Page 8 - Hafen Hamburg | Port of Hamburg Magazine 4.2022

■ THE DIGITAL TRANSFORMATION
Wirtschaftssenator Michael Westhagemann auf Tour im Hafen.
What is a digital twin? To put it simply, this consists
acoustic sensors capture the sound produced by vi- brations of the cable. Should this change, that sug- of a data clone of a real object, based on electric
gests that something is wrong. So, somebody is sensors. One of these would identify essential main-
tenance and repair jobs, for instance on the Köhl-
sent there to check whether all is in order. “When we launched the project, it was caused by problems brand Bridge in the Port of Hamburg. “We launched
with the Köhlbrand Bridge,” explains Ullerich. With the ‘smart Bridge’ project about three years ago.
This has meanwhile become a large-scale demon-
funding assured, HPA was actually able to tackle this major project.
stration of preventative maintenance and automat-
ed traffic control,” says Ullerich, responsible at HPA
for innovative projects. For the one on the bridge,
The bridge ramps are of concrete and the middle section of steel, making the range of lessons to be 520 sensors were mounted, among other things to
learned extremely wide. “We wanted to fully exploit provide condition monitoring.
“The sensors enable us to see what is going on out there. This helps us to assess the situation far better,” he adds. The structure is displayed as a BIM, or Build- ing Information Model that pools data flows. Ana- logue data like the findings of structural examination under DIN 1076, and digital data from continuous monitoring by sensors, are assembled and analysed there. “If the sensors produce a spike when a truck thunders across the bridge, roughly speaking this re- sembles an ECG measuring heart rhythms when somebody rushes upstairs.” Everything should then settle down again. “Like the doctor, we record the vi- tal parameters of our bridge,” explains the engineer.
A CLONE ENSURES SHORTER DOWNTIME
The clone should minimize downtime and make costs as well as maintenance jobs easier to plan. The sensors are therefore attached at critical points, for example on the bridge’s diagonal cables. These
the limits of what is possible, using a digital twin,” he says. The result is that the sensors permit an in- dividual view of every structure and receipt of meas- urement findings as firm facts. The engineers are then far better able to assess what needs to be done at which point, meaning that in the case of the bridge, it does not always need to be closed imme- diately to traffic, should a problem arise. These an- nounce themselves, as the example of the acoustic sensors on the steel cable demonstrates. Until now, from time to time an inspection team have had to put on their climbing boots.
Yet the ‘Digital Twin’ topic goes far beyond the ‘smart bridge’. HPA is pursuing the vision of devel- oping a Digital Port Twin, or a digital twin of the en- tire Port of Hamburg. A host of individual twins are already out there. The Elbe has one, for example. This shows how deep it is at which points, and where sediment needs to be dredged off. “We know
Virtual scrutiny of the Köhlbrand Bridge reveals the actual state of the structure
08 | Port of Hamburg Magazine | December 2022
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