# Development and Application of Digital Twin Technique in Steel Structures
###### Abstract  
Steel structures face significant challenges in long-term maintenance because of complex and unstable service environments. Fortunately, the digital twin technique offers an excellent solution by creating a digital model and continuously updating it with real-time monitoring data. To determine the development and application status of the digital twin technique in steel structures, a review drawn on the latest literature from the past fifteen years was conducted. The bibliometric analysis and innovation discussion of these studies primarily focused on publication details, keyword information, and application specifics. Additionally, significant attention was given to the evolution of digital twin definitions, modeling methodologies, and application fields. The analysis results indicate that the digital twin technique in steel structures has made significant advancements in both its definition and modeling methodologies, thanks to worldwide contributions. Meanwhile, this technique also demonstrates advantages in the applications of material deformation, structural monitoring, infrastructure maintenance, and fatigue assessment. Based on this review of the existing literature, the future development of the digital twin technique in steel structures should focus on model innovation, application expansion, and performance optimization. steel structure; digital twin technique; bibliometric analysis; modeling methodology; application field +
Footnote †: journal: Applied sciences  
a physical object, and the virtual replica model is timely established by monitoring spatial data from the Internet of Things and real-time monitoring; the whole process can be considered as the application of the digital twin technique. Recently, researchers have been actively investigating the integration of the digital twin technique with advanced technologies, such as intelligent algorithms and sophisticated instruments [33; 34; 35; 36]. These efforts develop many advanced and predictive models, thereby expanding the potential applications of the digital twin technique in steel structures, as well as neighboring scopes, such as manufacturing [37; 38; 39], transportation [40; 41; 42], smart cities [43; 44; 45; 41], aerospace [46; 47], and automotive [22; 48], with which several correlative technique areas are connected, involving cloud computing [49; 50], the Internet of Things [51; 52; 53; 54], material mechanisms [55; 56; 57; 58], and artificial intelligence [59; 60]. Therefore, the aim of the development and application of this technique is to not only enable structural simulation and analysis but also enhance efficient monitoring, predictive maintenance, streamlined operations, and informed decision-making. In order to reveal the current condition of development and application of the digital twin technique in the field of steel structures, by which researchers can subsequently and easily conduct relevant studies, the methodologies of this state-of-the-art review primarily performed by the commercial management software EndNote were used as a definition of objective and scope, literature collection and classification, information extraction and analysis, and innovation summary and discussion. The principle of reference search through preferred reporting items for systematic reviews conforms to reference [61]. Firstly, the objective and scope are focused on the digital twin technique in steel structures. Secondly, this review questions how the corresponding digital twin technique has been developed and applied in recent years. Thirdly, the references were specified to the publication years spanning from 2009 to 2024, which consist entirely of journal articles from the Science Citation Index, considering that it is known for containing high-quality and reliable data.