COCO simulator

The COCO Simulator is a free-of-charge, non-commercial, graphical, modular and CAPE-OPEN compliant, steady-state, sequential simulation process modeling environment. It was originally intended as a test environment for CAPE-OPEN modeling tools but now provides free chemical process simulation for students. It is an open flowsheet^[1][2] modeling environment allowing anyone to add new unit operations^[3] or thermodynamics packages.

Additional recommended knowledge

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The COCO Simulator uses a graphical representation, the Process Flow Diagram (PFD), for defining the process to be simulated. Clicking on a unit operation with the mouse allows the user to edit the unit operation parameters it defines via the CAPE-OPEN standard or to open the unit operation's own user interface, when available. This interoperability of process modeling software was enabled by the advent of the CAPE-OPEN standard. COCO thermodynamic library "TEA" and its chemical compound data bank are based on ChemSep™ ^[4] LITE, a free equilibrium column simulator for distillation columns and liquid-liquid extractors. COCO's thermodynamic library exports more than 100 property calculation methods with their analytical or numerical derivatives. COCO includes a LITE version of COSMOtherm, an activity coefficient model based on Ab initio quantum chemistry methods. The simulator entails a set of unit-operations such as stream splitters/mixers, heat-exchangers, compressors, pumps and reactors. COCO features a reaction numerics package to power its simple conversion, CSTR, and plug flow reactor models.

See also

• Process design (chemical engineering)
• List of Chemical Process Simulators
• Thermodynamic and thermophysical data
• Standard temperature and pressure

References

1. ^ W.D. Seider, J.D. Seader, and D.R. Lewin (1999). Process Design Principles. Wiley. ISBN 0-471-24312-4. 
2. ^ J.M. Douglas (1988). Conceptual Design of Chemical Processes. McGraw-Hill. ISBN 0-07-017762-7. 
3. ^ W.L. McCabe, J.C. Smith, P. Harriot (1993). Unit Operations of Chemical Engineering, 5th Edition, McGraw-Hill. ISBN 0-07-044844-2. 
4. ^ Perry, Robert H. and Green, Don W. (1997). Perry's Chemical Engineers' Handbook, 7th Edition, McGraw-Hill. ISBN 0-07-049841-5.  p. 13-53