Generic Digital Twin Architecture for Industrial Energy Systems

TLDR

Digital Twins are increasingly studied for Industry 4.0, especially in industrial energy systems to support flexible, optimized operation and the renewable energy transition, yet existing implementations are often application‑specific and lack a general architectural framework. This study aims to create a technology‑independent Generic Digital Twin Architecture (GDTA) aligned with the RAMI 4.0 reference model. The authors surveyed literature on Digital Twin concepts, architectures, and frameworks and designed the GDTA to map onto RAMI 4.0’s information‑technology layers, then instantiated it using Semantic Web technologies for a packed‑bed thermal energy storage use case. The alignment enables a common naming scheme and understanding of the architecture, and the proof‑of‑concept demonstrates the GDTA’s applicability to a packed‑bed thermal energy storage system.

Abstract

Digital Twins have been in the focus of research in recent years, trying to achieve the vision of Industry 4.0. In the domain of industrial energy systems, they are applied to facilitate a flexible and optimized operation. With the help of Digital Twins, the industry can participate even stronger in the ongoing renewable energy transition. Current Digital Twin implementations are often application-specific solutions without general architectural concepts and their structures and namings differ, although the basic concepts are quite similar. For this reason, we analyzed concepts, architectures, and frameworks for Digital Twins in the literature to develop a technology-independent Generic Digital Twin Architecture (GDTA), which is aligned with the information technology layers of the Reference Architecture Model Industry 4.0 (RAMI4.0). This alignment facilitates a common naming and understanding of the proposed architectural structure. A proof-of-concept shows the application of Semantic Web technologies for instantiating the proposed GDTA for a use case of a Packed-Bed Thermal Energy Storage (PBTES).