An ontological model for the representation of damage to constructions

The Damage Topology Ontology (DOT) is presented, a web ontology that provides terminology to represent construction-related damages and their topology as well as relations to affected construction elements and spatial zones. Besides the topology, classes and properties for documentation management and a minimal structural assessment have been proposed in DOT. In this regard, DOT provides all classes and properties needed for practical use in construction inspections and damage assessment. The ontology is developed to be used with the modular Linked Building Data ontologies structure, where DOT works as core damage ontology which can be extended with multiple modules related to detailed damage classification, damage assessment, mechanical degradation and other application scenarios. Geometrical damage representations are separated from the topology, so that it is possible to initially record damages during the inspection without any geometrical properties and link it later with a corresponding representation using terminology from geometry-related ontologies. In conclusion, DOT can be applied as a stand-alone web ontology to represent damages in a machine-interpretable format and replace conventional record approaches. Therefore, a generic terminology is used that enables the inclusion of various types of damage, which can be extended with domain-specific information.

Publication year:2019

Accessibility:Open