PLANT SIMULATION AND OPTIMIZATION SOFTWARE APPARATUS AND METHOD USING DUAL EXECUTION MODELS

摘要

A software system simulates and optimizes a processing plant design. The software system includes a plurality of equipment models for simulating each piece of equipment in the processing plant design. A sequential modular simulation routine executes the equipment models in a first mode to define a first set of values of the operating parameters of the processing plant design. An optimization routine executes the equipment models in a second mode. The optimization routine utilizes the first set of values for the operating parameters from the sequential simulation routine and subsequently determines values of the operating parameters at which the processing plant design is optimized. The equipment models after execution by the sequential simulation routine and optimization routine store the first and second sets of values for the operating parameters in a common plant model file. Hence, the plant model file holds values computed during the sequential simulation routine as well as those computed during the optimization routine.