Digital Twin in Prefabricated Construction – Approaches, Challenges and Requirements

Digital Twin (DT) is a virtual replica that mirrors physical objects, systems, or entities. In the construction sector, DTs play a crucial role in building management, optimizing energy usage, predicting maintenance, and enhancing building lifecycle management. Although effectively integrated into traditional construction practices, its application in the prefabricated construction (PC) field remains relatively limited. Despite its potential to transform the PC, a significant research gap exists in comprehensive literature addressing the approaches, challenges, and requirements specific to this field. This study aims to bridge this gap through a mixed-method research approach that includes bibliometric analysis and systematic review. Publications related to PC and DT are collected from the Scopus database, followed by bibliometric analysis to offer a quantitative insight into the current research trends, prolific authors, and geographical distribution. Furthermore, this study conducts a systematic review that qualitatively analyzes the objectives of DT applications in PC, explores its methodological approaches, identifies challenges and recommendations for practitioners and researchers, and suggests future needs. The findings highlight the pressing need for standardization, robust data management, and scalable solutions to navigate the complexities. Conclusively, this paper presents a comprehensive conceptual framework to facilitate the application of DT in various phases of PC. The critical limitation is the reliance on the publications on the Scopus database and its potential biases. Excluding the need to expand on more emergent publications, discussing empirical DT studies in PC to highlight interoperability and standardization needs is also required for future research.