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HarveyHensley12-Amethyst
12-Amethyst
December 17, 2012
Question

Mathcad links with Prode Physical Properties

  • December 17, 2012
  • 17 replies
  • 7317 views

I have some exciting news for chemical engineers.  The Prode Physical Properties (PPP) program and databank has been linked to Mathcad 15 via a dll.  Now, for a fairly reasonable price (about $400 US), you can have access to physical property data for 1635 components and over 200 functions to access data and set values in the databank and in streams, perform flashes and other process operations. 

PTC and I have been building the dll linking file for several months.  I purchased the basic version of PPP and the dll is built upon that platform.  The extended version contains some more VLE models and some more advanced process models. but I felt the basic version was the best option.  As an independent consultant, I needed a low cost access to a good databank that would provide the properties needed for vapor/liq and vapor/liq/liq equilibria for a large number of compounds.  The PPP system provides that and a bonus of the functions for stream and databank interactions.

Although engineers in large corporations have access to large, expensive physical property databases, they too may find this PPP/Mathcad combination to be an attractive option.  Mathcad is often used when modeling special problems that the process simulation packages can't handle.  With the addition of PPP, the Mathcad simulation can easily handle phase equilibria, both ideal and non-ideal.  In addition, properties such as heat capacity, viscosity and heat of formation are readily available within the program.  This saves time obtaining the required input for the simulation. 

This Mathcad/PPP system is not intended to be a complete process simulation package.  I anticipate using it for very small sections of a process, say a reactor with an overhead condenser.  It also could be used for looking at multiphase problems in tubes or porous media, for example.

At this time, I don't know what arrangements PTC and Prode will make regarding pricing and delivery.  That may depend upon customer interest.  If you are interested, please vote in the poll here.

Oscar Delgado provided a Prime 1 worksheet that sized an air receiver using the SRK equation of state and water vapor pressure from an Antoine equation.  I have written a Mathcad 15 version using PPP.  The pdf version of that worksheet is attached.  The PPP version doesn't require coding of the equation of state or the vapor pressure equation.  All properties needed by those equations are already provided by the databank.

You may read more about the Prode software at prode.com.

Acknowledgements:  Chris Hartmann (no longer at PTC) helped obtain the development support.  That support was provided by John Sheehan.

    17 replies

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    HarveyHensley12-AmethystAuthor
    12-Amethyst
    December 21, 2012

    Basil,

    The Mathcad dll will include everything that is in the Basic version of Prode Properties.  That includes th compressor, etc.  The Extended version of Prode has a few extra process modules that will not be included at this time.

    The dll is not quite complete.  A few of the functions were apparently omitted from the ppp.lib for the c++ users.  Prode needs to supply a new library.  Some of the functions use vectors and matrices.  Those have not been built into the dll yet.

    I have built a Mathcad file that tests all of the functions.  It too needs more examples for the process functions.  I will make it available to PTC when it's finished.  It will be handy to check Prode maintenance updates for completeness.

    When it's ready, PTC will probably make an annoucement.  I just couldn't wait to let people know this was almost here when I saw how well it worked.

    Harvey

    P
    ptc-48927081-Visitor
    1-Visitor
    December 22, 2012

    thanks!

    P
    ptc-48938461-Visitor
    1-Visitor
    December 24, 2012

    Mr. Hensley,

    does the Matchcad dll allow to print a phase diagram (phase envelope) ?

    does the Matchcad dll export the derivatives of fugacity/enthalpy/volume (for dynamic simulation) ?

    Thank you,

    Marcel

    H
    HarveyHensley12-AmethystAuthor
    12-Amethyst
    December 24, 2012

    Marcel,

    Marcel Pelissier wrote:

    Mr. Hensley,

    does the Matchcad dll allow to print a phase diagram (phase envelope) ?

    does the Matchcad dll export the derivatives of fugacity/enthalpy/volume (for dynamic simulation) ?

    Thank you,

    Marcel

    Those are the functions that are still not in the dll because they include vectors.  They should be included when it is released.  So far, only functions with scalar results have been tested.  Thanks for your interest.  The vector functions and a few missing scalar functions will probably not be available until after the holidays, i.e. in the first of January.

    Pleaee vode in the poll to indicate your interest (or not) in this link to Prode Properties.

    O
    OscarJ.1-Visitor
    1-Visitor
    January 16, 2013

    Good morning,

    I believe those are great news for all chemical engineers working with MathCad. In my opinion sometimes is not that easy to look for reliable constants, equations and other physical properties required when performing our calculations. Moreover, this process (look for and copy the values/expressions) always has some risk related with a wrong digit, coma or sign. Therefore, having such database helps to reduce those “really-really-hard-to-catch” mistakes.

    I think the cloud computing is the next stage in engineering.  The opportunity to access your work and your information anywhere (office/home/plant/client’s office/etc.) is very interesting but at this moment I have some concerns related with security.  I am by no means a Cloud computing “expert”,  but I think we need to wait a few years before when can start working in very important (and very confidential) projects in this way.  Meanwhile, we can incorporate this new tool in our daily calculations.

    Really big news for Chemical Engineers…

    Regards,

    Oscar J.

    V
    24-Ruby IV
    ValeryOchkov24-Ruby IV
    24-Ruby IV
    January 16, 2013

    Oscar Delgado wrote:

    Good morning,

    ... but at this moment I have some concerns related with security.

    Regards,

    Oscar J.

    You can download a cloud function and work with it without an Internet connection.

    P
    ptc-49200821-Visitor
    1-Visitor
    January 17, 2013

    as noted by Oscar Delgado the integration of Mathcad with a tool which includes equations and physical properties appears to be very interesting,

    cloud is not required, yes we have Dechema, DDB etc. but these have been online for many years now, it's not new technology,

    what I hope this tool will do is the possibility to solve simple problems as physical properties, separations etc. with Mathcad without to run a large simulator.

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