IfcWoD, Semantically Adapting IFC Model Relations into OWL Properties

Abstract: In the context of Building Information Modelling, ontologies have been identified as interesting in achieving information interoperability. Regarding the construction and facility management domains, several IFC (Industry Foundation Classes) based ontologies have been developed, such as IfcOWL. In the context of ontology modelling, the constraint of optimizing the size of IFC STEP-based files can be leveraged. In this paper, we propose an adaptation of the IFC model into OWL which leverages from all modelling constraints required by the object-oriented structure of IFC schema. Therefore, we do not only present a syntactic but also a semantic adaptation of the IFC model. Our model takes into consideration the meaning of entities, relationships, properties and attributes defined by the IFC standard. Our approach presents several advantages compared to other initiatives such as the optimization of query execution time. Every advantage is defended by means of practical examples and benchmarks.