8/16/2019 Heapy Engineering - Simulation CFD Success Story

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utodesk Customer Success Story Heapy Engine

OMPANY

Heapy Engineering

OCATION

incinnati, Ohio, USA

OFTWARE

utodesk® Revit®

utodesk® Simulation CFD

Autodesk Revit allowed usto communicate detaileddesign with the entireteam efficiently.

— Joe Ferdelman

Senior PrincipalHeapy Engineering

Taking in the fresh air.Autodesk software helps make critical cost and timesavin

decisions in a new hospital’s HVAC system design.

Image courtesy of AECOM

Project summary

Heapy Engineering is nationally recognized forits leadership in sustainably based mechanical,electrical, and plumbing (MEP) and technologysystems design, as well as commissioning,planning, and energy services, and its involvementin more than 200 LEED® projects. The firm, whichhas four offices across the Midwest, was recentlyselected to design all of the MEP/fire protectionsystems for Mercy Health’s new 250-bed WestHospital, a greenfield project being constructedon a 60-acre campus near Cincinnati, Ohio.

Heapy Engineering had worked on other projectsfor Mercy Health, and was awarded this projectfollowing a formal request for proposals processinvolving several competitors.

Construction began on the 635,000-square-foot,US$180 million West Hospital in 2011. The facilitywill be home to a wide range of Mercy Health’smedical services, including a heart care center,cancer center, and women’s health center. Itscrowning glory: a unique “prairie landscape” thatwill encompass two acres of the hospital’s eastand southwest rooftops and provide a dramaticgreen view from the patient towers. When thefacility opens in 2013, it will be another greenachievement Heapy Engineering can take creditfor helping to bring to fruition—and in this case,even faster than anticipated. Among the manypositive outcomes Heapy Engineering has realizedon the West Hospital project by using Autodesk®software, the firm has been able to:

• Give large “light wells” a dual purpose as criticalfresh air intakes and relief air discharge for thehospital;• Build a large portion of MEP systems for the250-room patient tower in a warehouse off-site;• Help the contractor reduce construction time onthe project by several months.

The challenge

Mercy Health – West Hospital’s private patienrooms are designed to provide views of theoutdoors, including of the building’s expansivgreen roof. Large windows will let in amplesunlight, creating a brighter, more openatmosphere in the patient rooms. “In healthcdaylight is such a valuable asset—for patientsand hospital staff,” says Joe Ferdelman, a senprincipal and leader of the Health Care Groupat Heapy Engineering, as well as the principalcharge for the West Hospital project. “Howev

in larger hospitals, it’s difficult to get light intodiagnostics and testing (D&T) departmentsbecause they’re such big platforms.”

Early in the hospital’s design process, thearchitects, AECOM and Champlin Architecturdeveloped a physical model of a D&T space toshow how the light problem could be addresusing “light wells.” As the Heapy Engineeringteam integrated thearchitect’s strategy into tdesign, they thoughtof a way to make the ligwells serve anotherpurpose for the hospital:routing for fresh air intake and relief air.

Heapy Engineering’s team identified two lighwells in the architect’s model that were bestpositioned for handling the hospital’s air intaand HVAC discharge needs. “The D&T area is 100,000-square-foot floor plate with an all-groof,” explains Daric Hess, a senior principal wHeapy Engineering and project manager on tWest Hospital project. “We wanted to make everything looked elegant and clean. We honon the two locations we thought would be idand modeled them using Autodesk® Revit®software.”

8/16/2019 Heapy Engineering - Simulation CFD Success Story

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utodesk Customer Success Story Heapy Engine

Revit models helped Heapy Engineering quickly identify andsolve challenges in their dual-purpose light well strategy.

The solution

After creating the Revit models, the Heapyngineering team quickly identified the key

hallenges in the dual-purpose light well strategy.he engineers were concerned that generalxhaust from sources such as boiler flues andenerators— and noxious exhaust fumes comingrom the hospital’s nearby helipad—mightdversely affect the quality of the intake “fresh”ir for the hospital.

The patient tower is right next to where welanned to create an intake,” says Ferdelman. “Weealized that if the wind shifted, the tower couldreate a potential funnel, and all the air hitting it

would likely go up and down. We needed tomulate what would happen around the air

ntake and discharge locations under all potentialonditions, taking into account factors such as

wind velocities and so on.”

aking the models created in Revit and bringinghem into Autodesk® Simulation CFD software,eapy Engineering simulated exterior air intakend relief air patterns. The results revealed theght wells originally identified as ideal for airntake were actually better suited as conduits forhe relief air discharge, and vice versa. “We endedp completely changing which wells would besed for which purpose,” says Ferdelman. “Thesere enormous ducts—big enough for a persono run through. If we had not made that critical

hange early in the design process, fixing theroblem later would have been quite expensive.”

Taking MEP system assembly off-site

eapy Engineering took advantage of the timerame it had been given to work on the Mercyealth – West Hospital project to coordinate

with other parties, such as the contractor, todentify ways to save time and costs. As a result ofhese discussions, Heapy Engineering decided to

explore a different approach to the constructionof MEP systems to be installed along the hospital’sceiling corridors.

“The MEP systems we were designing involveda lot of components—electrical conduits, ducts,plumbing piping, medical gases—all runningalong a hospital corridor,” says Ferdelman. “Itwas suggested we consider using corridor utilityracks that would be built off-site in a warehouseas the building was being constructed. We startedwith developing the systems using this approachin Revit.”

Ferdelman says he was initially hesitant to buildthe MEP systems off-site, but admits the endresult is hard to argue with: “With help fromAutodesk Revit, we were able to show how to

build out the entire 250-room patient towerin a warehouse before the building wouldbe topped out. They’re putting in these pre-assembled corridor racks as they’re constructingthe rest of the building, and it’s saving months ofconstruction time.”

“The corridor racks represent about 60 percent ofthe construction effort for the MEP systems forthe patient floors of the hospital,” says Hess.“Since they were all prebuilt, and the hospitalstructure is now up, installation of more than halfof the MEP systems on an entire patient floor canbe completed in only about a two- to three-weektime frame. In addition to timesaving, there aresafety gains because the time has been minimizedfor the contractors to work on these systems onladders and in close spaces. Also, the number ofcrew members needed on-site for the installationprocess has been reduced. Building the corridorracks off-site has translated into cost, safety, andoverall timesaving—it’s like prefab on steroids.”

The result

By using the prefabricated corridor racks for tMEP systems, the contractor has been able toreduce construction time on the Mercy Healt– West Hospital project by several months. Th

contractor is now saving even more time andcosts by taking a similar approach with thefacility’s bathroom pods, constructing them aoff-site warehouse location.

“Autodesk Revit allowed us to communicatedetailed design with the entire team efficientsays Ferdelman. “Mercy Health is the realbeneficiary, however. They will be able to brithe new West Hospital online much faster, wmeans it will be servicing their community—and, in turn, generating revenue—sooner. Threvenue ‘boost’ probably makes much moredifference to the hospital than the constructicost savings.”

Learn more

Find out how you can design, build, and mainhigher-quality, more energy-efficient buildingwith Autodesk Revit software (www.autodecom/revit), and make better design decisionearlier in the product development process wAutodesk Simulation CFD (www.autodesk.csimulationcfd)

Building the corridor racks off-site has translated into cost, safety, and overalltimesaving—it’s like prefab on steroids.

— Daric Hess

Senior PrincipalHeapy Engineering

mage courtesy of Heapy Engineering

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Image courtesy of Heapy Engineering