Digital twin enhanced BIM to shape full life cycle digital transformation for bridge engineering

BIM has been playing a pivotal role during the last decade in bringing in revolutionary and systematic changes, especially for the design and construction stages in bridge engineering; while the emerging Digital Twin (DT) technology, mainly applied in the operation and maintenance phases, has great potential to shape a DT-enhanced BIM framework to fully enable whole life cycle digital construction. However, the current adoption of DT in bridge engineering causes conceptual and technical confusion, which hinders the technology fusion to achieve its full potential. This paper aims at filling the gap by conceptualizing a DT-enhanced BIM framework from the perspective of bridge engineering. In total, 125 116 documents on BIM and DT were reviewed, compared, and analyzed; a crucial metrics based performance hierarchy for bridge digital twin was concluded and a DT -enhanced BIM framework was proposed to promote full lifecycle digital bridge engineering implementation. Furthermore, the analysis and conceptual development align well with the existing mature BIM framework and are expected to contribute actively to the future development of BIM and DT and their integrated advanced technologies.

Automated summary

BIM plays a crucial role in bridge engineering for the design and construction stages, while Digital Twin technology has the potential to enhance the entire lifecycle of digital construction in the operation and maintenance phases. However, the current adoption of Digital Twin in bridge engineering lacks conceptual and technical clarity, hindering its full potential. This paper fills the gap by proposing a DT-enhanced BIM framework for bridge engineering, based on the analysis of 125,116 documents on BIM and DT. A performance hierarchy for bridge digital twin is established, contributing to the future development of BIM and DT and their integrated advanced technologies.