A Thermal Digital Twin of Asphalt Pavements: Implementation and Application to an Instrumented Pavement in Costa Rica

Abstract

This article presents the development of a syntheticthermal digital twin designed to reproduce the temperaturedistribution within the asphalt layers of a pavementsystem. At the core of the digital twin is a numericalmodel that solves Fourier’s heat conduction equation usinga finite difference method, enabling the simulation oftransient heat transfer across multiple material layers.The digital twin architecture is organized into threemodular layers: the physical twin, which includes real-timetemperature measurements from embedded sensors(synthetically simulated in this study); the twinninglayer, which synchronizes physical and virtual data throughfeedback control using proportional-integral (PI)controllers; and the virtual twin, which integratesmaterial properties, heat fluxes, and environmentalconditions to replicate pavement thermal behavior.The numerical model was validated using climate data andsurface temperature measurements collected over a one-yearperiod from a reference instrumented pavement in CostaRica. In addition to radiative, convective, and conductiveheat fluxes, the model accounts for the cooling effects ofrainfall and subsequent evaporation—factors that areparticularly relevant in tropical climates. The resultsdemonstrate the capability of the digital twin to captureboth long-term thermal trends and short-term responses toenvironmental events.