Trends in Digital twinning for operation and maintenance in non-residential buildings

With the organizational and monitoring processes having been progressively transferred to digital for decades, digital devices are increasingly applied on the market of building design and operation. As a result, digital twins are emerging in the architecture, construction, (HVAC) engineering and facility management fields. This report first introduces the background, history, and recent trends in the application of digital twins with a detailed explanation of Digital Twins (DT), Building Information Modelling (BIM), and Internet of Things (IoT) and how they are intertwined. Secondly, the modelling and framework of digital twins application in buildings are described. Thirdly, several cases related to digital twin applications reported in scientific literature are presented and shortly analysed. It is concluded that when developing digital twins for residential buildings it could be useful to look at applications in non-residential buildings, especially on the aspects of standardization and use of BIM and models. In this report only scientific literature has been consulted and no non-published in-company developments.