Operational Digital Twin
Operational Digital Twin
What is an Operational Digital Twin?
A ODT is a virtual, real-time replica of plant processes implemented at the level of detail and fidelity necessary to accomplish a set of desired tasks such as supporting KPI dashboards, revealing hidden operational information, and monitoring performance.
Value of Operational Digital Twin
Not everything that is important about a process can be measured by existing instrumentation. A wealth of critical information lies buried and unnoticed in your process measurements, obscured by instrumentation gaps, measurement errors, and the inherent complexity of the physics and equipment involved.
A ODT mines and refines this information by dynamically applying physical laws and equipment characteristics to existing measurements. The results can then be used to save costs by driving better decision making and motivating earlier response, making the most of what you have.
The key benefits of ODT are:
- Enhanced Troubleshooting. ODT can support root cause analysis (RCA) investigations and provide granular process insights. This reduces unintended downtimes and conservative operations, validates issues, and supports the development of mitigation strategies.
- Expanded Soft-Sensing Capabilities. ODT can help overcome issues with unreliable or inadequate instrumentation.
- Improved Scenario Analysis and Optimization. ODT enable users to perform past, present, and future analysis of a plant, enabling faster implementation of operational changes.
- Better Plant Performance. ODT help optimize operations to meet a gross objective function, utility consumption minimization function, or other desired objectives.
Value of Operational Digital Twin
Not everything that is important about a process can be measured by existing instrumentation. A wealth of critical information lies buried and unnoticed in your process measurements, obscured by instrumentation gaps, measurement errors, and the inherent complexity of the physics and equipment involved.
A ODT mines and refines this information by dynamically applying physical laws and equipment characteristics to existing measurements. The results can then be used to save costs by driving better decision making and motivating earlier response, making the most of what you have.
The key benefits of ODT are:
- Enhanced Troubleshooting. ODT can support root cause analysis (RCA) investigations and provide granular process insights. This reduces unintended downtimes and conservative operations, validates issues, and supports the development of mitigation strategies.
- Expanded Soft-Sensing Capabilities. ODT can help overcome issues with unreliable or inadequate instrumentation.
- Improved Scenario Analysis and Optimization. ODT enable users to perform past, present, and future analysis of a plant, enabling faster implementation of operational changes.
- Better Plant Performance. ODT help optimize operations to meet a gross objective function, utility consumption minimization function, or other desired objectives.
Operational Digital Twin Components
- Mathematical models that accurately capture the dynamic operation and interactions of plant equipment and processes.
- Equipment characteristics and actual plant data to configure these models.
- Data capturing from the plant, either live or historic, sourced from the plant data historian via its interfaces designed for this purpose.
- Applying the captured data as boundary conditions to the models to obtain solutions that are consistent with the plant process, its equipment characteristics, and the applicable physical laws.
- Refining the results into useful operational information and making it available via ODT user interfaces consisting of the SimuPACT GUI and 3D PACT.
- Storing the results in the plant data historian, making it available throughout the plant via its installed user base of historian apps.
Operational Digital Twin Components
- Mathematical models that accurately capture the dynamic operation and interactions of plant equipment and processes.
- Equipment characteristics and actual plant data to configure these models.
- Data capturing from the plant, either live or historic, sourced from the plant data historian via its interfaces designed for this purpose.
- Applying the captured data as boundary conditions to the models to obtain solutions that are consistent with the plant process, its equipment characteristics, and the applicable physical laws.
- Refining the results into useful operational information and making it available via ODT user interfaces consisting of the SimuPACT GUI and 3D PACT.
- Storing the results in the plant data historian, making it available throughout the plant via its installed user base of historian apps.
PowerSheets
3D PACT Asset Management
3D PACT Asset Management is a 3D visualization interface which can be applied as an optional user interface to PowerSheets. 3D PACT:
- Transforms complex information into clear, actionable insights.
- Integrates real-time operational data with advanced asset management practices.
- Provides an interactive front-end for users (operators, engineers, and maintenance personnel) to engage with the data in a dynamic environment.
Example
- Figure 2 shows the detection of various instances of superheater and reheater fouling.
- Figure 3 shows the estimation of the steam flow through a reheater.
The trends of the heat transfer coefficients in response to a SH3 fouling event are shown on the top trend in Figure 2. The calculated SH3 heat transfer coefficient is shown as the white trend.
The calculated reheater steam flow (red) vs the actual reheater flow measurement (white) is shown on the bottom trend in Figure 3. The calculation result (red) is stepped due to the 1-minute interval between data updates from the plant data historian.
