Affiliation: Tampere University of Technology
Reference: Master of Science Thesis, 76 pages, 29 Appendix pages, April 2016, Programme in Information Technology
Abstract:
“Chemical process modelling and simulation can be used as a design tool in the development of chemical plants, and is utilized as a means to evaluate different design options. The CAPE-OPEN interface standards were developed to allow the deployment and utilization of process modelling components in any compliant process modelling environment.
This thesis examines the possibilities provided by the CAPE-OPEN interfaces and the .NET framework to develop compliant, cross-platform process modelling components, particularly unit operations. From the software engineering point of view, a unit operation is a representation of physical equipment, and contains the mathematical model of its functionality.
The study indicates that the differences between the CAPE-OPEN standards and Outotec HSC Chemistry Sim are negligible at the conceptual level. On the other hand, at the implementation level, the differences are quite considerable. Regardless of the simulation application being used, the modelling of unit operations requires interdisciplinary skills, and creating tools and methods to ease the development of such models is well justified.
The results of this study suggest that CAPE-OPEN both provides various paths to change the way HSC Chemistry Sim works and offers the HSC development team a chance to determine an alternative way to distribute tasks between simulation components. In addition, making HSC Chemistry Sim compliant would bring benefits, such as an extended process modelling component library, and perhaps more publicity. Obviously, the workload required by the changes depends on the chosen path, which invariably entails a lengthy learning curve. This thesis contributes by helping to make that learning curve shorter.”
Permanent address: TUT DPub
Comment: Marko LEINO makes an extensive review of CAPE-OPEN and concludes “As it stands,CAPE-OPEN technologies provide a well– tested and verified blueprint for several aspects of simulator design. Various alternative developmental paths based on the CAPE-OPEN ideas can be envisaged, Some of them may potentially improve the functionality, marketability or even usability of Outotec HSC Chemistry Sim“. CO-LaN welcomes this fairly complete analysis of the potential brought by CAPE-OPEN and of the effort needed to bring CAPE-OPEN into HSC Chemistry.
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