Digital Twins in Construction: Your Complete Guide

Digital twins (DT) gain more and more significance within various industries, pushing this technology development further. The construction industry wasn’t the pioneer of digital twin adoption but is now one of the niches that benefit the most from such solutions.

In their nature, construction projects are complex, possess a lot of specific risks, and demand well-coordinated communication between dozens of stakeholders. Digital twins have become a powerful tool to resolve these challenges and increase the efficiency of construction firms and contractors.

As a digital twin development company, we uncover the main points you should know about DT usage in construction and the value you can harness from it to optimize your processes, cut expenses and reach a new level of operations.

What Is a Digital Twin in Construction?

Generally, digital twins are defined as virtual replicas of physical entities that receive updates in real time. The latest distinguishes a digital twin from a simulation or simple virtual copy: the constant data link between the physical object and its digital counterpart powers up dynamic monitoring that allows tracking of the condition and performance of the object. Consequently, it opens a wide set of opportunities for businesses, from testing different what-if scenarios to powering up the metaverse.

Digital twins are widely used within different industries. There are numerous successful examples of digital twins in manufacturing, where they orchestrate operations within factories’ shop floors. Digital twins in healthcare are also growing, providing clinicians with powerful tools to increase the quality of medical care.

A construction digital twin models a construction object, e.g., a building or a group of buildings, a highway, a bridge, or even the whole city. Usually, they are visualized through 3D modeling or AR/VR solutions, allowing stakeholders to assess the space virtually.

Benefits of Digital Twins in Construction

Construction businesses can apply digital twins variously to cover certain aspects of their workflow. Custom solution development allows for tailoring different types of digital twins for the needs and requirements of a particular crew or a particular project, maximizing the benefits and generating specific value for the business. Here are the main advantages you can assess through the digital twin technology in construction.

1. Enhanced Data Transparency and Availability

Data access is a huge issue within the construction industry. As numerous stakeholders work on developing a building model and then the building itself, the essential data becomes scattered between different players and software pieces, making it extremely hard to access it all at once.

The industry started to address this challenge through the introduction of the Building Information Model (BIM) as a single source of truth, and the adoption of digital twins in construction only enhanced this process.

Digital twins provide a platform to collect real-time data within one space and automatically track actions and changes through smart sensors and IoT, contributing a lot to process transparency and efficient data exchange between all stakeholders.

2. Real-time Monitoring and Analysis

The concept of digital twins implies the constant availability of real-time data, which, in the case of the construction industry, creates dozens of advantages that enhance process efficiency. Powered by IoT, CPS, and AI, digital twins create valuable real-time insights as well as enable a fast closed-feedback loop, ensuring that everything that happens on-site is captured, tracked, and analyzed.

For instance, digital twins help to gather and process continuous data through the operations to create a database for future projects or monitor and control the consumption of water and electricity during building and accommodation stages. Other use cases include monitoring generators, electrical distribution boards, and water levels within wells or pumps, as well as constant monitoring and control over project progress and its compliance with contract documents and norms.

3. Improved Collaboration

Efficient collaboration, communication, and cooperation are essential for efficient construction, though often, it is an unreachable goal for different contractors. In turn, digital twins offer means to become a connection point for all stakeholders. By synchronizing physical and virtual assets, the technology creates an accessible and shareable environment for owners, designers, contractors, and trades to collaborate and stay on the same page regarding the current status of the project.

With digital twins, all key specialists can easily assess the situation and contribute their efforts to finding a solution to an emergency or issue instead of spending half of their work time gathering data and trying to understand what is happening.

4. Ability to Test What-If Scenarios

The rise of artificial intelligence gives the opportunity for testing various scenarios, but without precise data, any prediction couldn’t become reliable enough. And this is another case where digital twins come in handy. By collecting data in real time, they are able to provide accurate, relevant data that will help to simulate possible outcomes and assess risks.

Such enhanced prediction capabilities reinvent how construction companies plan and manage their projects. Now, they can leverage the data from previous projects to design new spaces more efficiently and predict project progress. Also, before implementing any changes, specialists get a chance to see the outcomes and choose data-driven strategies instead of relying on their intuition or assumptions.

5. Enabled Preventive Measures

A preventive approach to disasters or accidents comes as a continuation of the capability to test different scenarios. When detecting an anomaly or a certain hazard, digital twins give a notification, which can be used to prevent accidents from happening. This way, specialists can ensure on-site safety, avoid as-built mistakes and further rework, eliminate root causes for various malfunctions beforehand, etc.

At the same time, data availability pushes stakeholders to take a more proactive stance, monitor the operations more closely and intervene in a timely manner to prevent troubles beforehand instead of merely reacting after the disaster has happened.

6. Increased Accuracy

The flow of real-time data and constant updating means that the accuracy of the operations increases. First, specialists receive and gather precise data on the construction site, which makes it easier to validate the progress and ensure that everything goes according to plan. Second, as digital twins are a link between physical and digital, they remove any misalignment that might appear between real-life assets and digital models, which might lead to tainted data.

The implementation of digital twins helps construction specialists build reliable databases that they can use for further project development, better decision-making, and the adoption of more effective data-driven strategies.

Challenges and Limitations of a Digital Twin in the Construction Industry

Despite holding promise for the construction industry, digital twin implementation becomes a severe challenge for businesses that decide to develop and adopt the solution. For the majority of firms, such a project might become the first initiative of enhanced digitalization, and the lack of relevant experience and expertise hinders the implementation success.

