Applications of Digital Twins for Asset Management in AEC/FM Industry - A Literature Review

The concept of Digital Twins has recently emerged as a new advancement of technology-led processes to support the design, construction, and management of built assets. A digital twin exists as a digital model that provides simulations and bi-directional information link to a real-world entity (i.e., a physical twin), offering opportunities for data-centric decision making. Digital twins can have multiple applications in the asset management domain of Architecture, Engineering, and Construction/Facilities Management (AEC/FM), such as a digital twin of a constructed asset may be developed to show the working of its systems, and thus related data link will be established to capture the operations data and reflect the real-time information in the digital twin. However, technology and processes for the creation of Digital Twins and their potential applications are not fully known in the asset management domain. This research effort attempts to identify the process of Digital Twin creation and its potential applications to manage already built assets in the AEC/FM industry by presenting the findings of a systematic literature review of existing knowledge. This review concludes that the creation procedures are in their inception phase and highlighted potential applications in asset management during its lifetime, enabling sustainability retrofits and maintenance and restoration of heritage assets, and presented few recommendations for future research in this domain.