Creating Sustainable Cities and Infrastructure Using Digital Twin.
Digital Twin is a virtual representation of a system or an object that uses real-time data, machine learning, simulation, and reasoning to aid decision-making. In other words, it combines the physical world, virtual model simulation, real-time operational data, what-if analytics, machine learning, and predictive maintenance.
Digital Twin Market and Peer Benchmarking.
Digital Twin is being adapted in the current market to solve what-if simulations and the real world, integrate workflows, and manage assets effectively. Real-time data analytics also helps improve building efficiency and maximize productivity and occupants’ well-being.
Risk Assessment for Project Sites.
Digital Twin can analyze large volumes of real-time and historical data from weather stations, IoT devices, and satellites and recognize weather patterns. After analyzing, it can predict the weather, and this information can impact the production of renewable energy such as solar. It can also monitor and track health and safety hazards such as stress levels, breath patterns, heart rate, and oxygen saturation levels in the blood.
Digital Twin can also be used in construction to help simulate changes in building models due to its ability to test multiple iterations. This can help optimize working hours and construction costs with construction change orders. Due to its ability to detect failure before it happens can be used to test technical breakdowns and performance delays. This can also help in determining when a project requires additional resources. Lastly, Digital Twin can break the communication gap by providing a single source of communication for all disciplines, thus creating a common environment for data.
Project Management Efficiency.
According to AON, an insurance and risk management company, more than 40% of the data required to manage a building is lost before it is handed off to the management team. Digital Twin provides a solution for this problem by providing a single source of information for data. Digital Twin facilitates efficient planning, design, and construction of projects by encompassing its engineering aspects, economic neighborhood, environment, and construction process. It is a reliable resource in project management because it enables the construction of quality projects, reduces risks, and helps effectively plan resources.
Virtual Asset Modelling and Simulations.
The main difference between Digital Twin and simulation/modeling is that Digital Twin can analyze any number of simulations simultaneously and study multiple processes, unlike simulation, which focuses on one particular process at a time. Results from renewable energy sectors include solar heat with the weather forecast, climate change scenario planning, thermal modeling, and wind analysis.
Digital Twin virtual assets include;
3D reality data capture that creates textured 3D meshes, virtual reality scenes and orthographic projections.
Context capture which captures existing conditions for infrastructure projects, then edits and shares engineering-ready 3D reality meshes.
VP Integration which visualizes all data in a virtual reality environment and then simulates the proposed building and physical assets and places into the space before the actual construction takes place.
3D BIM Modeling and Simulations which generate and manage digital presentation of the functional and physical characteristics of places and buildings.
Digital Twin Application in the Project Lifecycle.
Digital Twin is used in different stages of a project lifecycle which are;
Planning- Involves a site survey, asset and site inspection, and reality capture.
Digital development and management- Involves planning and visualization, stakeholder engagement, quality review, and change tracking.
Preliminary analysis- Involves thermal cooling and energy modeling.
Construction- involves stimulating logistics, 4D modeling, status review, and tracking progress.
Operations - Involve training operators, planning for maintenance, managing risks, optimizing performance, remote inspection, and real-time monitoring.
Data Integration and Visualization.
Data integration and visualization use a mix of reality scene combined technologies to create realistic displays that produce the real work scene. Creating interactive dashboards and visualizations involves extracting, transforming, and loading data in a common data environment and then integrating the data. The external or raw data is derived from online, government, third-party, and survey drawings or site data. Other sources include geospatial systems such as GIS, OSM, and drone or aerial images. This data is integrated using building and infrastructure systems such as BIM Models, 3D models, and MEP, Electrical, and HVAC models. The Digital Twin architecture process is also similar in that it derives its data from data sensors, engineering tools, and business systems. The data is fed into a common data environment, IoT Hub, and other workflow integrations. The data is then fed into a physical, digital model for Machine learning and simulations to create 3D and 4D images.
Potential Application of Digital Twin.
Digital Twin can be applied in various environments to help;
Time management in the workplace through smart scheduling.
Performing Virtual concierge tailored to enhance guest experience and enable staff to deliver efficient services.
Optimizing energy consumption by monitoring and reducing energy use by automatically detecting room conditions such as power, HVAC, and lighting based on room occupancy and capacity.
Monitoring occupancy and virtual tours through virtual models used for navigation.
Monitoring and carrying out a virtual inspection of climate and weather conditions to protect guests and employees and inspecting rooms for occupancy and cleaning.
Identifying risks, repair, and maintenance and using predictive modeling to identify early warning signs and maintenance needs. Digital Twin can be an innovative tool in checking appliances and alerting staff when abnormal wear and tear is detected.
Advertising by displaying ads as per the users’ footprints.
Project planning and management to help in navigation, document search, publishing and documenting logs, storing project files, and providing reports on schedules, budgets, and project requirements.
Managing data by providing a digital index of all servicing records, Midlife revamp docs, crash history, invoices, and repair logs. Digital Twin can be used in construction to create drawings and tech specs and strengthen them in servers to eliminate the need to carry construction drawings on-site.
Producing live vigilance through the use of camera feeds and smart wearables.
Why Implement Digital Twin?
Digital Twin has an array of benefits because it;
Provides more outstanding project cost management and lowers the cost of design changes during construction.
Enhances better financial decision-making.
Provides predictive maintenance and remote operations.
Enhances team collaboration.
Provides real-time monitoring and simulation.
Improves data-driven using dashboards and visualization.