The Architecture, Engineering, Construction, and Facility Management (AEC-FM) industry is increasingly affected by digital technologies that monitor sensor network data and control automation systems. Advances in digital technologies like Digital Twin offer a high-level representation of buildings and their assets by integrating the physical and digital world. This paper examines patterns, gaps, and trends in the AEC-FM sector and contributes to digitalization and automation solutions for building management. This work covers a broad range of research topics, from intelligent information management of complex models to building information management and the interaction of building systems, where researchers are increasingly interested in using the Digital Twin to manage their information and in developing new research lines focused on data interchange and the interoperability of building information modeling (BIM) and facility management (FM). After a complete bibliometric search of several databases and following selection criteria, 77 academic publications about the Digital Twin application in the AEC-FM industry were labeled and clustered accordingly. This study analyzed in detail the concept of key technologies, including “Digital Twin in Facility Lifecycle Management,” “Digital Twin-Information Integration Standards,” “Digital Twin-Based Occupants Centric Building Design,” “Digital Twin-Based Predictive Maintenance,” “Semantic Digital Twin for Facility Maintenance,” and “Digital Twin-Based Human Knowledge.” The findings show that information standardization is the first major hurdle that must be overcome before the actual use of Digital Twin can be realized in the AEC-FM industry. Based on that, this paper provides a conceptual framework of Digital Twin for building management as a starting point for future research.
Building information modelling (BIM) software is increasingly being used in as a visual road design tool and offers real-time information on material demands as designs change. Life cycle assessment (LCA) is a tool that is used to measure the lifetime environmental impacts of systems, materials and processes. LCA data sets are organized according to process or product, which is ideal for implementation as a parameter in BIM. This paper seeks to explore how BIM and LCA can be used together in road design by analysing existing literature, creating a Norwegian test case on a road designed in a BIM model and adding LCA data to the model before comparing to a standard LCA study of the same road. Challenges such as including machinery emissions, uncertainty, data availability, and other insights gained will be discussed. The goal of this paper is to present a path forward for road builders to combine LCA and BIM to promote simplified LCA calculations.
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