Towards a systematic path for dynamic simulation to plant operation: OPC UA-enabled model adaptation method for tracking simulation

Abstract

A tracking simulator is an online simulation system that utilizes dynamic parameter estimation for calibrating model parameters to achieve state synchronization with the process. It can be utilized as a plant-wide virtual sensors or as a predictive tool to provide production forecasts based on the current state of the plant. The appearance of industrial applications based on tracking simulators has been hindered by high development cost and time-consuming sustainability of simulation models. In order to overcome this, dynamic simulation models developed during the process design and engineering stages could be used for implementing industrial tracking simulators. However, before these models can be utilized online, they require going through a model adaptation procedure where their structure and parameters are updated. This paper presents a model adaptation method for the implementation of tracking simulators which utilizes OPC Unified Architecture to adapt simulation models developed during the engineering phases of the process plant and apply them at the operation and maintenance stages. In this work, the method is described, implemented and tested using a representative process.