| A hierarchical and object-oriented dynamic modeling and simulation system prototype called ForeSee has been developed, which demonstrates some of the key aspects of four sets of modeling components to represent the dynamic modeling and simulation of chemical processes. It is based on an object-oriented design of the software and programmed in Java.; There are three key ideas involved in this simulator. The first is that while each of chemical processes is functionally different from the other, if we look at the fundamental components of each, these are quite similar in their physical behavior. This means that simulation models of complex processes can be built up hierarchically starting with relatively simple models of these fundamental components. The second is that the number of fundamental components that are required is relatively small. This confers a number of advantages in the software design of the simulator as well as the technology transfer to the user. The third is that each of these fundamental components can be represented by an icon and that equipment models can be assembled from these fundamental components via a graphical drag-and-drop interface. In a similar manner higher level models of complex processes can be assembled from the equipment models. While many simulators have the latter capability, none that we know of permit the direct assembly of equipment models. The graphical creation of equipment models also confers a number of advantages with respect of model visualization and verifiability.; These fundamental modeling components can be categorized into four types (containments, core models, connectors, and coordinators ), each of which describes a different aspect of system behavior. It is in the representation of equipment models that ForeSee differs most strongly from all the other simulation systems. In these systems an equipment model consists of a set equations and the associated codes for their execution. In ForeSee an equipment model is specified as an interconnected set of modeling components. The basic premise in this approach to modeling is that a relatively small set of modeling components can be used to generate a variety of equipment models, and in turn a lot of higher level models of complex processes can be assembled from the equipment models. |
