Digital twins of complex technical systems for management of built environment

Abstract

The development of digital technologies captures a significant part of the economy and production, as well as business and management processes. Asset owners are given the opportunity to become additionally owners of digital assets, while the need for conceptual approaches and digital asset management is growing. With the increasing application of Building Information Modelling (BIM) for asset management within architecture, engineering, construction and owner-operated (AECO) sector, BIM-enabled asset management has been increasingly attracting more attentions in both research and practice. The problem associated with the development and production of facilities is related to the discrepancy between as-built as-designed and as-is facilities or complex technical systems. During the stages of design, construction, operation and maintenance (O&M), the actually manufactured (i.e. as-built) complex technical object (or production infrastructure) differs, sometimes significantly, from the designed (as-designed), and at the same time inconsistency between the created production and production infrastructure within which it should operate grows. Solving the problem of discrepancy between the actually created and designed facility or the complex technical system, in the absence of digital technologies, requires considerable time for the so-called "trial operation", during which the discrepancies are eliminated and a mechanism for managing production and production infrastructure in real conditions is developed. With the development of the digital economy, the need for digitalization of asset management is growing. An analysis of existing information technologies shows that there is a possibility of reducing the cost of production and operation of an asset by concentrating the main costs at the design stage. The article discusses basic approaches to organizing the lifecycle management of technical systems, production and infrastructure in the context of global digitalization which become a useful tool for reduction of trial operation time. Further directions of research are formulated.