Geometrical Digital Twinning of a Tapered, Horizontally Curved Composite Box Girder Bridge

Abstract

A composite bridge located in the Metropolitan Area of Barcelona represents one of the sites for demonstrating the capabilities of digital twins on maintenance of built assets. Digital twins can be deemed to as digital living replica of the physical one that provides real time information throughout adequate connectivity (sensors, images, remote sensing) and provides automated visualization of the asset for decision‐making purposes (performance indicators that are assessed regularly). This demonstrator is an 846 meters long composite bridge with plates and a concrete slab. The plates are tapered along a portion of its length. The bridge is horizontally curved with a bifurcation at its end. One of the challenges in this demonstrator is to reproduce realistically the “as built” shape of the plates using a terrestrial laser scanner for simulation purposes. The outcome of this specific side of the digital twinning (other sides also include many sensor‐ and image‐based methods) is of great interest for maintenance managers. Understanding the real configuration of the asset represents an accurate starting point for subsequent modelling.