Creating an openly accessible database for bridges and engineering models and their digital twins – the bridge over the Rhine by Fritz Leonhardt as a case study

For a research project, founded by the German Research Foundation (DFG), an interdisciplinary team of civil engineers, construction historians, restorers, and architects has set itself the goal of documenting and preserving the last witnesses of the method of model analysis, where physical measurement models were used as a tool to examine the structural behaviour of load-bearing constructions in the era of high modernity. This contribution gives an insight into how digital twins are created, as well as how the data and information on these last witnesses were collected, stored, and processed using as an example the bridge near Emmerich designed by Fritz Leonhardt (1909-1999) and tested at the material testing institute (MPA) Stuttgart. To maximize the benefit of the collected data, it will be made publicly accessible in a database. This contribution will provide insight into the creation of the database, the diversity of the data and file formats.