Digital twins help decision-making in the construction industry

The construction industry faces a major challenge: building and managing underground infrastructure, such as cables and pipelines, is becoming increasingly complex. Although various experts and systems are still required, data integration in digital twin solutions can help increase insights and, consequently, enhance work efficiency. This saves time and money while causing fewer inconveniences.

The underground is a busy place. There are approximately 2 million kilometers of cables and pipelines, of which 20,000 kilometers contain hazardous substances. Drawings and models have been created for all the separate networks; however, there is often no up-to-date overview of the entire underground infrastructure. In the past, this problem was minor and less urgent, but that is now changing. “The major social challenges of the moment, such as the energy transition and climate change, require a better overview and more coordination between different organizations in the construction and infrastructure chain,” says Léon Olde Scholtenhuis, associate professor at the University of Twente. He is researching digital innovation for safer and coordinated management of utilities.

Changes create complexity that can no longer be resolved within the existing frameworks of administrators. Olde Scholtenhuis gives an example: “Extreme rainfall causes the groundwater levels in parts of the Netherlands to fluctuate more than before. Therefore, tree roots tend to grow more horizontally rather than deeper. The roots spread more in the shallow soil. This means they come into contact with cables and pipes more often. In more severe storms, a tree can fall over and pull the cables out of the ground, potentially causing damage. Models that include the relationship between such physical systems can help to identify problems in the future at an early stage.”

Digital twins

In the example mentioned, there is a role for researchers, but also for the municipality and companies that carry out management and maintenance work on public infrastructure and public space. A digital twin can support these professionals. A digital twin comprises a virtual model of the infrastructure and subsurface that is continuously updated with sensor data from the physical world. This data comes from various sources and perspectives. “Data linking between a current virtual and physical system helps in making decisions about interventions, exploring scenarios, and predicting the future behavior of a system,” says Ranjith Kuttantharappel Soman, assistant professor of digital construction at Delft University of Technology (TU Delft).

He explains: “A predictive AI model is often trained with old data. For example, about rainfall in a certain area. In the context of major changes such as climate change, old data is no longer representative of what we can expect in the future. After all, we have never experienced such situations before. In these cases, a digital twin uses not only current data and AI but also knowledge rules that can model extreme simulations. The combination of AI and expert models can even be used to map out the consequences of extreme weather situations.”

Professionals can use digital twin simulations to compare different scenarios before making a decision. For example, certain behaviors of tree roots and the current location of cables and pipes can be analyzed before breaking ground. That saves time, money, and inconvenience. Digital twins can also help maintain heat networks. Here, sensors can facilitate digital calculations that predict maintenance needs and inform planning for them. This makes a digital twin a valuable tool for municipalities, large companies, maintenance companies, and research institutes, among others.

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International workshop

Olde Scholtenhuis and Soman are jointly leading a workshop series on the concept of the digital twin for underground infrastructure.

To this end, they are combining knowledge from various universities. TU Delft has been focusing on the development of digital twins for years. The University of Twente has a great deal of expertise when it comes to data on underground infrastructure and the future management challenges that come with it.

“We see that digital twins can have a major impact on the construction industry. However, it is not always clear to construction professionals what exactly they are and how they can use these systems in the best possible way,” says Soman. The workshops that Soman and Olde Scholtenhuis are organizing should help to create clarity. The research project is an international collaboration among the Dutch Universities of Technology in Twente and Delft, as well as the National Institute of Technology Warangal in India. The first workshop took place on November 26 in Enschede. The second was held from December 16 to 20 in Warangal. As part of this, there was an exchange of Ph.D. students between October and December. The project is co-financed by the Indian government, which is seeking international cooperation in the field of technology with parties such as 4TU.Built Environment.

The workshops will continue next year. The Indian participants will then focus more on specific applications for the subsurface. Soman: “Participants were given background information in 2024, and we outlined the concept and frameworks of a digital twin.”

Encouraging cooperation

“In this way, we are testing the usability of an interactive system for various global situations,” says Olde Scholtenhuis. Soman: ”The situation of the underground infrastructure in the Netherlands and India cannot be compared one-to-one, but we can still learn a lot from each other. For example, when it comes to designing networks or the rules regarding data ownership.”

Interactive and up-to-date

“The added value of a digital twin lies in combining timely and up-to-date data and converting this into information,” he continues. ”This is done by describing the current status of a piece of infrastructure, predicting its behavior, and performing scenario analyses.” Researchers have discovered, for example, that the composition of the soil's infrastructure is becoming increasingly crucial for the government and contractors. “That is important information when it comes to maintaining the network,” says Soman.

Olde Scholtenhuis and Soman see a significant role for digital twins in the future. “Various applications are already visible in construction and other sectors. However, a lot of research is still required to develop the technology further. International collaborations are essential in this regard; we cannot develop this kind of technology on our own,” Olde Scholtenhuis concludes.