Abstract
Building Information Modeling (BIM)-enabled performance assessment workflows for rural constructions remain relatively unexplored. This is even more important for buildings implementing process-oriented systems, such as airflow networks. This study presents a BIM-integrated framework for the early-stage design and performance assessment of rural constructions, with application to solar barn dryers and their ventilation systems through reduced-order airflow-network modeling. The proposed workflow combines parametric BIM-based geometry generation with lumped-parameter fluid-dynamic modeling to evaluate the influence of airflow-network topology on pressure losses, airflow distribution, fan power demand, and energy consumption. Nine BIM-generated design alternatives and ten geometric parameter sets were investigated under equivalent operating conditions. The airflow system was represented as a pressure-driven network including solar air panels, ducts, collectors, fan chambers, ventilation channels, and drying cells, accounting for both localized and distributed pressure losses. Results show that airflow-network geometry significantly affects system performance. Configurations characterized by more compact and aerodynamically efficient layouts reduced cumulative pressure losses by approximately 10–20% compared with less optimized solutions. More efficient designs enable reductions in required airflow rates of ~22% and in fan power demand of up to ~40% (≈11–18 kW). The most efficient configurations also exhibited lower annual energy consumption while maintaining the minimum overpressure required for effective hay drying. The study demonstrates how BIM environments can support physics-informed comparative evaluation of alternative ventilation layouts during the early design stage, extending BIM applications toward performance-oriented design and digital management of agricultural building systems. The proposed methodology provides a computationally efficient design-support framework that may also apply to other controlled-environment agricultural infrastructures governed by airflow-network dynamics.