Development of a web based chemical process simulator
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2009
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Abstract
Chemical process simulators are a fundamental tool for the design, study and optimization of chemical plants. This type of software has been under continuous development since the early developments of computer programming and their capabilities have evolved at par with the technology available. Later advancements in software development are exploiting the growth of the Internet to create network based applications that can be run by remote computers or devices. These so called web based applications are at the fore front of development and research in the scientific community due to their inherent characteristics that facilitate collaboration, distribution of information and accessibility. The development of web based simulation in the field of chemical engineering has focused primarily on providing access to pre-defined cases where the user may modify operating parameters with little or no options to modify the topology of the process or the thermodynamic basis of the simulations. Another characteristic of previous work is that many of these applications are commonly deployed as self contained entities that live in a web browser known as Java applets. This type of development does not exploit the built-in capabilities in the web browsers to navigate and interact with users, thus losing leverage from the continuous advances in browser development which is a ubiquitous part of the growth of the Internet. The motivation for this research project is to create a state of the art steady state web based simulator that allows users to create and modify simulation cases through a web browser without the installation of extra applications. The simulator is designed to access and modify a variety of unit operations to build models that can be stored and retrieved directly in the server. The interface includes a novel process schematic implemented completely JavaScript that allows the users to visually add and interconnect unit operations. An important characteristic of this work is that the simulator is designed to use the latest techniques for web based development such as Ajax to minimize data transfer and increase the interactive capabilities of the program. The design resembles a desktop application and is completely deployed through HTML and JavaScript.
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Bibliography: p. 128-133
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Citation
Cota Elizondo, R. C. (2009). Development of a web based chemical process simulator (Doctoral thesis, University of Calgary, Calgary, Canada). Retrieved from https://prism.ucalgary.ca. doi:10.11575/PRISM/3100