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The Role of Digital Twins and Their Application for the Built Environment

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Industry 4.0 for the Built Environment

Part of the book series: Structural Integrity ((STIN,volume 20))

Abstract

The building’s digital twin has been proposed as a solution for solving significant challenges in various areas of the built environment, especially the facility management (FM) one. There are already some commercial solutions on the market that vendors call digital twins, and several researchers have presented their proposals. Those are different in terms of use, content, and technical implementation, as nowadays a comprehensive definition does not exist. Most of the presented solutions are vendor and software dependent, and usually, they are offering a mere 3D graphical user interface (GUI) visualizing spaces and conditions. Although those can help a facility engineer monitor an asset’s performance, they are not real digital twins. This chapter intends to define the digital twin’s vision and show how to utilize it in facility management. Thus, the requirements on specifications for building information modeling (BIM) and field data are presented. Finally, it is shown how the introduction of a digital twin revolutionizes buildings’ maintenance and the management of energy efficiency and indoor conditions.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Senate Properties, Lintulahdenkatu 5A, P.O. BOX 237, 00530, Helsinki, Finland

    Esa Halmetoja

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  1. Esa Halmetoja
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Correspondence to Esa Halmetoja .

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Editors and Affiliations

  1. Mace, London, UK

    Marzia Bolpagni

  2. Europe Foundation, Digital Built Environment Institute (DBEI), Delft, The Netherlands

    Rui Gavina

  3. Department of Civil Engineering, School of Engineering of Polytechnic of Porto, Porto, Portugal

    Diogo Ribeiro

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Halmetoja, E. (2022). The Role of Digital Twins and Their Application for the Built Environment. In: Bolpagni, M., Gavina, R., Ribeiro, D. (eds) Industry 4.0 for the Built Environment. Structural Integrity, vol 20. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-82430-3_18

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-82430-3_18

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  • Online ISBN: 978-3-030-82430-3

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