SimSinter Configuration

SimSinter is the standard interface library that FOQUS and Turbine use to drive the target simulation software.

SimSinter currently supports:

  • AspenPlus (versions 8, 9, and 10)

  • Aspen Custom Modeler (ACM) (versions 8, 9, and 10)

  • gPROMS

  • Microsoft Excel

SimSinter is used to: (1) open the simulator, (2) initialize the simulation, (3) set variables in the simulation, (4) run the simulation, and (5) get resulting output variables from the simulation.

To drive a particular simulation, SimSinter must be told which input variables to set and which output variables to read when the simulation is finished (there are generally far too many variables in a simulation to set and read them all). Each simulation must have a “Sinter Config File” which records this information. FOQUS keeps the simulation file and the “Sinter Config File” together and sends them to the Turbine gateway when a simulation run is requested.

The configuration is simplified by a GUI included with the SimSinter distribution called, “SinterConfigGUI.” FOQUS can launch the SinterConfigGUI on simulations that have not been configured. To run the “SinterConfigGUI” the user must have:

  1. SimSinter distribution installed. SimSinter is installed by the FOQUS bundle installer.

  2. The simulation file the user wants to configure. For example, if the user has an Aspen Custom Modeler simulation called BFB.acmf, that file must be on the user’s computer, and the user should know its location.

  3. The application used to execute the simulation file. For example, if the user wants to configure an Aspen Custom Modeler simulation called BFB.acmf, Aspen Custom Modeler must be installed on the user’s machine.

The rest of this section details two step-by-step tutorials on configuring a simulation with “SinterConfigGUI.” The first simulation is an Aspen Custom Modeler simulation and the second, Aspen Plus. Please also see the D-RM Builder tutorials for configuring dynamic ACM models. For more details on SimSinter or a tutorial on how to configure a Microsoft Excel file, please see the “SimSinter Technical Manual,” which is included in the FOQUS distribution. The default location is at C:Program Files (x86)foqusfoqusdoc. It is also available on the CCSI website.