Version 3.2 released

Powerful custom modelling in a flowsheeting environment

gPROMS now provides the world's most powerful custom modelling engine within a process flowsheeting environment of the type familiar to process engineers everywhere.

Prof. Costas Pantelides, architect of gPROMS

In one case the number of variables was reduced by a factor of 40% and simulation time by a factor of 35%.

See the gPROMS v3.2 release notes for further detail

The speed and memory improvements mean that I can simulate larger flowsheets in more detail without having to use a 64-bit machine

We are pleased to announce the release of gPROMS v3.2, which continues the rollout of the completely re-architected gPROMS product begun with version 3.0.

In addition to significant improvements in modelling capabilities and usability, PSE continues to focus on solution power, with v3.2 bringing major speed and efficiency improvements.

Highlights of the release are:

Modelling capabilities

Increased ease of use by allowing the use of text array indices – for example component names instead of numbers – consistently throughout all components of gPROMS, including dialogue specifications.
‘Live’ flowsheet propagation of parameters. This means that parameters such as component names specified in one part of the flowsheet are instantly transmitted to all relevant units. This greatly simplifies the creation and maintenance of complex flowsheets.
Intrinsic tasks. Building on existing capabilities for modelling complex physics and discrete operating procedures, v3.2 allows each physical model to invoke discrete logic that is automatically triggered for every instance of the model. This allows, for example, gPROMS library models to include sophisticated supervisory controllers, whose execution is completely transparent to end-users.
Extended Hybrid Multizonal interface. This now supports FLUENT® multiphase models with or without energy conservation, FLUENT dynamic simulations in two-way mode, FLUENT 2-D models and FLUENT parallel processing in either one or two-way mode.

Usability enhancements

There have been a number of usability enhancements at all levels, including:

the ability to align elements on the flowsheet, improving clarity
a graphical solution parameter editor with built-in help text, which simplifies the specifying of solution parameters and reduces the scope for error
a new data export facility for semi-automated export of a CSV-format file to postprocessing facilities such as MS Excel for use in, for example, pivot table analysis.

In addition to providing formatted output and additional calculations, this helps reduce model size and execution time.
enhanced diagnostics which make it easier to resolve initialisation and execution problems.

Solution and performance

Sophisticated exact model reduction techniques pioneered within PSE remove an often significant proportion of equations and variables from the mathematical problems being solved.

This can substantially speed up solution and reduce memory requirements, while improving robustness. Some of the highlights from testing to date are:
- a reduction of over 50% in the time taken for a parameter estimation problem, compared with v3.1.5
- memory footprint was reduced by over 20% in a number of cases. This allows finer spatial discretisations – and hence accuracy – for complex distributed systems problems.
- in one case the number of variables was reduced by a factor of 40% and simulation time by a factor of 35%.

These and other key new features of gPROMS v3.2 are described in the v3.2 release notes. Detailed information is provided in the updated gPROMS documentation.

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