Overview

A virtual building model (VBM) is a virtual entity that represents the physical behavior of a target building mathematically within a digital twin environment. The creation and synchronization of a VBM are achieved by utilizing various interrelated virtual sub-models, including behavior, correction, and distance models. To achieve continuous digital twinning, it is essential to manage the VBM with virtual sub-models. However, these metadata schemas have limitations in describing VBMs representing operational building behaviors within the concept of building digital twins (DTs). Therefore, we proposes the concept of a novel metadata schema, termed the virtual building model metadata schema (VB schema), to represent and manage VBMs in DT-built environments. The VB schema is established according to the mathematical and semantic ontology of the in-situ modeling and calibration approach for constructing and correcting virtual models during building operations, and it is linked to physical entities, data, and applications within DTs. Specifically, it involves: (1) determining classes for operational data and virtual models; (2) establishing relationships for interactions between data and model entities and between model classes; (3) defining properties for each class of models; and (4) extending into the exiting metadata schema of Brick.