Digital twins bridge the gap between plant design and practical operation
Introduced by Emerson and AspenTech for the first time, MimicHYSYSLink is a new integrated technology that enables companies to create digital twins more practically and efficiently for the entire lifecycle of a plant. Using the new capabilities and expertise of joint development, process industry companies can now create real-time digital twins for operator training and production optimization using standard digital twin data created in plant design engineering. It eliminates two major barriers to applying digital twins: total cost of ownership and maintainability.
“Emerson is integrating its Mimic simulation software with AspenHYSYS simulation software locally,” explains MartBerutti, vice president of process simulation at Emerson Automation Solutions. The connection to Mimic adds real-time process optimization and training capabilities, and makes it easier for thousands of companies already using AspenHYSYS software to build and maintain digital twins.
“As our customers face the digital transformation of their factories and their assets, they need tools and technology to support this transformation,” Berutti said. “Integrating the use of digital twin technology is an essential step in the process. Over the years, we have been investing strategically in software development, integrating advanced technologies into our customers' new products and new features."
Digital twins are a digital representation of actual assets. “First, an automation platform, such as DeltaV or other platforms, represents a complete replication of the control system configuration,” Berutti said. “To meet a wide range of process and industry needs, we need a flexible digital twin strategy. This is where we will Mimic and The reason for the integration of industry-leading process modeling and high-fidelity dynamic simulation platforms in AspenHYSYS."
By creating a complete digital twin during plant design and then using it throughout the lifecycle to achieve a better return on investment, Jim Nyquist, president of Emerson Systems and Solutions Business Group, said. “This makes digital transformation of the process industry through digital twins more realistic and feasible.”
Digital Twins is the basic technology of Emerson's Plantweb Digital Ecosystem, a scalable portfolio of solutions that enable digital transformation for companies that want to use energy and materials more efficiently to reduce costs and increase production.
MimicHYSYSLink software includes an automated configuration tool that enables batch data transfer between Emerson and AspenTech systems, reducing integration time and engineering time. Mimic's built-in virtualization and cloud technologies make it easier for users to maintain the latest engineering and training environments while avoiding the large capital expenditures required to rebuild hardware systems. Companies can continually update their digital twins for better decision integrity and use real-time dynamic models to safely test performance improvements in cloud-based simulations and then deploy them at the factory.
One of the main obstacles to digital transformation – including the use of digital twins – is how to extend the technology of running devices, sites and businesses. Mimic's selective fidelity process modeling allows companies to choose the design details of digital twin simulations based on their budget and potential return on investment. Operations with a foundation of the HYSYS model can be extended to include more operations.
The simulation software is the original software of Emerson's DeltaV control system. It can also be connected with a third-party control system. It can improve the efficiency of the control system and simulate the operation of different control systems in different areas in the same simulation interface.
