This integration permits any application that uses the VE-Open interface to integrate with APECS co-simulations, enabling construction of the comprehensive virtual engineering environment needed for the rapid engineering of advanced power generation facilities.
VE-Suite utilizes the ActiveX (OLE Automation) controls in Aspen Plus wrapped by the CASI library developed by Reaction Engineering International to run the process simulation and query for unit operation results.
In this paper, we discuss the initial phases of integrating APECS with the immersive and interactive virtual engineering software, VE-Suite, developed at Iowa State University and Ames Laboratory.
At the Department of Energy’s (DOE) National Energy Technology Laboratory (NETL), the Advanced Process Engineering Co-Simulator (APECS) has been developed as an integrated software suite that combines process simulation (e.g., Aspen Plus) and high-fidelity equipment simulation (e.g., Fluent® CFD), together with advanced analysis capabilities including case studies, sensitivity analysis, stochastic simulation for risk/uncertainty analysis, and multi-objective optimization. Software more » tools must be created that allow disparate sources of information to be integrated if environments are to be constructed where process simulation information can be accessed. While such tools enable investigation of crucial plant design aspects, typical commercial process simulation tools such as Aspen Plus®, gPROMS®, and HYSYS® still do not explore some plant design information, including computational fluid dynamics (CFD) models for complex thermal and fluid flow phenomena, economics models for policy decisions, operational data after the plant is constructed, and as-built information for use in as-designed models. These tools enable engineers to explore many what-if scenarios before cutting metal or constructing a pilot scale facility. Modeling and simulation tools are becoming pervasive in the process engineering practice of designing advanced power generation facilities.
At NETL, system analysts are applying APECS to a wide variety of advanced power generation systems, ranging from small fuel cell systems to commercial-scale power plants including the coal-fired, gasification-based FutureGen power and hydrogen production plant. For process optimization in the face of multiple and some time conflicting objectives, APECS offers stochastic modeling and multi-objective optimization capabilities developed to comply more » with the CO software standard.
APECS also relies heavily on the use of a CO COM/CORBA bridge for running process/CFD co-simulations on multiple operating systems. The APECS system uses the CO unit operation, thermodynamic, and reaction interfaces to provide its plug-and-play co-simulation capabilities, including the integration of process simulation with computational fluid dynamics (CFD) simulation.
This paper highlights the use of the CAPE-OPEN (CO) standard interfaces in the Advanced Process Engineering Co-Simulator (APECS) developed at the National Energy Technology Laboratory (NETL).