Many large-scale processes like refineries or power generation plant are
constructed using the multi-vendor system and a main co-ordinating
engineering contractor. With such a methodology. the key process units
are installed complete with local proprietary control systems in place.
Re-assessing the so called lower level control loop design or structure
is becoming less feasible or desirable. Consequently, future comp titive
gains in large-scale industrial systems will arise from the closer and
optimised global integration of the process sub-units. This is one of
the inherent commercial themes which motivated the research reported in
this monograph. To access the efficiency and feasibility of different
large-scale system designs, the traditional tool has been the global
steady-state analysis and energy balance. The process industries have
many such tools encapsu- lated as proprietary design software. However,
to obtain a vital and critical insight into global process operation a
dynamic model and simulation is necessary. Over the last decade, the
whole state of the art in system simulation has irrevocably changed. The
Graphical User Interface (G UI) and icon based simulation approach is
now standard with hardware platforms becoming more and more powerful.
This immediately opens the way to some new and advanced large-scale
dynamic simulation developments. For example, click-together blocks from
standard or specialised libraries of process units are perfectly
feasible now.