Bridge infrastructure has great economic, social, and cultural value. Nevertheless, many of the infrastructural assets are in poor conservation condition as has been recently evidenced by the collapse of several bridges worldwide. The objective of this systematic review is to collect and synthesize state-of-the-art knowledge and information about how bridge information modeling, finite element modeling, and bridge health monitoring are combined and used in the creation of digital twins (DT) of bridges, and how these models could generate damage scenarios to be used by anomaly detection algorithms for damage detection on bridges, especially in bridges with cultural heritage value. A total of 76 relevant studies from 2017 up to 2022 have been taken into account in this review. The synthesis results show a consensus toward the future adoption of DT for bridge design, management, and operation among the scientific community and bridge practitioners. The main gaps identified are related to the lack of software interoperability, the required improvement of the performance of anomaly-detection algorithms, and the approach definition to be adopted for the integration of DT at the macro scale. Other potential developments are related to the implementation of Industry 5.0 concepts and ideas within DT frameworks.

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The Digital Twin (DT) concept, as understood nowadays, appeared in the early 2000s as an attempt to create virtual replicas of physical assets, such as bridges, that can be used to examine, monitor and manage their performance. Up to this day, it has been successfully applied in the fields of aeronautics, manufacturing, medicine, and more recently, in the architecture, engineering, and construction industry. The DT of a bridge requires the creation of a virtual replica of the real-life asset, along with the connection and feedback of information channel between the two of them. This connection is currently achieved through the generation of real-time data by the placement of sensors in the real bridge and the application of structural health monitoring techniques to analyze such data. This connection could result in a complex, time-consuming, and expensive process which would hinder the creation of DT prototypes for development purposes in the bridge engineering field. This paper aims at exploring the currently available synthetic data generation methodologies and tools, which could be used as a faster and a more economically feasible alternative to real monitoring, for the creation and development of DT prototypes of bridges, for both industry and research-oriented purposes. A synthetic data generation framework is proposed that can produce FAIR benchmark databases that are based on Findability, Accessibility, Interoperability, and Reuse, which could be used in the prototyping of bridge DTs. Finally, tentative future improvements in this topic are discussed.@en

Digital twins (DTs) are virtual replicas of physical assets that can be used to monitor and manage their performance. To date, the DT concept has been effectively implemented in various industries, including aeronautics, manufacturing, medicine, and more recently, in the architecture, engineering, and construction sector. In the latter, these assets can be related to buildings, bridges, or other important infrastructures of the built environment. Although the creation of synthetic benchmark datasets for the validation of novel damage detection approaches has been attempted in the past, such alternatives are not easily findable or accessible. Thus, a new synthetic data generation framework is proposed within the DT paradigm context, that can produce FAIR benchmark databases that are characterized by Findability, Accessibility, Interoperability, and Reuse. This paper aims at exploring the uncertainty types, sources, and quantification approaches involved in the synthetic data generation methodologies and tools of the intended framework which could be used as a faster and cheaper alternative to real monitoring, for the creation and development of DT prototypes of bridges for both industry and research-oriented purposes. This work also highlights the benefits and drawbacks of implementing synthetic data for these purposes and points out tentative future improvements in the field.@en

Earthen structures have an important representation among the UNESCO World Heritage List sites as well as among the built environment in general. Unfortunately, earthen heritage structures are also numerous within the UNESCO List of World Heritage in Danger whereas other existing common earthen structures are extremely vulnerable to seismic and climate change events. Within the field of heritage conservation, structural analysis contributes to the safety evaluation of the structure, the diagnosis of the causes of damage and decay, and to the validation of interventions. Thus, the need to develop effective and accurate computational methods suitable for the study of both monumental and vernacular earthen structures becomes evident. This paper compiles, summarizes, and highlights the latest developments and implementations of computational methods for the study of such structure typologies. The literature has been explored following the PRISMA-S checklist methodology and a narrative synthesis was used for the presentation of results. Finally, future trends, opportunities, and challenges are discussed.

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