Process simulation

Process simulation is used for the design, development, analysis, and optimization of technical processes such as: chemical plants, chemical processes, environmental systems, power stations, complex manufacturing operations, biological processes, and similar technical functions.

Process simulation is a model-based representation of chemical, physical, biological, and other technical processes and unit operations in software. Basic prerequisites are a thorough knowledge of chemical and physical properties of pure components and mixtures, of reactions, and of mathematical models which, in combination, allow the calculation of a process in computers.

Process simulation software describes processes in flow diagrams where unit operations are positioned and connected by product or educt streams. The software has to solve the mass and energy balance to find a stable operating point. The goal of a process simulation is to find optimal conditions for an examined process. This is essentially an optimization problem which has to be solved in an iterative process.

Process simulation always use models which introduce approximations and assumptions but allow the description of a property over a wide range of temperatures and pressures which might not be covered by real data. Models also allow interpolation and extrapolation - within certain limits - and enable the search for conditions outside the range of known properties.

The development of models for a better representation of real processes is the core of the further development of the simulation software. Model development is done on the chemical engineering side but also in control engineering and for the improvement of mathematical simulation techniques. Process simulation is therefore one of the few fields where scientists from chemistry, physics, computer science, mathematics, and several engineering fields work together.

...
Wikipedia