Matt Tipuric

Matt Tipuric, Alejandro Beltran, Nick Malleson et al.

Digital twins are used across many industries to enable better decision making. However, while policy makers at all levels (including city, national and supranational scales) have expressed a desire to integrate digital twins into their workflows, this adoption has been slow to materialise. In this paper, we discuss the key issues associated with policy digital twins, and the ways in which they differ from, and are similar to, their counterparts in other areas. We describe how multi-level agent based modelling can be used within policy digital twins to include the effects of human behaviours on outcomes; an aspect that is often largely overlooked. We also describe how digital twins can be designed for policy use cases, and present as a case study the design of a policy digital twin incorporating multi-level agent based modelling to aid a UK city council (local authority) in delivering energy transition policy. After describing both the design method used and the resultant digital twin, we discuss the effectiveness of both, as well as how the ways in which different contexts might shape the future architecture of the digital twin.

James Wilson, Max D. Champneys, Matt Tipuric et al.

The use of measured vibration data from structures has a long history of enabling the development of methods for inference and monitoring. In particular, applications based on system identification and structural health monitoring have risen to prominence over recent decades and promise significant benefits when implemented in practice. However, significant challenges remain in the development of these methods. The introduction of realistic, full-scale datasets will be an important contribution to overcoming these challenges. This paper presents a new benchmark dataset capturing the dynamic response of a decommissioned BAE Systems Hawk T1A. The dataset reflects the behaviour of a complex structure with a history of service that can still be tested in controlled laboratory conditions, using a variety of known loading and damage simulation conditions. As such, it provides a key stepping stone between simple laboratory test structures and in-service structures. In this paper, the Hawk structure is described in detail, alongside a comprehensive summary of the experimental work undertaken. Following this, key descriptive highlights of the dataset are presented, before a discussion of the research challenges that the data present. Using the dataset, non-linearity in the structure is demonstrated, as well as the sensitivity of the structure to damage of different types. The dataset is highly applicable to many academic enquiries and additional analysis techniques which will enable further advancement of vibration-based engineering techniques.