Decentralized industrial process simulation system

A method of simulating the operation of a set of physical plant elements through which mass flows, comprising:

• creating, via a processor, a set of separately executable simulation modules, each of the set of simulation modules including a process model that models the operation of a different one of the physical plant elements;
• storing, using a processor, different ones of the separately executable simulation modules at a plurality of communicatively interconnected drops in a computer network, such that a first one of the separately executable simulation modules is located in a different drop than a second one of the set of separately executable simulation modules;
• wherein the step of storing the separately executable simulation modules includes storing a set of adjacent simulation modules to include an upstream simulation module that models a first one of the physical plant elements, and a downstream simulation module that models a second one of the physical plant elements disposed downstream of the first one of the physical plant elements;
• operating, via a processor, the downstream simulation module to communicate a value of a process variable calculated by the downstream simulation module to the upstream simulation module;
• and
• operating, via a processor, the process model of the upstream simulation module to use the value of the process variable calculated by the downstream simulation module to produce an output associated with the operation of the physical plant element modeled by the upstream simulation module to perform mass flow balancing between the upstream simulation module and the downstream simulation module.

A distributed simulation system for simulating the operation of a set of physical plant elements through which mass flows, comprising:

• a multiplicity of processor implemented simulation modules, each of the multiplicity of simulation modules including a process model that models the operation of a different one of the physical plant elements, wherein a first one of the simulation modules and a second one of the simulation modules are located in different ones of a set of drops of a computer network and communicate with one another over a communication network associated with the computer network;
• wherein, during operation of the simulation system, each of the simulation modules is directly communicatively coupled to one or more upstream or downstream simulation modules in an order in which the physical plant elements associated with the simulation modules are physically coupled to each other to implement mass flow, so that adjacent pairs of communicatively coupled simulation modules communicate information directly to each other;
• wherein an adjacent pair of communicatively coupled simulation modules includes an upstream simulation module that is upstream from a downstream simulation module, the downstream simulation module operating via a processor to communicate process variable information calculated by the downstream simulation module to the upstream simulation module and the upstream simulation module implementing via a processor a process model that performs a mass flow balancing equation to balance mass flow between the upstream simulation module and the downstream simulation module using the process variable information received from the downstream simulation module.