Maintworld 3/2019

RESEARCH AND DEVELOPMENT
tire lifecycle from design and build
stages to operate and maintain
• Gathering and displaying real-time
data feeds from sensors in an operational
asset to know the exact
state and condition, regardless of
location
• Utilizing digital twins on all lifecycle
stages of the asset, from the
design stage to the monitoring of
safety equipment on rigs, such as
drills or pipelines, or model drilling
and extractions to determine
whether virtual equipment designs
are possible or not
• Improving operational and asset
performance
• Improving engineering and maintenance
efficiency by reducing
need for on-site visits
• Improving training and reduced
time to train, especially with augmented
reality
• Detecting early signs of equipment
failure or degradation and moving
from reactive to proactive maintenance
through IoT enablement
• Consolidating multiple sources of
data, and then proactively planning
and implementing corrective
maintenance actions before costly
failures and downtime occurs
Central to any successful digital twin
is an open, connected data environment
– this means the physical world
is directly connected to the digital, e.g.
combining operational technology (OT)
data from sensors, data historians, etc.,
in one common environment. Key to
connectivity is a set of cloud-provisioned
or on-premises services that support
digital context, digital components, and
digital workflows, what Bentley refers
to as a connected data environment.
This means you can manage and access
consistent, trusted, and accurate information,
while sharing the benefits of an
DIGITAL TWINS ARE TAKING CENTRE STAGE AND ADVANCING
RAPIDLY BEYOND BUILDING INFORMATION MODELING (BIM).
open, integrated, and connected framework
to enable collaboration, improve
decision making, and deliver better
project outcomes and better performing
assets.
Use across greenfield and
brownfield sites
For greenfield sites, it would be ideal to
create a digital twin to maintain an accurate,
up-to-date, accessible picture
throughout the lifecycle to reduce time
to operational readiness and influence
time-to-market. Bentley’s PlantSight
solution is the ideal tool for greenfield
sites because it takes all your plant and
process information together, contextualizes
it, validates it, and visualizes it
– transforming raw data into a complete
digital twin.
For brownfield sites with aging assets,
such as those found within the oil,
gas, and energy industry, assets can be
between 20 to 40 years old or more. So,
how can a digital twin help assets that
are nearing end-of-life or are working
beyond their estimated designed life?
Digital twins can still be applied to older
assets to gain the same benefits across
their remaining life, extending their remaining
life safely and reliably by applying
risk-based and reliability-centered
methodologies. Into the decommissioning
phase, the same rigor is required to
maintain information integrity as when
the asset was operational.
Even if your starting point is operations
and you don’t have a 3D model,
Bentley’s ContextCapture can provide
reality meshes for existing and under
construction assets to provide accurate
visualization and up-to-date conditions.
The ease with which this twin can be
updated during operation or modified
during projects supports the need for
increased flexibility and adaptability.
The seamless and ongoing integration
of process engineering, maintenance,
3D representation, and operational
performance information, speeds up
and supports continuous improvement
and thereby efficiency, sustainability,
and return on asset investment. Owneroperators
can combine the solution
with asset management best practices to
improve useful life and asset value, with
Bentley’s AssetWise ALIM solution. The
digital twin makes it easier to engineer
for safety and compliance and verify the
as-built and as-maintained facility.
An Immersive Experience
The word “immersive”, when relating
to a computer display or system, means
generating a three-dimensional image
that appears to surround the user. While
digital twins can use 3D models to provide
context and more visibility of the
physical object, the next evolutionary
step is to create fully immersive digital
operations, which could also incorporate
virtual and augmented reality to
create a fully immersive picture. To
make a digital twin more relevant and
beneficial than a simple 3D model, the
digital engineering model needs to be
combined with reality meshes, as well as
be connected to various asset information
sources that often reside in different
departments within organizations.
The ability to see through the eyes of
operators in the field in real-time using
reality meshes has become feasible with
technology advancements from organizations
like Bentley.
While mobility, cloud services, the
Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT), automated
processes, and analytics are the
core digitalization ingredients, for a fully
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