Discrete-Continuous Dynamic Simulation of Plantwide Batch Process Systems in MATLAB

Batch chemical and biochemical plants play an important role in the process industries. They are characterised by hybrid (continuous & discrete) dynamics as well as complex sequences and decision logic in the case of shared resources. This is challenging from a modelling and simulation perspective, both in terms of numerical algorithms as well as implementability and scalability/maintainability within software environments. In this work it is shown that it is possible to model complex plantwide batch processes at reasonably high performance, accuracy, and practicability in MATLAB/Simulink using the StateFlow toolbox. To this end, useful implementation guidelines are presented, and a complex example batch process is modelled. As focus lies on the implementability of complex batch control logic, the model is limited to mass balances. The simulation results are evaluated and carefully visualised, indicating the MATLAB's capabilities for analysis of such systems.