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Presented by Mark Dixon at GPA Europe meeting in London, 18 November 1985.
The availability. of high performance "super-minicomputers" with large memory capacity makes dynamic simulation practical as a primary design tool. It can be employed in parallel with the conventional static flowsheet programs to create designs which are practical and operable. Design flaws and conceptual problems are discovered much earlier so that expensive retrofits and corrective actions can be avoided. A further benefit is that instrument interactions and control setting can be studied by trial and error at an early stage so that start-up time is greatly reduced. The same models and techniques used for "audit" simulators can be adapted to "real-time" training simulators. Personnel can be trained to operate the plant by realistic "hands on" simulation long before the plant goes on stream.
The concepts behind dynamic simulation are not difficult to understand. As this paper will show, the equations are set up in their natural form. There is very little algebraic manipulation involved. While setting up a simulation does involve some judgement, much of the work is reduced to filling out data forms for standard modules for vessels, pipes, control valves and instruments.