A digital twin design for maintenance optimization

Digital Twin (DT) is being regarded as a suite of innovative technologies within the Industry 4.0 revolution. DT brings so much excitement to the industries pursuing digitalization. DT, as a real-time representation of a physical object supports manufacturers to enhance the yield from their operations. In particular, it offers a unique and advantageous outlook on the predictive maintenance of complex engineering assets. Along with DT, advanced systems simulation techniques enable industries to efficiently model and analyze real-world problems. In this study, a simulation-based DT design for the operation of a complex engineering asset is developed, in which the virtual model of the critical components is integrated with their degradation model. The DT design aims to understand the components’ degradation status and suggest a suitable maintenance intervention. The mathematical algorithm for the components’ remaining useful life and the related maintenance strategies is integrated with the DT model to determine the optimum service. The user interface is developed within the MATLAB app designer platform. A three-axis milling machine is selected to test the validity of the DT design.