Model Based Engineering of Process Plants using SysML

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Abstract

The motivation of this work is the constant evolution in the industry. Nowadays we are in what is called the fourth industrial revolution. This revolution is being fostered in many countries to get a more competitive industry. Industry 4.0 target is to make more efficient and flexible plants, reduce times and costs of projects and products lifecycle. Under this framework models appear as a core component in every new development. Using a systems engineering methodology the developed model will be the one that guarantees the consistency and derives the different applications needed in every stage of the lifecycle, from simulation, to risk assessment or even documentation maintenance. The objective of our work is to develop a model of a process plant using SysML. This model will follow a systems engineering approach, starting from the requirements and will cover the whole lifecycle of the Project. In this paper we present the development of the SysML model of a process plant (the production of ehtylbenzene from benzene and ethylene). The model includes the requirements as well as the structure, behaviour and activity diagrams. In this work an automatic transformation from the SysML model to a process simulation language (in this case Aspen Plus) has been built. This allows for the analysis of the process in the design and developement phases. The results of the simulation are fed back to the SysML model and this information is stored for further uses.

Introduction

Today we are in what is called the fourth industrial revolution (called Industry 4.0 or Connected Enterprise or Industrial Internet depending on the country or consortium) Kagermann and Wahlster (2013); Evans and Anninziata (2012). This revolution merges the physical world with the virtual world of the Internet and the software developing digital models of the system before its construction. Industrial Internet tackles the challenges of the industry: increased functionality in products, more connectivity, high interdisciplinarity, design for X, more product/process complexity, very software intensive, digitalization, needs of simulation and visualization, compliance with more demanding regulations, etc. It is an integrated new engineering approach that considers the whole Product Lifecycle and reduces inconsistencies and developing times.

To fulfill the new requirements traceability throughout the entire system lifecycle is needed, traceability from the the initial requirements to the final physical product, Eigner et al. (2014); Stark (2011). The concept of Model Based Systems Engineering, Paredis (2012), provides methods to guide the cross-disciplinary, virtual product development process and to achieve the required traceability. Model Based Systems Engineering (MBSE) is a multi-disciplinary engineering paradigm propagating the use of models instead of documents to support analysis, specification, design and verification of the system being developed, Gilz (2014). Using models instead of documents, a discipline-neutral view of the system specification is created. The resulting coherent system model helps to understand and to overview the complexity of the developed system. System models are created by application of the Systems Modeling Language (SysML). The Systems Modeling Language (SysML), Friedenthal et al. (2014), is a general-purpose graphical modeling language for specifying, analyzing, designing, and verifying complex systems that may include hardware, software, information, personnel, procedures, and facilities. In particular, the language provides graphical representations with a semantic foundation for modeling system requirements, behavior, structure, and parametrics, which is used to integrate with other engineering analysis models. Using a systems engineering methodology the developed model will be the one that guarantees the consistency and derives the different applications needed in every stage of the lifecycle, Azevedo et al. (2009); Feldmann et al. (2015), from simulation, to risk assessment or even documentation maintenance. In order to have an integration between different viewpoints and applications, tools other than SysML are needed. This will be achieved using model transformations of the initial centric model developed in SysML.

The objective of our work is to develop a model of a process plant using SysML. This model will follow a systems engineering approach, starting from the requirements and will cover the whole lifecycle of the Project. This model will be the core of the Project allowing for the different applications. In this paper we present the development of the SysML model of a process plant (the production of ehtylbenzene from benzene and ethylene). The model includes the requirements as well as the structure, behaviour and activity diagrams. In this work an automatic model transformation from SysML to a process simulation language (in this case Aspen Plus) is presented. This allows for the analysis of the process in the design and developement phases. The results of the simulation are fed back to the SysML model and this information is stored for further uses.

Section snippets

Plant Description

Benzene and ethylene are fed to a isothermal Continuous Stirred Tank Reactor (CSTR) where ethylbenzene (EB) is produced along with some diethylbenzene (DEB) as side product. The effluent of this CSTR is fed to another reactor (in this case it is adiabatic) where transalkylation of the DEB with benzene to EB is produced. The outlet stream is fed a separation section with two distillation columns, the first one separates non reacted benzene as distillate that is recycled to the first reactor and

SysML Model of the EB plant

To develop the model of the EB plant we have followed the simplified MBSE method proposed by Friedenthal et al. (2014), which can be applied consistently if we follow a traditional functional analysis method. This method allows to specify the behaviours, functions and structure of the plant, and analyze its performance. SysML provides modeling elements and diagrams to capture the three of them, as will be presented in the rest of this section. These aspects are necessary to use the model for

SysML model for Aspen simulation

As previously commented, process design can importantly benefit from MBSE. It allows the unification of the information in a single model about design alternatives and their analised properties and performance through simulations. This would optimize the engineering processes and the collaboration between the different engineering departments in the process, not to mention the impact on maintenance and revisions . In the process industry, Aspen is one of the most extended tools for simulation.

Conclusions

Model-Based Engineering is a necessary enabler for the engineering of the Industry 4.0 systems. In this paper we have analysed the utility of developing a SysML model of a process plant. This single model can perform as the central and unified design resource for all the engineering activities through the plant lifecycle.

However, model-based engineering tools and SysML must improve to reach an industrial application. For this work we have worked with IBM Rhapsody and Papyrus. Rhapsody is one of

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