Integrating OMA, BIM and FEM updating for SHM of historical structures

Structural Health Monitoring (SHM) is nowadays a robust technology for remote and automatic assessment of the health state of civil structures even in the presence of varying environmental conditions that might affect the structural response and, as a consequence, the reliability of SHM results. In order to enhance the damage detection capabilities of SHM systems, the integration of experimental data and numerical simulations by refined Finite Element (FE) models is currently object of extensive research. The current structural condition as well as relevant historical data have to be taken into account to have an up-to-date representation of the actual physical system in operation. Digital twins can play a primary role in this context by fully exploiting the integration of experimental data and numerical simulation in supporting anomaly detection and structural maintenance. Building Information Modeling (BIM) is currently recognized as an attractive solution for digital twin development thanks to the possibility of collecting miscellaneous data and information in a unified platform and to its interoperability with FE codes; however, the extension of BIM to facility management is still an open issue, in particular when the digital models have to be complemented with data coming from SHM systems. The present paper aims at demonstrating how an effective integration of BIM, FEM, and experimental data from SHM systems is possible by focusing the attention on an applicative example related to the development of a digital twin of a historical structure. Integration of SHM data, BIM, and finite element model updating is illustrated pointing out its promising applicative perspectives for structural maintenance.