*Article* **Intelligent Safety Assessment of Prestressed Steel Structures Based on Digital Twins**

**Zhansheng Liu 1,2,\*, Guoliang Shi 1,2, Zedong Jiao 1,2 and Linlin Zhao 1,2**


**Abstract:** In the development process of intelligent construction, the safety assessment of prestressed steel structures as an important research direction has become more and more attractive in academia. Digital twins (DTs) is the key technology to realize intelligent construction. The virtual and real interaction of the DTs can provide an efficient managemen<sup>t</sup> and control mechanism for the construction process. This research proposes an intelligent safety assessment method of prestressed steel structures based on DTs. In this research method, the structural safety assessment is divided into two aspects: performance analysis and maintenance. By analyzing the characteristics of the construction safety assessment, a DTs framework for construction safety assessment is built. Driven by the DTs framework, a physical space model and a virtual space model are constructed. On the basis of virtual and actual interaction, multidimensional information fusion of time and space is carried out to realize the analysis of structural safety performance. On this basis, the paper establishes a Bow-tie model for the maintenance modeling of unsafe construction events. Moreover, the theoretical method formed is applied to the construction of a symmetrical structure (wheel–spoke cable truss). The validity of the method is verified by comparing the cable force calculated by the theoretical method and measured on site. The assessment method driven by the DTs ensures the structural safety and improves the intelligence level of safety managemen<sup>t</sup> and control of the structure construction.

**Keywords:** digital twin; prestressed steel structure; construction process; safety assessment; intelligen<sup>t</sup> construction
