The master’s thesis carried out in a company environment at BUILT CoLAB was presented in July. This thesis, by Emanuel Ferreira, was co-supervised by Luís Sanhudo, Head of Digital Transformation at BUILT CoLAB, together with António Arede and João Poças Martins from FEUP, the student’s teaching institution.
The thesis is entitled ‘Monitoring a monument with the support of a Digital Twin’ and was carried out at the end of the master’s programme in Civil Engineering – Structures and Geotechnics at FEUP, in the context of work at BUILT CoLAB.
The thesis explores the application of the Digital Twin concept to the monitoring of historic buildings, with the aim of improving the preservation and maintenance of cultural heritage. The study centres on São Bento Station, in the context of the development of the new Porto Metro line. It is proposed to create a Digital Twin in a web environment to visualise sensor data in real time and to develop a BIM model of the station in Autodesk Revit software, following specific standards.
The methodology included the implementation of a 3D model visualiser and the integration of sensor data using open source components. The research demonstrates that the use of Digital Twins represents a significant advance in the monitoring of historic heritage sites, suggesting future explorations with additional technologies, such as artificial intelligence, and the expansion of this approach to other historic buildings and cultural monuments.
For BUILT CoLAB, welcoming this student and co-supervising his work will help to maintain the link between academia and industry, one of the purposes and ways of working of this collaborative laboratory.
