Digital twin

The defining feature of a twin is the live link. A model describes an asset as designed or as built; a twin is fed by the asset — operating data, inspection results, modifications — so that queries, simulations and decisions run against current reality: what is this unit's condition, what happens if we push this parameter, which valve does this work order actually mean. The value cases are operational: performance monitoring, integrity and maintenance planning, operator training, scenario testing before touching the plant.

The term's problem is inflation. "Digital twin" is applied to everything from a 3D viewer to a genuinely synchronised operational platform, and the honest questions cut through the marketing: what data flows in, how often, from where; what structure connects the geometry to the tags, documents and systems; and who maintains all of it after the project team leaves. A twin is a data liability wearing a data asset's clothes unless the feeding and governance are funded for the asset's life — the handover problem, again, at its largest scale.