Developing a digital twin model for monitoring building structural health by combining a building information model and a real-scene 3D model

Abstract

Structural health monitoring (SHM) is a critical component of ensuring the safety of buildings, yet the effective management of sensors and their corresponding monitoring data is complex. Thus, a digital twin health monitoring information model for buildings was proposed to simultaneously locate sensors in space and monitor data. We described the requirements of this process and designed a conceptual model by combining a building information model (BIM) and a real-scene 3D model. The key steps in the fusion process include reconstructing the BIM into sub-BIMs considering building component types and geometric transformations, 3D spatial position registration with a rigid-body transformation method, and semantic information mapping. After the fusion process, monitoring data from sensors are stored in a database management system and integrated with the fused model. A digital twin model of the Nanjing Museum Old Hall was constructed as a case study, which evaluated the fusion method’s feasibility and usability.