Enhancing hygrothermal monitoring of wet construction with digital twins

The development of digital building twins in the Architecture, Engineering, Construction and Operation (AECO) sector requires the adoption of adequate monitoring strategies for building components. This article presents a proposal and validation of a digital twin-enabled hygrothermal monitoring procedure applied to lightweight concrete using an IoT Arduino-based prototype. This study conducted tests to measure moisture in three types of lightweight concrete for over a year. Temperature and relative humidity sensors were embedded in the lightweight concrete samples. The recorded data were compared to four in-situ surface moisture meters and gravimetric analysis. Although surface moisture meters have different reference scales, the qualitative assessment is similar. The embedded sensors preserved their performance levels during the entire testing period, even those exposed to relative humidity levels near 100 %. The continuous monitoring of temperature and relative humidity in non-structural construction elements, using low-cost sensors embedded during construction, is proven to be viable.