A Digital Twin-based System for the Indoor Environmental Quality Monitoring in Off-Site Construction Facilities

Abstract

Off-site construction (OSC) is a well-established paradigm for achieving productivity, safety, and sustainability in construction. The key factor in its success is the efficiency of the workforce transforming blueprints into actual buildings and building elements. This has driven efforts to improve working conditions at the production facility, paving the way towards human-centric construction manufacturing. Achieving a safe and healthy indoor environmental quality (IEQ) is among the most critical aspects of this endeavor. Given the dynamic nature of IEQ in OSC facilities, there is a need for real-time performance monitoring as a means of identifying any deviations from IEQ standards and regulations. As such, the objective of this study is to develop a digital twin-based system for real-time monitoring of the IEQ of OSC facilities with continuous management and alerting features. The proposed O-IEQ Alert System encompasses four phases: (1) IEQ metrics identification, (2) data acquisition, (3) digital modelling, and (4) development of the IEQ alerting component. The system is successfully applied in a case study of a wall-production manufacturing facility. A web-based alert system is developed that presents real-time monitoring of the IEQ indices, including Air Quality Index, thermal comfort Predicted Mean Vote Index, and the Sound Level Index for each workstation along with the time-series trends. In case any of the indices does not fall within the defined threshold, an alert is issued to management to take the necessary corrective and preventive measures. The ultimate aim is to provide a safe, healthy, and productive working environment in OSC facilities.