However, with the help and guidance of a reliable tech vendor, any construction firm can mitigate possible risks and resolve arising difficulties. Based on our experience, we gathered a list of the main challenges and limitations you should know about when considering cooperation with software development companies.

• Data management

The data quality determines the outcomes of such a venture as digital twin implementation. Practitioners in the construction industry mention dozens of data-related aspects that appear a challenge during digital twin deployment, e.g., data analytics, data accessibility, data capturing, data ownership, data security, etc. Therefore, putting data in order and organizing the data management process adequately should be a preparation stage for digital twin implementation.

• Cost uncertainties

A digital twin implementation is usually a long-term and complex project that demands a significant amount of resources to be successful. Without previous experience with digital transformation projects in the industry and relevant tech knowledge, executives might struggle to comprehend the full cost of the initiative, as well as understand the value the solution can bring to the company. These factors can generate numerous doubts and resistance to the implementation project.

• Lack of standardization

Digital twins take construction projects to a more advanced level of operations, so a development company should have a sufficient technical and operational basis to support that. Unfortunately, construction firms might struggle with process and data standardization, stakeholder training, infrastructure state, connectivity, and interoperability. Therefore, it is essential to approach the implementation strategically and transform the processes across the whole workflow.

How Does a Digital Twin Operate in the Construction Industry?

In construction, digital twins go hand in hand with BIM. The latest covers the creation of a 3D digital model that can be used to visualize future buildings or structures, as well as simulate the building’s behavior, predict quantity take-offs, detect clashes, etc. In turn, digital twins are able to enhance BIM capabilities through real-time data gathered with the help of IoT devices and smart sensors.

The digital twin technology synchronizes digital BIM models with physical buildings and creates an analytics edge. This powers up efficient data aligning that happens immediately, as specialists get a chance to constantly monitor the construction progress and access decision-impacting insights on the go. Hence, instead of trying to fix mistakes after the fact, construction firms can detect and address them instantly.

How to Create a Digital Twin for Construction?

The process of creating digital twins for the construction industry demands collaborative efforts from all stakeholders who take part in the building process. Owners, designers, architects, contractors, and trades should understand the value of the technology and what changes it brings along.

At the same time, software developers account for the main scope of work in digital twin development. Their experience and domain expertise is a key to successful deployment and implementation. So, when you are considering developing a digital twin for your construction firm, you should start by partnering up with a reliable vendor. Then, they will guide you through the development stages that most probably will look like this.

1. Objective definition: understanding the purpose of your digital twin initiative and determining what aspects of the construction you will track through the technology.
2. Data requirements establishing: determining what data you need to build a digital twin, e.g., BIM models, design drawings, data from IoT devices and sensors, etc.
3. BIM model creation: designing a 3D digital model of the desired building.
4. Real-time data incorporation: installing IoT devices and smart sensors at various locations to ensure the flow of real-time data regarding construction progress and building state.
5. Data integration and visualization: connecting the prepared BIM model with the real-time data within one platform and visualizing the physical asset in a digital environment.
6. Validation: calibrating digital twin after its launch to guarantee accuracy by comparing the insights it provides with the physical asset.
7. Continuous monitoring and analysis: leveraging the real-time data to run analysis and make data-driven decisions.
8. Maintenance and updates: feed relevant and up-to-date data to ensure the correct work of the digital twin and accurate insights.

How to Use Digital Twins in the Construction Industry?

A construction digital twin is a versatile tool you can tailor to keep track of every event that takes place within your construction site. However, our practical knowledge shows that it might be hard to grasp how to apply the solution and generate real value when you have so many options in front of you. Hence, we gathered some interesting use cases you can try for your business.

• design visualization;
• clash detection;
• construction planning and sequencing;
• safety planning and training;
• progress monitoring and reporting;
• predictive maintenance;
• energy efficiency analysis;
• facility management;
• retrofitting and renovation;
• lifecycle performance analysis.

Digital Twin Examples in Construction

Despite the challenges we have mentioned in the article, dozens of firms and institutions have already been leveraging digital twins to enhance their performance and improve the outcomes of their work. Here are some of the most vivid examples.

1. Morandi Bridge in Italian Genoa

Italferr S.p.A, a part of the Italian State Railways Group, used BIM models and created a digital twin workflow to streamline the rebuilding of Morandi Bridge, a crucial link between Italy and France road systems. The implementation of the technology allowed the company to ensure accurate design, promote efficient collaboration between a multidisciplinary project team and ensure a single source of truth.

2. LAX

An architecture and design firm Corgan used a digital twin technology while reconstructing Los Angeles International Airport (LAX) in order to optimize performance. With the help of technology, the company managed to efficiently capture the existing conditions of the building, which helped them to collaborate through the reconstruction process efficiently. Corgan also shared the 3D digital twin with facility owners, powering up advanced facility management.

3. Smart Cities

The popularity of digital twinning for whole cities is growing, and more and more metropolitan areas or even small towns get their virtual replicas. The value of such digital twins is huge, as it allows planning more sustainable and eco-friendly construction, reducing carbon emissions, organizing traffic, monitoring assets, etc. Overall, a full-scale city digital twin has the potential to improve its dwellers’ lives and create more environment–friendly spaces.

Build Your Digital Twin with Program-Ace

The digital twin technology in construction is a game-changer that brings a new era of operations and approaches. So, to get ahead of the competition and secure your place as a leader in the industry, consider implementing a digital twin into your workflow for better performance, collaboration, and prediction.

Program-Ace, an experienced custom software development company, is ready to become your guide in the digital transformation of your construction business. Feel free to contact us and figure out your plan for harnessing the digital twin value.

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Originally published at https://program-ace.com.