Digital twins bring big value to construction and facilities management in myriad ways. Now, new research is being done to develop a digital twin framework to enhance sustainability and efficiency of modular buildings.
But, first, let’s back up a little bit. Because modular often means different things to different people. Here on the blog, I have explored the trend toward off-site construction, digging in specifically to modular building. But let’s recap here.
What Is Modular?
The Modular Building Institute does a good job defining what modular construction is, saying it is a process in which a building is constructed off-site, under controlled plant conditions, using the same materials and designing to the same codes and standards as conventionally built facilities—but in about half the time.
The reason it is called modular construction is because it is built in modules that are then connected on site. Ultimately, it minimizes costs and environmental impact. There are two different types: permanent modular construction and relocatable buildings.
Permanent modular construction is a construction delivery method using offsite, lean manufacturing techniques to prefabricate single or multi-story whole modular prefabricated building solutions in deliverable sections.
Relocatable buildings is a partially or completely assembled building that complies with applicable codes or state regulations and is constructed in a building manufacturing facility using an offsite modular construction process. These buildings can be quickly assembled and easily transported.
Here’s the rub with relocatable buildings though: Challenges often exist in management and logistics of relocatable buildings, as you might imagine or have experienced. Enter digital twins.
How Can Digital Twin Help?
Researchers at Hanyang University are developing a new digital twin facility management system aimed specifically at improving the efficiency of relocatable modular building lifecycle management. This advanced framework integrates technologies to enhance management efficiency throughout the building lifecycle, establishing a foundation for wider digital twin integration in construction.
The digital twin-enabled facility management system integrates with BIM (building information modeling), the IoT (Internet of Things), and GIS (geographic information systems) to create a detailed virtual model of the relocatable modular buildings.
With all this information in hand, teams can do realtime monitoring, performance analysis, and logistics simulations across a building’s lifecycle, with BIM enabling the modeling, the IoT providing realtime sensor data, and the GIS contributing the location-based decisionmaking.
This brings together three interconnected layers:
- Physical: Foundation for tracking and communication among different physical components such as resources, modular units, and people such as stakeholders, engineers, and workers.
- Digital: This layer includes modeling tools, data integration, and analytics.
- Service: This allows users to monitor, control, and interact with the digital twin framework.
The researchers conducted a case study using this method in South Korea, which resulted in improve management efficiency and effective decision making throughout the building lifecycle.
What are your thoughts? Can this improve management efficiency and effective decision making throughout the building lifecycle? Have you seen this been done successfully before? What else is needed?
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