Object-oriented simulation of hydrometallurgical processes: Part I. Requirements and implementation

Abstract

Flowsheeting is an important engineering activity, arguably the most important, because it is the basis for analyzing process interactions within a specific flowsheet. An effective flowsheeting program can enhance the design procedure, and thus, improve the entire decision-making strategy. A number of requirements make the development of a flowsheeting system a complex task; useful and directed assistance requires a meaningful representation of process models to be kept in a computable form. The system should furthermore have the flexibility to provide support for exploration, evolution, cooperation, and integration. The described work addressed the preceding issues, and proposes solution for their achievement using a modular steady-state simulation tool (Process Integrated Simulator for Metallurgical Applications (PRISMA)) that is developed in order to model and simulate hydrometallurgical processes. A review of the simulator structure, along with its operation, is presented. Its development is based on object-oriented technology aspects appropriately analyzed and emphasized. User input to the simulator consists of flowsheet description, specification of the unit design variables and feed streams, as well as appropriate figures for the economic evaluation of the plant. The information introduced is passed to the simulator by means of an appropriate user interface developed in object-oriented code. Flowsheet computations are carried out by means of the execution part of the simulator.