scholarly journals From BIM to digital twins: a systematic review of the evolution of intelligent building representations in the AEC-FM industry

2021 ◽  
Vol 26 ◽  
pp. 58-83
Author(s):  
Min Deng ◽  
Carol C. Menassa ◽  
Vineet R. Kamat

The widespread adoption of Building Information Modeling (BIM) and the recent emergence of Internet of Things (IoT) applications offer several new insights and decision-making capabilities throughout the life cycle of the built environment. In recent years, the ability of real-time connectivity to online sensors deployed in an environment has led to the emergence of the concept of the Digital Twin of the built environment. Digital Twins aim to achieve synchronization of the real world with a virtual platform for seamless management and control of the construction process, facility management, environment monitoring, and other life cycle processes in the built environment. However, research in Digital Twins for the built environment is still in its nascent stages and there is a need to understand the advances in the underlying enabling technologies and establish a convergent context for ongoing and future research. This paper conducted a systematic review to identify the development of the emerging technologies facilitating the evolution of BIM to Digital Twins in built environment applications. A total of 100 related papers including 23 review papers were selected and reviewed. In order to systematically classify the reviewed studies, the authors developed a five-level ladder categorization system based on the building life cycle to reflect the current state-of-the-art in Digital Twin applications. In each level of this taxonomy, applications were further categorized based on their research domains (e.g., construction process, building energy performance, indoor environment monitoring). In addition, the current state-of-art in technologies enabling Digital Twins was also summarized from the reviewed literature. It was found that most of the prior studies conducted thus far have not fully exploited or realized the envisioned concept of the Digital Twin, and thus classify under the earlier ladder categories. Based on the analysis of the reviewed work and the trends in ongoing research, the authors propose a concept of an advanced Digital Twin for building management as a baseline for further studies.

Author(s):  
David Edward Jones ◽  
Chris Snider ◽  
Lee Kent ◽  
Ben Hicks

ABSTRACTWhile extensive modelling - both physical and virtual - is imperative to develop right-first-time products, the parallel use of virtual and physical models gives rise to two interrelated issues: the lack of revision control for physical prototypes; and the need for designers to manually inspect, measure, and interpret modifications to either virtual or physical models, for subsequent update of the other. The Digital Twin paradigm addresses similar problems later in the product life-cycle, and while these digital twins, or the “twinning” process, have shown significant value, there is little work to date on their implementation in the earlier design stages. With large prospective benefits in increased product understanding, performance, and reduced design cycle time and cost, this paper explores the concept of using the Digital Twin in early design, including an introduction to digital twinning, examination of opportunities for and challenges of their implementation, a presentation of the structure of Early Stage Twins, and evaluation via two implementation cases.


2020 ◽  
Vol ahead-of-print (ahead-of-print) ◽  
Author(s):  
Christopher Santi Götz ◽  
Patrik Karlsson ◽  
Ibrahim Yitmen

PurposeThe blockchain-based digital twin has been recognized as a prominent technological ecosystem featuring synergies with both established and emergent information management practice. The purpose of this research is to explore the applicability, interoperability and integrability of a blockchain-based digital twin for asset life cycle management and develop a model of framework which positions the digital twin within a broader context of current management practice and technological availability.Design/methodology/approachA systematic literature review was performed to map use cases of digital twin, IoT, blockchain and smart contract technologies. Surveys of industry professionals and analyses were conducted focussing on the mapped use cases' life cycle–centric applicability, interoperability and integrability with current asset life cycle management practice, exploring decision support capabilities and industry insights. Lastly, a model of framework was developed based on the use case, interoperability and integrability findings.FindingsThe results support approaching digitization initiatives with blockchain-based digital twins and the positioning of the concept as both a strategic tool and a multifunctional on-field support application. Integrability enablers include progression towards BIM level 3, decentralized program hubs, modular cross-technological platform interfaces, as well as mergeable and scalable blockchains.Practical implicationsKnowledge of use cases help highlight the functionality of an integrated technological ecosystem and its connection to comprehensive sets of asset life cycle management aspects. Exploring integrability enablers contribute to the development of management practice and solution development as user expectations and technological prerequisites are interlinked.Originality/valueThe research explores asset life cycle management use cases, interoperability and integrability enablers of blockchain-based digital twins and positions the technological ecosystem within current practice and technological availability.


