Simulation of a batch chemical process using parallel computing with PVM and Speedup

Abstract

Speedup, a commercial software package for the dynamic modeling of chemical processes, has been coupled with the PVM software for parallel computation. As an initial application, a coarse distribution technique was applied to model a batch chemical plant containing 16 unit operations. Computation time for this problem was reduced by a factor of two using only three parallel processors in the UNIX computing environment. This acceleration was achieved from the reduction in computations required to both solve the smaller subprocesses and to reinitialize the subprocesses at discontinuities in the solution. The process was physically divided at points that naturally separated the overall plant into distinct subprocesses. This facilitated the computation by minimizing the interconnection between the parallel units. Techniques were developed to make efficient material and energy transfers between the modeled subprocesses based on actual material transfers used in plant operations.