Bentley CTO speaks current projects that have changed the infrastructure industry.
Bentley sponsored this post.
The infrastructure industry has no lack of technical challenges. If we approach the center of this decade, resources, workers and supply chains are all burdened with their limits. However, aging assets and growing population groups generate demand and investments in the infrastructure – which leads to a deficit. In the meantime, new projects will be more complex and take longer for social expectations to be shifted into the more intelligent, greener, optimized and even with AI-connected structures.
Julien Moutte, Chief Technology Officer at Bentley Systems, explains that engineering offices can overcome many of the current technical challenges and gaps by receiving what he calls “infrastructure -intelligence” – the ability to use data from technical technologies, information technologies and operating technology (ET, IT and OT) to use the performance of project provision and the performance of the projects improve. “The increase in the infrastructure -intelligence begins with data. By unlocking data from silos, sharing with all teams and the use of daily workflows, companies can gain infrastructure information. In addition, data can be reused in several projects by creating libraries by prefabricated components or automatically generating components with artificial intelligence. Data is the basis on which digital twins can be constructed. “
A digital twin is a model and/or a collection of information that is continuously updated in order to meet a real asset. The data is integrated into a platform, accessible and automatically updated via the life cycle of an asset. This more intelligent infrastructure framework helps the interest groups, projects for resources, workforce, supply chain, maintenance, operation, future evidence, energy consumption, water consumption and much more to optimize.
Moutte notes that Bentley has worked with industry leaders who are ahead of the curve and use the advantages of digital twins. Many break silos by creating digital twins that include the life cycle of a wealth value. Here are three examples of infrastructure that he could share.
California automates its second largest dam for security monitoring
The new Bullards Bar Dam in California, which was operated by the Yuba River Development Project, tried to modernize its dam monitoring system by collecting continuous real-time operating data.
Since the dam is in an isolated area in which frequent earthquakes and bad weather occur, the assessment of the health of the dam has a high priority to maximize the safety, power generation, water supply, fishing and much more. However, the current costs and risks to collect this data were not sustainable.
The dam holds back 1.19 cubic kilometers of water and forms the new Bullards Bar Reservoir. If the structure failed, it could be very dangerous for several local communities and wild animals. This means that dam operator needed a simple, automated, affordable and safe method to evaluate the dam.
Yuba Water worked with Niricson to record a 3D reality network from thousands of bean-related pictures and to process it in Bentleys ITWIN Capture. Yuba then uploaded the photorealistic model to the cloud-based IoTwin IoT platform from Bentley, on which the model was assigned to the surveillance devices to visualize the sensor data in real time.
Collecting this data was not enough; The dam operators also wanted the data to be accessible and processed for useful information. The best way to do this was digital twin technology. With the digital twin, users can visualize, analyze and receive automated decisions with thorough dashboards and report on the structural integrity and reliability of the dam.
Moutte added: “Itwin IoT contains sensor data within the model so that Yuba water display the sensor locations in the damm's geospatial context, determine whether you have reached all warnings and monitor the deformation and spread of the dam structure.”
The system now collects 1,000 -more data than previous methods. With this data, the digital twin can manifest a photo -realistic 3D model of the dam that can be rated easily and safely.
Echowater's wastewater digital Twin helps to reduce the drought of Sacramento
Digital twins not only improve inspection projects, but can also be of great help when it comes to building. For example, the Sacramento Regional Waste -treatment system operated by Sacramento Regional County Sanitation used a digital twin to improve its facility in good time and $ 400 million as part of the budget.
Project Control has managed the planning, planning and costs of the ten -year project. It was also the idea of the company to use Bentleys Syncro to simulate the construction, to ensure security and to improve efficiency throughout the project. The digital twin was developed with ITWIN technology to synchronize the changes to the physical location with the digital model. This contributed to optimizing the situation consciousness and decision -making.
“Improved situation and logistics awareness by the digital twin of synchro generated implementable intelligence that reduce the costs and the risk at the beginning of the design phase. Compared to previous projects, the quality and the time of review and acceptance of the basic plan improved and the acceptance of weeks instead of months. The digital twin controller and the coordination of the stakeholders and optimized Bausequenization, which reduces the total program costs by $ 400 million. “
This information was important to synchronize the 22 projects carried out on the website at the same time. In the end, dozens of concrete structures, pump stations and electrical stations were produced. This lasted 40,000 tons of steel and 225,000 cubic meters of concrete. In order to continuously optimize the construction and anticipate problems, production and supply chains were simulated and choreographed by the digital twin.
Because everyone, from designers to contractors, could access the twin at any time, data silos and handover were eliminated. This also contributed to the fact that stakeholders previously found problems during development. This made it possible to avoid and mitigate obstacles and shutdowns in order to save time and money.
The traffic to Mountain Resorts along the I-70 reduced with visualized data
Digital twins can also be used to optimize the infrastructure during the design phase, as to the I-70 in Colorado. The highway connects many popular resorts and acts as a large east-west artery for the truck industry. This has caused the route to be overloaded and dangerous at different locations.
To remedy this, the Ministry of Transport of Colorado Atkinsréalis with the engineer and design stopped a $ 700 million project to fix the bottlenecks of the I-70, access, security and environmental effects.
The mountainous topography, tight corners and waterways made atkinsréalis considerable design challenges. With the help of digital Twin technology, however, you were able to design a new fee-based Express Lane, an auxiliary Lane and the Frontage Street (for the emergency reaction). Bentley's ProjectWise technology was used as a common data environment for everyone involved, with data silos being removed and communication has been simplified. The digital twin itself was built with Itwin. Geometria were manufactured in Bentley's open applications – open roads and open bridge.
The digital twin also included 3D models that made it easier for stakeholders to intuitively understand what the highway in the 3D world would look like. Lumenrt was used to create 360-degree static and video visualizations that were of crucial importance for the public.
“The community is often an important stakeholder group,” says Moutte. “By displaying realistic 3D models, stakeholders can easily visualize the designs, which reduces the overall risk of the project.”
Overall, the digital twin has saved 97% of the efforts that are required to replace data for I-70 redesign. This reduced working hours by a total of 50,000 and saves a total of 7 million US dollars. Since the project is completed in 2028, Atkinsréalis and the Colorado Department of Transportation can expect more savings throughout the project of the project.
Open, scalable digital twins are the future of the infrastructure
Digital twins combine the virtual world via several data sources such as scans, photogrammetry, lidar, IoT sensors and various software or engineering platforms. But Moutte believes that we only scratch the surface advantages of digital twins. Soon we can extract a lot more data by using open standards and interoperability in which users can integrate external data sources, third -party tools and their own analyzes directly into a digital twin.
“We believe that open data ecosystems flow freely, enable tools for a more thorough analysis and reusability and the reusability of infrastructure teams, to work more efficiently, to make sound decisions and to ensure long-term value.”
Bentley is of the opinion that an open, scalable digital twin platform, which takes and integrates data from different sources and disciplines, make infrastructure experts in every phase of property life cycle – from construction to operation and maintenance. This open approach promotes innovation, promotes cooperation and enables users to break data silos, which leads to more efficient project provision and improved infrastructure performance.
Digital twins are an important instrument in the future of the infrastructure industry. To find out more, visit the Bentley website here.