Plant design computers

It is important to note, however, that all this is not free. The designer must invest the time to set up the cases and evaluate the results. Only the designer can make the final decision as to whether the cases and the comparisons are valid (a true representation of the plant). The computer printout is simply the results of matrix manipulation and should be considered suspect until given the designer s stamp of approval. 

The confluence of sharply rising Operations and Maintenance (O M) costs. NRC requested Individual Plant Examinations (IPEs) and increased personal computer capabilities gave rise to the R R Workstation. Its uses and maintains-current PSA models and databases for individual plants to perform O M planning and scheduling, and uses the PSA in IPE models to identify plant design, procedure and operational vulnerabilities. The Risk and Reliability Workstation Alliance was organized by EPRI to support the R R Workshop in order to achieve O M cost reduction, plant productivity and safety enhancement through risk-based, user-friendly, windowed software louls (Table 3.6 8). The Alliance, initiated in 1992, includes 25 U.S. utilities and four international partners from Spain, France, Korea, and Mexico. SAIC is the prime contractor for the R R Workstation, with participation of five other PSA vendors. 

Leesley, M. E. Ed. (1982) Computer Aided Process Plant Design, Gulf Publishing Company. 

Leesley, M.E. Process Plant Design by Computer, Process Technology, Nov. 1973, p. 403. Kehat, E., Shacham, M. Chemical Process Simulation Programs-1, Process Technology, Jan./Feb. 1973, p. 35. 

Since every detail of a plant design must be recorded on paper, many other kinds of drawings also are required for example, electrical flow, piping isometrics, instrument lines, plans and elevations, and individual equipment drawings in all detail. Models and three-dimensional representations by computers also are now standard practice in many design offices. 

Boerner, D.A. Recycling the Paper Forest, Amer. Forests, 37 (July/August 1990). Bumble, S. Computer Simulated Plant Design for Waste Minimization/Pollution Prevention, Lewis Publishers. Boca Raton, FL, 2000. 

Engineering 1 [E 1] Computer-aided Plant Design Software... 

Figure 4.85 Structure of the software tool CAPD (computer-aided plant design) [135].

Burdorf, A., Kampczyk, B., Schmidt-Traub, H., CAPD - Computer-aided plant design, in Proceedings of the 27th International Exhibition-Congress on Chemical Engineering, Environmental Protection and Biotechnology, ACHEMA 2003 (19-24 May 2003), DECHEMA, Frankfurt/Main, 2003, 213. 

Calculations of treatment costs for supercritical soil remediation were made with a computer model that evaluates the capital and operating costs depending on plant capacity, carbon dioxide conditions for extraction and separation, operating conditions, soil transport and pretreatment and other boundary conditions like maintenance, depreciation or insurance. Some additional important parameters for the plant design are given in table 1. 

This brief outline suggests that the plant-design project involves a wide variety of skills. Among these are research, market analysis, design of individual pieces of equipment, cost estimation, computer programming, and plant-location surveys. In fact, the services of a chemical engineer are needed in each step of the outline, either in a central creative role, or as a key advisor. 

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