Model Based Engineering of Process Plants using SysML

The motivation of this work is the constant evolution in the industry. Nowadays we are in what is called the fourth industrial revolution. This revolution is being fostered in many countries to get a more competitive industry. Industry 4.0 target is to make more efficient and flexible plants, reduce times and costs of projects and products lifecycle. Under this framework models appear as a core component in every new development. Using a systems engineering methodology the developed model will be the one that guarantees the consistency and derives the different applications needed in every stage of the lifecycle, from simulation, to risk assessment or even documentation maintenance. The objective of our work is to develop a model of a process plant using SysML. This model will follow a systems engineering approach, starting from the requirements and will cover the whole lifecycle of the Project. In this paper we present the development of the SysML model of a process plant (the production of ehtylbenzene from benzene and ethylene). The model includes the requirements as well as the structure, behaviour and activity diagrams. In this work an automatic transformation from the SysML model to a process simulation language (in this case Aspen Plus) has been built. This allows for the analysis of the process in the design and developement phases. The results of the simulation are fed back to the SysML model and this information is stored for further uses.