Digital Twins for Built Assets to Enable Sustainability Tracking
Publication: Computing in Civil Engineering 2023
ABSTRACT
Sustainability, particularly in the architecture, engineering, and construction (AEC) sector, is gaining worldwide importance as a result of the climate emergency. The AEC sector accounted for over a third of the global energy demand and approximately 37% of energy and process-related worldwide CO2 emissions in 2021, factoring in projected emissions from the production of building materials. There has been a growing interest in the AEC sector toward digital twins due to their ability to monitor an asset’s greenhouse gas emissions in real time. However, the current emphasis of digital twins with respect to sustainability is mainly on energy consumption, with less focus on the embodied CO2 emissions resulting from changes in building materials during operations and maintenance (O&M). This paper puts forth a framework to create digital twins for built assets, which would enable comprehensive carbon tracking during the O&M phase. This includes not only energy consumption but also the CO2 emissions associated with changes in materials.
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Information & Authors
Information
Published In
Computing in Civil Engineering 2023
Pages: 459 - 466
History
Published online: Jan 25, 2024
ASCE Technical Topics:
- [Inorganic compounds]
- Air pollution
- Asset management
- Building materials
- Buildings
- Business management
- Carbon compounds
- Carbon dioxide
- Chemicals
- Chemistry
- Construction materials
- Detection methods
- Emissions
- Engineering fundamentals
- Engineering materials (by type)
- Environmental engineering
- Financial management
- Materials engineering
- Methodology (by type)
- Organic compounds
- Pollution
- Practice and Profession
- Structural engineering
- Structures (by type)
- Sustainable development
- Tracking
Authors
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