The IUT du Limousin is part of the University of Limoges. The Civil Engineering department, now known as Civil Engineering and Sustainable Construction, has been based in Egletons since 1969. It teaches the following specialties: public works and development, diagnostics, maintenance and heritage rehabilitation, and trains structural designers. www.ancieniutegletons.fr
Modeling a viaduct in the EXE phase
As part of their end-of-study project at the IUT de Génie Civil d'Egletons, 6 students supervised by Richard Lonjou produced the as-built BIM model of the Malemort-sur-Corrèze Viaduct, based on the project's written and graphic documents, as well as their observations on the construction site.
Thanks to the Model Sharing licenses provided by Trimble Solutions, they were able to complete the work in record time, just 3 weeks to analyze the project, understand the technical terms and implementation technologies, discover the Tekla Structures software and use it to model the entire structure.
For the team in charge of modeling the viaduct's supports (piles, footings and piers), one of the challenges was the formwork for the pier, whose double-curvature intermediate section could be modeled in Tekla Structures using the Smoothing slab function.
As the reinforcement of the C0 abutment was particularly complex, Model Sharing enabled them to work together more efficiently by dividing up the reinforcement to be installed, and more precisely by systematically checking the data transmitted by the pair at each acquisition.
And as it's a Bim model, it was then used to generate preliminary estimates, model the phasing of the C0 abutment and produce a reinforcement book.
The two students who worked on the jetty were a little skeptical before starting the project about the possibility of learning to use the software while modeling the structure. They were quickly reassured by how easy it was to get to grips with Tekla Structures. For them too, Model Sharing was a real asset in meeting the very tight deadlines imposed by the project, enabling them to alternate efficiently between on-site survey sessions and work on the model.
Working in 3D was a real asset for understanding the project as the modeling progressed, and the use of a BIM execution tool enabled a real educational approach. This was the case for the installation of welds, which had to be carried out according to the actual manufacturing phasing in order to obtain coherent assemblies.
The experience was very rewarding for all, and the only regret they expressed was that they hadn't had a little more time to georeference the project on the terrain model generated in Mensura, to compare the finished model of the boom with the point cloud of the structure surveyed on site with a 3D scan, or to use the XR10 available at the IUT to visualize the model in mixed reality during the oral presentation...
