The Deveopment Of Unit Module Based On CAPE-OPEN

With the application of computer simulation in the field of Chemical Engineering, higher requirements are put forward for the general chemical simulation software development and the integration of softwares. In order to realize the integration of process simulation softwares, CAPE-OPEN(Computer Aided Process Engineering Open Simulation Environment) which was viewed as the open computer aided process engineering interface standards was developed in the 90 s of the 20 th century.The CAPE-OPEN standard is divided into many chapters and software interfaces including the unit modules, the physical property database, the numerical solver, the simulation executor, the thermodynamic methods and the error processing. Developers follow the CAPE-OPEN interface standard which can achieve the mutual calls of the unit modules and the thermodynamic methods between the CAPE-OPEN chemical simulation systems. Based on CAPE-OPEN standard, the author used Visual Studio 2005 Microsoft platform in Window 7 operating system, and developed the unit module of pump, mixer, pipe section, and extraction tower, using object oriented method and VC++ language and COM component technology. According to the above unit modules, the mathematical models of the modules are built and the solution algorithms are completed. The graphic user interfaces of the unit modules are completed. Meanwhile, the saving functions are accomplished. In the end, the loading and link of the modules are successfully realized in Aspen plus V7.2 software environment, and by comparing all of the functions in the unit modules, the conclusion shows that the calculation results of the unit modules are accurate and reliable.Based on CAPE-OPEN standard, chemical simulation software consists of five parts, the database, the unit modules, thermodynamic methods, algorithms and user interface. The number of module functions is the top priority evaluation of simulation software which can be a good of solving practical problems. Therefore, the development of chemical unit modules based on CAPE-OPEN standard is the fundamental of the development of chemical simulation software, which has strong theoretical and practical application value. The unit modules based on CAPE-OPEN standard developed in this paper can be a part of the chemical simulation system software. It not only achieves the software integration and the module call in the form of dynamic link library file, but also a good way to protect the intellectual property rights of developers.