the iTwin system.
You can click save here and it'll save the project and update it.
One Click LCA Export
The one-click integration requires minimal data preparation. In this process, we simply list all the groups you created and indicate what we expect to submit. There is a button that submits this information to the One Click website. Users need a paid subscription to One Click. Thanks to our partnership agreement, we can have user accounts on the One Click website. When you export data to One Click, it becomes a project there. However, there is no round-trip functionality for One Click, meaning you cannot pull data back into our system. All configuration is done within the One Click website, similar to EC3. We are in discussions with the One Click team to add a visualization component in the future, but this feature is not available yet.
iTwin Visualization
Now with this step, you can interpret the results and adjust the Proposed Design. Get back to the iTwin Product to visualize the Carbon Analysis Report from EC3. Click on the < Manage Reports
Click on the Visualize EC3 Reports.
So, if I click on this and visualize this information in the design.
This provides a visualization that allows users to overlay reports directly onto individual element information in the design. This capability is unique in the industry, as it eliminates the need to sift through spreadsheets or dashboards to identify which elements are represented within the carbon information.