Analysis

Digital twins

Digital Twins: The Foundation of Improved Decision-making

MIDDLE EAST Debabrata Chakraborty, regional director, MENA and Turkey, Bentley Systems, highlights how digitalisation is improving the way the industry is operating and thinking

Industries, communities, and organisations are increasingly dependent on data. As buildings and cities become smarter and provide us with growing amounts of information, the software used to design, manage, and maintain them needs to be smarter as well.

Engineering, architecture, and construction industries are changing as they embrace digitalisation and data-driven decision-making. Since industry professionals need to access the most accurate and reliable information possible, they are increasingly utilising digital twins, as they are essential for decision-making and can enhance efficiencies in design, planning, and implementation.

WHAT ARE DIGITAL TWINS AND HOW DO THEY WORK? A digital twin is a virtual replica of a physical asset. It creates a real-time representation of the project using data from multiple sources including historic data, on-site sensors, and predictive modelling tools, providing asset managers with a deeper understanding of the asset’s performance and use. A digital twin can take the form of a building, an infrastructure asset such as a railway or bridge, or complex connected assets such as an office park or a city.

In public infrastructure such as road networks, project managers traditionally rely on visual inspections to determine when to schedule maintenance. Digital twins enable virtual inspections, which help managers calculate the best time for seamless and more efficient maintenance while reducing the costs for unscheduled site visits and preventing potential traffic disruptions.

Digital twins also make decisionmaking more inclusive. Asset information is centralised in the twin and can be easily accessed by all, which facilitates effective collaboration between stakeholders. With multiple data streams and technologies incorporated in a shared platform, a digital twin enables a seamless exchange of information that is needed for coordination.

Digital twins also complement building information modelling (BIM) methodologies by taking collaborative

Inclusive decisionmaking

Digital twins makes decision-making more inclusive as information can be easily accessed by all.

Ease of transition

Asset managers familiar with BIM solutions will find it easy to transition to digital twins.

125

Number of days K&A had to develop a digital model for an Omani project

data models to the next level and enabling data-driven solutions. Since both methodologies enable digital workflows, asset managers that are already implementing BIM solutions will find it easy to transition to digital twins, which could accelerate the adoption of digital twins in infrastructure and construction sectors.

Across the Gulf Cooperation Council and Egypt, BIM is now considered the most widely adopted construction methodology, second to cloud computing. With the ease of transitioning between BIM and digital twins, the region will see more digital twins incorporated with BIM solutions in the future.

PUTTING DIGITAL TWINS INTO PRACTICE A project by Khatib & Alami, a multidiscipline urban and regional planning, architectural, and engineering consulting organisation, is a good example of how Middle East organisations can develop and benefit from digital twins. They were contracted to develop a 280-square kilometre region-scale digital model in and around Muscat, Oman within 125 days.

The firm needed the model to be accurate within 4-6 centimetres, though they were faced with topography and time constraints. Out of the 125 days set to complete the project, they only had 14 days for flying the drone, securing clearances, and complying with government policies. Khatib & Alami realised that the project required accurate and flexible technology capable of developing a digital twin with detailed parallel processing.

The firm selected ContextCapture and LumenRT, which enabled them to create a 3D reality mesh that captured and processed 330,000 images in 90 days, 35 days ahead of schedule despite the large area required for the model. The digital twin establishes a digital context to maintain and leverage data for future decision-making on urban development, security measures, and natural resource management in desert areas. Simulating potential environmental risks in the digital twin helped Oman’s government develop a more reliable risk management and mitigation plan.

The Middle East is home to some of the world’s most iconic buildings, as well as a robust infrastructure and construction industry. New technologies drive the region’s development and provide opportunities to make processes more efficient while reducing costs. These benefits further accelerate the adoption of digital innovations and solutions in various construction projects.

DIGITAL TWINS AND THE FUTURE Machines and processes have become complex, which has made society more dependent on technology. As a result, experimenting with various

Best practices

As digitalisation continues to transform the industry, digital twins will help new best practices emerge, says Debabrata Chakraborty.

90

Number of days K&A completed the Omani project in

disruptive approaches and software can cause excessive costs and risk. Artificial intelligence and machine learning, which can augment existing technology, are being incorporated into digital twins making them smarter and more autonomous.

As a result, digital twins are reshaping the foundations of infrastructure and construction by combining data from human experts with machine intelligence to create more resilient and sustainable designs. With predictive mechanisms, digital twins can enable firms to anticipate risks and mitigate potential issues before they occur, hence, providing safer infrastructure and construction.

Since digital twins with predictive mechanisms automate processes, procedures, and collaborations, asset managers are able to enable faster and accurate decision-making, as well as improved long-term maintenance to benefit the public, asset managers, and infrastructure investors alike.

As digitalisation continues to transform the industry, digital twins will continue to be refined and new best practices will emerge that will help designers, asset managers, and professionals create safer, more efficient, and more reliable infrastructure. Those who optimise the potential of harnessing data today will have a competitive advantage in building a better world in the future.