The Application of Digital Twin for Indoor Air Quality Management: A Case Study in Hong Kong

Abstract

With the advocacy of the development of smart cities, buildings are also evolving to become smarter and more user-friendly. Employing cyber-physical technologies, such as the Internet of Things (IoT), Digital Twin (DT) and Building Information Modeling (BIM), can effectively monitor and control the built environment. DT is an emerging tool that connects the building to its digital replica so that the building’s situation can be monitored and presented to users effectively. This paper proposes a DT framework for building management to discover the applications of DT for indoor environment monitoring and control. A case study of a DT-driven indoor air quality (IAQ) system is completed to demonstrate the implementation of DT in the built environment. The system demonstrated the key features of DT, including monitoring, simulation, control and prediction, and showed their roles and functions in IAQ management. Finally, the difficulties and limitations, i.e. sensor selection and installation, of implementing the DT system in the built environment are presented after the case study.