Multi-Information Fusion Based on BIM and Intuitionistic Fuzzy D-S Evidence Theory for Safety Risk Assessment of Undersea Tunnel Construction Projects

Safety risk assessment is essential in ensuring the smooth construction of undersea tunnels. Obtaining reasonable safety risk assessment results requires multi-source information that enjoys static and dynamic attributes. However, acquiring and utilizing such uncertain information creates difficulties in the decision-making process. Therefore, this paper proposes a safety risk assessment approach based on building information modeling (BIM), intuitionistic fuzzy set (IFS) theory, and Dempster–Shafer (D-S) evidence theory. Firstly, an undersea tunnel construction collapse risk evaluation index system is established to clarify the information requirements of the pre-construction and construction stages. The semantic information of the BIM geometric model is then enriched through industry foundation classes (IFC) extension to match the multi-criteria decision-making (MCDM) process, with BIM technology used to assist in information acquisition and risk visualization. Finally, based on the intuitionistic fuzzy D-S evidence theory, multi-information fusion is performed to dynamically determine safety risk levels. Specifically, IFS theory is utilized for basic probability assignments (BPAs) determination before applying D-S evidence theory. The conflicting evidence is dealt with by reliability calculation based on the normalized Hamming distance between pairs of IFSs, while safety risk levels are accomplished with score functions of intuitionistic fuzzy values (IFVs). The proposed method is applied to collapse risk assessment in the karst developed area of a shield tunnel construction project in Dalian, China, and the feasibility and effectiveness are verified. The novelty of the proposed method lies in: (1) information collaboration between the BIM model and the dynamic safety risk assessment process being realized through IFC-based semantic enrichment and Dynamo programming to enhance the decision-making process and (2) the introduction of IFS theory to improve the applicability of D-S evidence theory in expressing fuzziness and hesitation during multi-information fusion. With the proposed method, dynamic safety risk assessment of undersea tunnel construction projects can be performed under uncertainty, fuzziness, and a conflicting environment, while the safety risk perception can be enhanced through visualization.

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