Digital twin and its potential applications in construction industry: State-of-art review and a conceptual framework

Through the combination of virtual and real, multi-dimensional perception, and accurate mapping, digital twin (DT) could describe the physical world in real-time and provide a theoretical basis for simulation, prediction, control, etc. In recent years, DT has been used in many sectors including the construction industry. From the needs of the construction industry, DT could help the technological progress of construction's whole life cycle. This paper presents a comprehensive review of the current development of construction industry and DT, following by proposing a conceptual framework for DT-enabled construction lifecycle management. Firstly, by analysing the research status of each phase in the construction lifecycle, the challenges facing the construction lifecycle are summarized. Then, the characteristics and challenges of DT were summarized based on its origins, concepts and applications. A “3 + 1”D DT-enabled construction lifecycle management framework was proposed after reviewing the construction industry and DT. Then, the challenges and opportunities in using the framework are discussed. This research helps understand the challenges and great potential of applying DT in the construction lifecycle.