Working experience process simulators 1

[krossview]

This thread is a continuation of thread391-18929

Dear members,

I would like to hear from professionals (No Sales or Simulator related People) with good working experience on several process simulators?.

Currently I am using Hysys, but do not like the program's instability and sudden crashes. Hysys has a lot to offer and is powerfull, but rebuilding flow sheets or trouble shooting the problem is not something I like to do or consider productive. I have working experience of Prosim and Hysys in modeling facilities for the Oil and Gas industry. I am interested to hear from other professionals

My main goal is to find the main weakness and strengths of each program about what works and what not in other simulators. This to select an alternate simulator that is stable with large flowsheets. The responses are likely loaded with personal preferences, but I like to hear some opinions before I invest some time in this. Eventually I will have to try it myself.

How does WinSim stack up against Hysys, Aspen, Pro II and Prosim as far as;
1. Stability and crashes
2. User friendliness
3. Thermo dynamic capabilities
4. 3-phase flashes with water or glycols

Please keep it short and to the point as I do not want to create a popularity test or simulator bashing site here.

Thanks
Krossview

 

[grt12]

I suggest you contact Hyportech about your problems. I ahve used HYSYS with large spreadsheets and not had "crashes" of this nature. Are you sure its not your computer thats at fault ? HYSYS does have it's onw problems but unexplained crashes are not one of them in my experience.

 

[Samiran]

I agree with GTurner. I also use Hysis.Plant quite extensively for dynamic simulation as well. I never experienced crashes though. Personally I like PROII column simulation better than Hysis as it allows extensive manipulation.

Samiran

 

[krossview]

Good to hear your input
I have forwarded every crashed case to Hysys and report mostly every problem I come across. Every crash has taken a couple hours of work on my part so I could duplicate and report the problem. Hyprotech has solved some of them, while in two cases Hyprotech the crashes where legitmate problems and have been fixed. Other times they offered workarounds, not the ideal solution as the problem item may still be in the simulation.

I'll share some of my own experiences here
1. Stability - debatable
2. Hysys user friendly is great,
except spreadsheet needs some help. Lotus 123 version 2 is easier to use than Hysys formulas.
I stay away from Balance blocks, powerful, but they have done more harm than good because of bi-directional function.
Data book with case studies also very powerful and handy, but do not use to store data as it makes the simulation file very big and has caused crashes. I dump data to Excel spreadsheet.
3. Like to hear input
4. Hsys underpredicts water solubity in HC liquids by about 30%. Water saturation in gas phase needs checking.

Remember no simulator is or will be perfect, but some are better than others at certain task. As enigineers we should be careful to check our data and not rely 100% on the process simulator, which can happen easily.

Thanks Samiran on hearing about the column simulation.
Happy simulating and hope to hear more from you guys.

 

[hysys]

I have worked with hysys, now i'm using aspen.
I think:
1, hysys is friendly than others.
2, aspen is powerful than others. u can do what u think, of cause u must learn first.
3, hysys often crash here with largh flowsheet.(v1.0.6 process).
4, aspen also crash sometimes, but it can restore the statuts.
5, aspen's database is very useful.