Virtual commissioning in a virtual environment

Modern process plants are becoming more and more complex, with high demands placed on design, engineering and operation. Throughout the lifecycle of process plants, there is always the typical conflict involving costs, time and quality. One way of resolving this conflict is to consider simulation technology as it can be used to answer questions relating to engineering and operation earlier and with lower risks. In 2014, the author conducted a global online survey investigating the current and future role of simulation within the lifecycle of a process plant. Based on the responses of more than 200 participants, tasks and requirements have been derived to reach the goal of continuously using simulation in the future. This paper presents the possibilities to realize virtual test- and training systems for process plants based on tools for simulation, plant design and automation. Further, an outlook is provided to increasingly integrate the tool landscape to enable simulation to be used concurrently along the lifecycle of a process plant.