Towards a semantic Construction Digital Twin: directions for future research

As the Architecture, Engineering and Construction sector is embracing the digital age, the processes involved in the design, construction and operation of built assets are more and more influenced by technologies dealing with value-added monitoring of data from sensor networks, management of this data in secure and resilient storage systems underpinned by semantic models, as well as the simulation and optimisation of engineering systems. Aside from enhancing the efficiency of the value chain, such information-intensive models and associated technologies play a decisive role in minimising the lifecycle impacts of our buildings. While Building Information Modelling provides procedures, technologies and data schemas enabling a standardised semantic representation of building components and systems, the concept of a Digital Twin conveys a more holistic socio-technical and process-oriented characterisation of the complex artefacts involved by leveraging the synchronicity of the cyber-physical bi-directional data flows. Moreover, BIM lacks semantic completeness in areas such as control systems, including sensor networks, social systems, and urban artefacts beyond the scope of buildings, thus requiring a holistic, scalable semantic approach that factors in dynamic data at different levels. The paper reviews the multi-faceted applications of BIM during the construction stage and highlights limits and requirements, paving the way to the concept of a Construction Digital Twin. A definition of such a concept is then given, described in terms of underpinning research themes, while elaborating on areas for future research

Knowledge representation, storage and retrieval for BIM supported building evacuation design

Safe evacuation design is a complex process, which relies on crowd simulation models when assessing the performance of large or complicated building layouts. Current simulation methods and tools lack automation and are limited to geometry when relying on BIM interoperability. The use of semantic web linked data is seen as a step towards integrating and leveraging current digital resources to facilitate intelligent and automatic design capable of knowledge processing. An intelligent software system has been developed which is capable of integrating multiple information sources and which can facilitate fast automatic construction and analysis of crowd simulation models for design decision support. The system includes several developed OWL ontologies and SWRL rules which represent design knowledge from the fire evacuation field, thus being able to process and store data about a multi-disciplinary design field. The work conducted towards the development of the system involved investigation into crowd analysis tools, evacuation and digital building models. The ontology and knowledge operators are presented and discussed, providing insight into future exploration of such methods with the aim of outlining their benefits and limitations. The system and knowledge engineered have been tested using a case study, proving they are capable of fast processing and correct interpretation of model data

Crowd simulation-based knowledge mining supporting building evacuation design

Assessing building evacuation performance designs in emergency situations requires complex scenarios which need to be prepared and analysed using crowd simulation tools, requiring significant manual input. With current procedures, every design iteration requires several simulation scenarios, leading to a complicated and time-consuming process. This study aims to investigate the level of integration between digital building models and crowd simulation, within the scope of design automation. A methodology is presented in which existing ontology tools facilitate knowledge representation and mining throughout the process. Several information models are used to integrate, automate and provide feedback to the design decision-making processes. The proposed concept thus reduces the effort required to create valid simulation scenarios by applying represented knowledge, and provides feedback based on results and design objectives. To apply and test the methodology a system was developed, which is introduced here. The context of building performance during evacuation scenarios is considered, but additional design perspectives can be included. The system development section expands on the essential theoretical concepts required and the case study section shows a practical implementation of the system

A framework for ontology-based design assessment for human behavior during fire evacuation

The current procedures in assessing fire performance designs are costly and inefficient, as they require the preparation and analysis of several scenario models, which may change at every design iteration. To address this, this paper presents a way to leverage BIM model data using OWL ontology tools to integrate, automate and provide feedback to the design decision-making process. The paper introduces methodologies from research which are relevant to the presented concept, then expands on a problem identification section, arguing why crowd simulation analysis might also benefit the ontology-based approach. The core emphasis of the paper is the framework required to achieve the process where ontology rules, reasoning and inference are leveraged from existing IFC models, with minimal user input. The framework consists of several components which are described independently, based on a system currently under development. A use case presents the practical flow of the process and some of its requirements and limitations

A framework for ontology-based design assessment for human behavior during fire evacuation

The current procedures in assessing fire performance designs are costly and inefficient, as they require the preparation and analysis of several scenario models, which may change at every design iteration. To address this, this paper presents a way to leverage BIM model data using OWL ontology tools to integrate, automate and provide feedback to the design decision-making process. The paper introduces methodologies from research which are relevant to the presented concept, then expands on a problem identification section, arguing why crowd simulation analysis might also benefit the ontology-based approach. The core emphasis of the paper is the framework required to achieve the process where ontology rules, reasoning and inference are leveraged from existing IFC models, with minimal user input. The framework consists of several components which are described independently, based on a system currently under development. A use case presents the practical flow of the process and some of its requirements and limitations

Aligning IFC and SRI domains for BIM supported SRI assessement

Although more assessment and certification schemes aimed at buildings appear on the market, professionals always face the same challenges: information scarcity and data flow interruptions. It therefore becomes crucial to rigorously assess the information workflows associated with built assets in order to help deliver the subsequent assessment services and certification schemes. The Smart Readiness Indicator is a new assessment scheme directed at harmonizing the smartness levels of buildings and intelligent installations at a European level. While the European Union defines the Smart Readiness Indicator scope and assessment methodology towards new regulations with the member states, the availability of data should strategically rely on existing sources such as the Building Information Model in order to automate and simplify the efforts of assessors. This paper explores the potential of Building Information Model data, more specifically relying on the Industry Foundation Classes schema, to support assessors with more automatic extraction of relevant information on the building and its equipment. The adopted methodology looks at the semantic alignment between the two domains. An initial alignment of concepts from several versions of the Industry Foundation Classes is proposed. This alignment was implemented using several rules, which were tested on the architectural and mechanical models of the same building. The study shows the convenience of employing such a methodology, the usefulness of data from existing building models, but also their limitations in correctly identifying relevant concepts

Digital twins for the built environment

The increasing availability of data and new ways to leverage it have pushed engineering domains into investigating a Digital Twin (DT) paradigm, which assumes full integration and cohesion between the physical and the virtual worlds. Although the prospects of digital twinning have been gradually explored within the fields of cyber-physical systems (CPS) and various BIM uses, the next level of integration needs to consider available methods and tools (procedures and technologies) which would give a digital twin more cohesion over the managed information, more adaptability and bring out more value from our virtual models. Within this chapter, we introduce the recent relevant aspects related to digital twin in research, along with existing initiatives and potential future paths. These are presented through the lenses of various application domains within the built environment by looking at digital twin requirements, technologies, architectures, modularity of services, as well as the role of semantics in achieving communication between different entities. Although the future of the digital twin paradigm remains uncertain, the vision of being able to monitor, simulate, optimise and then consequently automate and actuate the real world at various levels remains one of the most valuable prospects for our built environment, thus ensuring lower negative effects on the environment in the long-run

Developing an information exchange scheme concerning value for money assessment in Public-Private Partnerships

Value for money (VFM) as the procurement justification assessment approach in Public-Private Partnerships (PPP) essentially justify the overall project feasibility in both qualitative and quantitative ways. However, the performance measurement in VFM still lacks automation and information exchange schema. Concerning the project management domain within the Architectural–Engineering–Construction/Facility Management (AEC/FM) sectors, Building Information Modelling (BIM) is emerging as a potential solution for owners to automate the process of value for money assessment. Based on the published performance structure in PPP procurement, This paper develops a novel schema to formalize the information exchange needed to support data extraction and performance measurement. The schema was achieved by referencing the standardised Information Delivery Manual (IDM), which specifies the required information exchanges. This proposed method facilitates the automatic VFM assessment thus benefit the PPP procurement. Software development and case study model are presented towards the validation of the schema and methods employed