Why Digitization in Structural Diagnostics?

Assessing existing infrastructure structures is becoming increasingly important – whether to extend service life, plan targeted maintenance, or provide a basis for the development of digital twins. Crucial information comes from non-destructive testing methods, material analyses, and component investigations, which provide valuable insights into the internal condition of bridges, tunnels, and other civil engineering structures.

Until now, this data has mostly been documented in traditional PDF reports. Over the life cycle of a structure, this results in numerous separate, disconnected reports. This makes structuring, comparability, and targeted use of the findings more difficult.

With openSIM, a continuous data foundation is being created for the first time – a “Single Source of Truth” – that all project stakeholders can access. Clients and operators thus receive a reliable basis for maintenance strategies, service life forecasts, and investment decisions. The concept has already been tested in various use cases and received positive feedback from planning, administration, and industry – an important step toward establishing digital, standardized structural diagnostics.

Key Features of the openSIM Digital Twin

Each digital twin is provided for download in an ICDD exchange container including IFC. BIM and digital twin scaling made simple.

The 3D view of the components shows the inspection points in their exact positions.

The Digital Twin app offers the option to compare any data and measurement results from two or more locations and view them over time. Here, these are SAFT images of damage.

The corresponding inspection points are marked in the 3D model.

Detailed data from inspections is available with 3D localization. Measurement result: reinforcement scan.

Data Provision: ICDD Container

The use of linked data containers (ICDD) in combination with a domain-specific ontology (SIO) provides a powerful method for fundamentally optimizing data management in structural diagnostics. The key advantages are:

• Traceability: The entire project history is documented transparently and seamlessly.

• Centralized data management: All heterogeneous data is bundled in a single, structured container.

• Data sovereignty: The client receives a complete, interoperable data package and retains full control.

• Long-term usability: The semantically prepared data is machine-readable and can easily be reused for future analyses, the creation of a digital twin, or the planning of later measures.

From Prototype to Practical Application

The innovative research results were prototyped on the basis of several models.

In addition, there are immediately implementable steps as well as open ideas. For example, even more technical details could be provided in a more finely structured way in the backend. This would enable more specialized professional applications. One use case that is still open, for example, is “calculation” for the structural engineer role.

We also already know that additional tools for specialist staff would be helpful for generating the provided data, for example a tool for writing and supplementing the commissioned ICDD container of a bridge, so that follow-up inspections can also be easily integrated in the future.

Research Partners:

• Bauhaus University Weimar

• BCH Bau-Consult Hermsdorf

• Kruso

• MKP Marx Krontal Partner

• HPA Hamburg Port Authority

• MFPA Material Research and Testing Institute Weimar

• BMV Federal Ministry for Digital and Transport

• mFUND