Author(s):  
S. Shaharuddin ◽  
K. N. Abdul Maulud ◽  
S. A. F. Syed Abdul Rahman ◽  
A. I. Che Ani

Abstract. Technology has advanced and progressed tremendously, and the term city is being elevated to a new level where the smart city has been introduced globally. Recent developments in the concept of smart city have led to a renewed interest in Digital Twin. Using precise Building Information Modelling (BIM) consolidated with big data and sensors, several attempts have been made to establish digital twin smart cities. In recent years, several researchers have sought to determine the capability of smart city and digital twin for various taxonomies such as development and urban planning purposes, built environment, manufacturing, environmental, disaster management, and healthcare. Despite being beneficial in many disciplines, especially in manufacturing, built environment, and urban planning, these existing studies have shown a lack of aspect in terms of emergency or disaster-related as opposed to the elements mentioned above. This is because the researcher has not treated emergencies or disasters in much detail. Therefore, an extensive review on smart city, digital twin, BIM and disaster management and technology that revolves around these terms were summarised. In general, 39 articles from prominent multidisciplinary databases were retrieved over the last two decades based on the suggested PRISMA workflow. These final articles were analysed and categorised into four themes based on the research content, gist, and keywords. Based on the review of 39 articles related to smart city, digital twin and BIM, a workflow for the smart city digital twin and the conceptual framework for indoor disaster management was proposed accordingly. The establishment of smart city digital twins solely for an indoor emergency can be beneficial to urbanites, and it could provide numerous benefits for enhanced situation assessment, decision making, coordination, and resource allocation.


2021 ◽  
Vol 3 ◽  
Author(s):  
Isuru A. Udugama ◽  
Merve Öner ◽  
Pau C. Lopez ◽  
Christan Beenfeldt ◽  
Christoph Bayer ◽  
...  

Digitalization in the form of Big Data and Digital Twin inspired applications are hot topics in today's bio-manufacturing organizations. As a result, many organizations are diverting resources (personnel and equipment) to these applications. In this manuscript, a targeted survey was conducted amongst individuals from the Danish biotech industry to understand the current state and perceived future obstacles in implementing digitalization concepts in biotech production processes. The survey consisted of 13 questions related to the current level of application of 1) Big Data analytics and 2) Digital Twins, as well as obstacles to expanding these applications. Overall, 33 individuals responded to the survey, a group spanning from bio-chemical to biopharmaceutical production. Over 73% of the respondents indicated that their organization has an enterprise-wide level plan for digitalization, it can be concluded that the digitalization drive in the Danish biotech industry is well underway. However, only 30% of the respondents reported a well-established business case for the digitalization applications in their organization. This is a strong indication that the value proposition for digitalization applications is somewhat ambiguous. Further, it was reported that digital twin applications (58%) were more widely used than Big Data analytic tools (37%). On top of the lack of a business case, organizational readiness was identified as a critical hurdle that needs to be overcome for both Digital Twin and Big Data applications. Infrastructure was another key hurdle for implementation, with only 6% of the respondents stating that their production processes were 100% covered by advanced process analytical technologies.


Author(s):  
Dmitry Yu. Petrov ◽  
◽  

The relationship of the Industry 4.0 concept with cyber-physical systems and digital twins is described. The analysis of the capabilities of modern information systems of discrete and continuous production for the creation of digital twins of production is presented. The stages of creating a digital twin of production are proposed, taking into account the requirements of standards for the development of automated control systems for continuous technological processes. Using the use case diagram, the functionality and requirements for the subsystems of the information system are determined. The architecture of the information system for managing the life cycle of a continuous technological process was developed.


