The gPROMS platform

Features: modelling power, versatility and ease-of-use

The gPROMS platform is the modelling and solution environment on which the gPROMS family products are built.

It provides most of the underlying features that you see when you use a gPROMS family product: an advanced custom modelling environment for expert modellers, a graphical flowsheeting environment for process engineers, and an execution-only environment for non-modellers such as operations personnel.

Overall platform capabilities

Modelling power: a plot from a model of a pulsed catalytic reactor, showing concentration variation over time

Plot showing trimodal molecular weight distribution in a polymer

• Modelling and solution power. The gPROMS language and graphical editors are specially designed to provide all the capabilities required for high-accuracy modelling of complex processes.
• gPROMS numerical solution techniques – leaders in their class – are specially designed to handle the simultaneous solution of the large number of equations (often hundreds of thousands and sometimes millions) that can result from such modelling.
• Project environment. All elements of a modelling project can easily be accessed and maintained via a project tree structure, within a comprehensive project environment. Alternatively you can switch to a palette view to access libraries of model icons when building a flowsheet.
• Multiple activities using the same model. Once you have a gPROMS model, you can use it for steady-state and dynamic simulation, parameter estimation, optimisation and experiment design
• Integrated steady-state and dynamic capabilities. Unlike steady-state simulators which have dynamic capabilities added, or dynamic simulators where you have to iterate to steady-state, there is no distinction in gPROMS.

  You can write models to be steady-state or dynamic or (typically) both. You can always solve for a steady state providing your models and specifications allow this.

• Sophisticated optimisation capabilities. Having built a steady-state or dynamic model, you can easily apply gPROMS's leading optimisation facilities to find the optimal answer to your design or operational questions directly rather than by trial-and-error iteration.

  As with simulation, gPROMS does not discriminate between steady-state and dynamic optimisation – you can optimise static and transient variables in the same run.

• Powerful custom modelling. With gPROMS you can simply write down the equations representing your process. You never need to worry about how they will be solved – gPROMS takes care of that automatically.

  gPROMS's powerful modelling language means that you can represent virtually any process, no matter how complex.

State-of-the art model validation and data analysis

Model validation is used to fit model parameters to experimental or operating data

• State-of-the-art model validation capabilities. Unlike most "modelling" tools, gPROMS can be used to fit its own models to experimental or operating data using powerful and fast parameter estimation techniques to create models with a high degree of predictive accuracy.

  Multiple parameters can be estimated simultaneously from both steady-state and dynamic data.

• Built-in data analysis capabilities. The same parameter estimation facilities provide a confidence analysis for each parameter fitted, providing an estimate of how closely the model fits the data.

  This identifies areas of poor data while simultaneously providing a measure of the risk inherent in your design.

• Model-based experiment design. gPROMS's unique experiment design capability uses a model of the experiment facilities within an optimisation framework to design the optimal next experiment.

  This helps you to maximise information from each experiment, while minimising the total number (and hence cost) of experiments.

Modelling capabilities

gPROMS has a powerful and easy-to-use language and sophisticated graphic editors

Interchangeable language and graphic views are maintained consistent at all times

• Powerful and easy-to-use language with many advanced features, such as distributed systems modelling, sophisticated discontinuity handling and easy incorporation of calls to external software.
• Stream handling. It is easy to create your own stream types for unusual or complex processes – for example, where it is necessary to handle distributions of particle size or molecular weight. Streams are propagated through the flowsheet automatically according to the rules set by you within each model.
• Powerful and consistent array handling at all levels – including arrays of units. In addition the ability to handle zero-length arrays (i.e. where the array index is set to 0) means that models can be written in a completely general fashion.

  For example a liquid tank model can contain a reaction model where the number of reactions is simply set to zero if no reaction is taking place.

• Built-in physical properties and many other physical property options, including CAPE-OPEN links to C-O compliant physprop packages, interfacing to in-house properties, etc.

Flowsheeting environments

The gPROMS platfom provides sophisticated flowsheeting capabilities within the gPROMS family products:

Plots and other result information can be embedded in the flowsheet and updated during execution

• Drag-and-drop flowsheeting, with intelligent routing of lines, clearly-differentiated stream structures and "during-execution" display of data.
• Interchangeable graphic and gPROMS language views (where open models are used), maintained fully consistent at all times. You can switch from flowsheeting-and-dialog to language view as you prefer, depending on what you are doing.
• Comprehensive Quality Assurance tools. Because of gPROMS' underlying language structure, it is possible to inspect, print, archive and compare the entire and exact problem specification.

  By default, a read-only case version of the definitive problem description, containing all models and input data as well as results, is generated on each execution.

  The compare feature allows easy side-by-side comparison of projects and project entities such as models, making it easy to see what has changed between executions.

• Comprehensive results management facilities. Results can be seen during execution, or postprocesed using a number of powerful tools for 2-D, 3-D and 4-D visualisation (including replay of time-varying data).

  It is possible to create custom reports for any model that include text, images, plots, tables and other result fields.

• Auto-complete and syntax checking. gPROMS is built on a sophisticated object server, meaning that it understands what you are trying to do and can provide context-specific assistance to save time and eliminate errors.

Sophisticated modern architecture with many interoperability features

• Open architecture, with easy links to external software. This means that it is easy to incorporate external software – for example, legacy FORTRAN models – within gPROMS models; alternatively it is easy to incorporate gPROMS model within external software such as automation or purchasing systems.
• Model export tools. You can "package" and export gPROMS models to execute within other environments – for example,
  • CFD software such as Fluent® or STAR-CD®
  • CAPE-OPEN steady-state flowsheeting simulators such as Aspen Technology's Aspen Plus® and Hysys® and Invensys's PRO/II® packages
  • The MathWorks Inc.'s MATLAB® environment
  • Microsoft Excel
  • Custom interfaces constructed in – for example – Visual Basic for Applications or DELPHI
  • Automation or purchasing and planning systems
• Multiple platforms. gPROMS ModelBuilder is licensed on an annual lease basis, and is available in Linux and Microsoft Windows versions, including 64-bit architectures.

  See supported platforms for more details of supported platforms.