DT-II:Digital twin enhanced Industrial Internet reference framework towards smart manufacturing

In this paper, the interplay and relationship between digital twin and Industrial Internet are discussed at first. The sensing/transmission network capability, which is one of the main characteristics of Industrial Internet, can be a carrier for providing digital twin with a means of data acquisition and transmission. Conversely, with the capability of high-fidelity virtual modeling and simulation computing/analysis, digital twin evolving from lifecycle management for a single product to application in production/manufacturing in the shop-floor/enterprise, can further greatly enhance the simulation computing and analysis of Industrial Internet. This paper proposes a digital twin enhanced Industrial Internet (DT-II) reference framework towards smart manufacturing. To further illustrate the reference framework, the implementation and operation mechanism of DT-II is discussed from three perspectives, including product lifecycle level, intra-enterprise level and inter-enterprise level. Finally, steam turbine is taken as an example to illustrate the application scenes from above three perspectives under the circumstance of DT-II. The differences between with and without DT-II for design and development of steam turbine are also presented.