Author(s):  
Amged Sayed A. Mahmoud ◽  
Ezz El-Din Hemdan

Digital twin has gained a great interest during the last few years from academia and industry because of the development in IT technology, communication field, and sensor technology. The general vision of the DT is to provide a detailed physical and functional description of a component, product, and systems. Nevertheless, the digital twin is a highly dynamic concept growing in complexity during the product life cycle, which leads to an enormous amount of data and information. Motivated by these, this chapter investigates the concepts and architecture of DT to cover its challenges and explore its applications in various fields such as smart cities, smart manufacturing and factories, and healthcare sectors. In the end, the challenges and research areas will be presented.


2021 ◽  
Vol 11 (6) ◽  
pp. 2767
Author(s):  
Giulio Paolo Agnusdei ◽  
Valerio Elia ◽  
Maria Grazia Gnoni

In the Industry 4.0 era, digital tools applied to production and manufacturing activities represent a challenge for companies. Digital Twin (DT) technology is based on the integration of different “traditional” tools, such as simulation modeling and sensors, and is aimed at increasing process performance. In DTs, simulation modeling allows for the building of a digital copy of real processes, which is dynamically updated through data derived from smart objects based on sensor technologies. The use of DT within manufacturing activities is constantly increasing, as DTs are being applied in different areas, from the design phase to the operational ones. This study aims to analyze existing fields of applications of DTs for supporting safety management processes in order to evaluate the current state of the art. A bibliometric review was carried out through VOSviewer to evaluate studies and applications of DTs in the engineering and computer science areas and to identify research clusters and future trends. Next, a bibliometric and systematic review was carried out to deepen the relation between the DT approach and safety issues. The findings highlight that in recent years, DT applications have been tested and developed to support operators during normal and emergency conditions and to enhance their abilities to control safety levels.


2021 ◽  
Vol 80 (2) ◽  
pp. 91-99
Author(s):  
D. V. Shevchenko

Fourth industrial revolution covers all areas of human economic activity, including areas related to the design and operation of various products (nuclear power plant building, freight car, MEMS devices, etc.) throughout their entire life cycle. One of the main tools for digital transformation of industry to meet new competitive requirements is the Digital Twin, which is always built for a specific physical object. The introduction of digital twins technology into the life cycle of a freight car will increase economic efficiency throughout its life cycle.Effective use of the digital twin technology is possible only when an adequate virtual model of the space surrounding this physical object is created. In this regard, predicting the behavior of a structure during motion on the basis of a high-precision model of a digital twin of a physical object requires the creation of a virtual space in which a virtual operation area will be implemented, which provides the possibility of mathematical modeling of motion. To do this, it is necessary to create virtual stands and operation areas, where it will be possible to carry out numerical tests. Creation of a high-quality virtual space will drastically reduce the number of field tests carried out, and study the effect of a larger number of parameters on the performance characteristics of a physical object.Creation and use of digital twins is consistent with the goals, objectives and action plan of the Strategy for the development of transport engineering in the Russian Federation for the period up to 2030. The introduction of digital twins in railway transport, in particular in freight rolling stock, will make it possible to correctly assign the service life, overhaul times, and increase operational efficiency, collect information about the real load, etc. To maintain competitive advantages over other modes of transport, the transport industry needs to develop towards the introduction of elements of the fourth industrial revolution, including digital twins.


2021 ◽  
Vol 69 (12) ◽  
pp. 1081-1095
Author(s):  
Jan-Erik Giering ◽  
Alexander Dyck

Abstract Digital Twins (DTs) play an important role in current digitalization trends across industries. As maritime markets are particularly affected by recent global tendencies such as increasing delivery costs or political pressure for decarbonization, DT solutions could provide important support for shipbuilding and shipping companies to master recent and upcoming challenges. This paper provides a brief insight into the current state of the maritime industry and shows possible use-cases for DT Ship applications throughout the entire product lifecycle. To further advance the general understanding of DTs and their implementation, the concept of a Maritime Digital Twin Architecture (MDTA) is proposed to structure practical DT features.


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