Digital Twin-Ready Management of Conveyor Belt Loops as Linear Assets: Integrating Physics, Belt Passports, and Renewal Decisions

Conveyor belt systems are commonly treated as industrial equipment, although their operational value, degradation, risk, and renewal potential are distributed along the route and evolve through identifiable belt sections, splices, inspections, repairs, inserts, and refurbishment cycles. This article redefines conveyor belt loops as digital twin-ready linear assets and proposes a transferable asset management framework integrating three coupled layers: performance and physics, condition data and belt passport, and renewal decisions. The study is designed as a conceptual engineering article based on targeted literature synthesis, structured cross-sector analogy and framework development, rather than as a bibliometric review or a new optimization model. The proposed framework builds on previous work on structure-aware segment renewal by positioning it within a broader data and governance architecture. The article shows that a conveyor digital twin becomes operationally meaningful only when physics-based interpretation, spatially anchored diagnostics, intervention history, operating context, residual value, and auditable decision rules are connected through a persistent belt passport. The framework supports more transparent life-cycle decisions and positions conveyor belt loops as a reference case for infrastructure asset management, condition traceability, and digital twin governance.