Introduction

This document is a supplement to the SimSinter Technical Manual specifically covering the gPROMS simulator. The document assumes that the reader has read the SimSinter Technical Manual. This additional document was written because gPROMS is significantly different from the other simulators SimSinter supports, and the workflow is significantly different.

Note SimSinter gPROMS support has not been tested for versions 3.0+

Motivating Example

gPROMS provides tools for doing batch runs of large numbers of gPROMS simulations, in the form of gO:Run and gO:Run_XML, so why is SimSinter necessary for gPROMS?

In fact, SimSinter uses the gO:Run_XML tool provided by PSE for running batches of simulations, but SimSinter provides two additional benefits.

  1. SimSinter does simplify the process of running jobs compared to the provided PSE tools. Users do not have to edit or generate their own XML files, for example.

  2. SimSinter provides the same interface to gPROMS, Aspen Plus®, and Aspen Custom Modeler® (ACM). This allows users to continue using the same tools across all simulators, and to use the Framework for Optimization and Quantification of Uncertainty and Sensitivity (FOQUS) tool for statistical studies and uncertainty quantification (UQ).

The utility of being able to use multiple simulators with the same tools is represented by the current carbon-capture amine-based adsorber and regenerator modelling projects. The carbon-capture system was originally modeled in ACM. Some issues were identified in the ACM version of the simulation. Now that the simulations have been ported to gPROMS the same statistical analyses on both simulators can be run to help uncover problems and increase simulation fidelity.

Software Requirements for Using SimSinter with gPROMS

SimSinter requires gPROMS 4.0 or newer.

To configure a gPROMS simulation to work with SimSinter, the user must have PSE ModelBuilder 4.0.0 or newer.

To run gPROMS simulations, the simulation machine must have licenses for gO:Run_XML, 4.0 or newer.

However, to configure SimSinter with SinterConfigGUI, no gPROMS licenses of any kind are required, because SinterConfigGUI does not communicate with any gPROMS program, it parses the .gPJ file itself.

What a User Needs to Know About Using gPROMS with SimSinter

gPROMS and SimSinter interact very differently than SimSinter and Aspen. SimSinter directly communicates with the running Aspen simulation, and can therefore get information on every variable in the simulation at will. SimSinter cannot do that with gPROMS, instead, SimSinter must communicate with gPROMS by reading and writing files. This makes the interaction more complex for both gPROMS and SimSinter. gPROMS must be configured to expect input from SimSinter, and SinterConfigGUI must read the gPROMS .gPJ file to find out what inputs to provide. This extra complexity is the reason for this document.

First, the gPROMS simulation must be configured to accept inputs from SimSinter. This is done with the gPROMS FOREIGN_OBJECT interface. The input variables and parameters are defined to accept input from the FOREIGN_OBJECT. SinterConfigGUI can then read the gPROMS .gPJ file, and discover the inputs by finding the parameters and variables that accept inputs from the FOREIGN_OBJECT.

SimSinter uses gPROMS gO:Run_XML to actually run the gPROMS simulation. gO:Run_XML accepts inputs as an XML file, and then provides those inputs to the correct variables via the FOREIGN_OBJECT interface. The results are passed out via another XML file for SimSinter to read.

It is HIGHLY recommended that the user read section 5.0 USAGE Information before attempting to configure their own simulation.