The Learning Tools¶
DWSIM 10.2.9 added a set of tools built for teaching: each answers one question a student asks, with the numbers of the open flowsheet in the answer. They live in the same menus of the classic Windows interface and of the cross-platform interface, most of them reach the AI assistant and the MCP server too, and every one can copy its report as text for a lab notebook.
What you will learn
- Which tool answers which question
- Where each one lives, and what it needs before it runs
- How to call the same checks from a script or an AI client
Flowsheet Check¶
Question: what is wrong with my flowsheet, and what would a real process not do? Menu: Flowsheet Analysis > Flowsheet Check (F8). Needs: nothing before solving; the plausibility rules run after a solve.
Lists findings with a code, severity and the fix; the second tab lists every object's degrees of
freedom. Select a finding for the full explanation and Locate to jump to the object.
MCP: dwsim_flowsheet_check, dwsim_flowsheet_degrees_of_freedom, dwsim_explain_finding.
Assistant: /api/flowsheet/check, /api/flowsheet/dof, /api/flowsheet/explain.
Explain Result¶
Question: why did this object give this result? Menu: Flowsheet Analysis > Explain Result, or right-click an object > Explain Result. Needs: a solved object.
Writes the balances and equilibrium relations the object satisfied with its own numbers in them, the textbook reasoning, and the diagram of the case:
| Object | Diagram |
|---|---|
| Material stream, separator | Rachford-Rice function with the K values and the vapour fraction at its root |
| Heater, cooler | Heating curve: temperature and vapour fraction against heat added |
| Heat exchanger | T-Q diagram with the pinch, LMTD, F factor, UA |
| Valve | Isenthalpic path: temperature and vapour fraction against pressure |
| Compressor, expander | Isentropic path against the real outlet; isentropic efficiency recomputed |
| Pump | Head, hydraulic power, efficiency |
| Mixer, splitter | Balance tables and the pressure rule |
| Reactors | Extents and conversions; for kinetic reactors the Levenspiel plot with the CSTR rectangle and the PFR area |
| Shortcut column | Fenske, Underwood and Gilliland with the numbers |
| Rigorous column | Balances, reflux, key pair with Fenske and Underwood, temperature, flow and composition profiles |
MCP: dwsim_explain_result.
McCabe-Thiele Diagram¶
Question: how many stages does this separation take, and why? Menu: Utilities > McCabe-Thiele Diagram. Needs: two compounds and a property package; a shortcut column can fill the inputs in.
The equilibrium curve comes from bubble-point flashes of the chosen package (so an azeotrope
shows), the q-line, the operating lines, the pinch and the minimum reflux, the stages stepped off
with a Murphree efficiency, the minimum stages at total reflux, and the T-x-y diagram beside it.
Case files .dwmct.
Equation of State Explorer¶
Question: what is a cubic equation of state, and what does it get wrong? Menu: Utilities > Equation of State Explorer. Needs: one compound.
P-V isotherms of van der Waals, Redlich-Kwong, SRK and Peng-Robinson, the loop below Tc with the
Maxwell tie line, Z against P, and the equation's saturation pressure beside the database
correlation. Case files .dweos.
Property Package Comparison¶
Question: which thermodynamic model should I trust for this pair? Menu: Utilities > Property Package Comparison. Needs: two compounds and at least one property package; measured data optional.
T-x-y or P-x-y from every package, measured points from the phase-equilibrium database or typed
in, a ranking by deviation, the azeotropes each model sees, and a written verdict. Case files
.dwppc. See Choosing a Thermodynamic Model.
Scenario Comparison¶
Question: what did my change do to the whole flowsheet? Menu: Flowsheet Analysis > Scenario Comparison. Needs: a solved flowsheet, twice.
Capture A, change something, solve, capture B. The changed specifications come first, then every
result ordered by how much it moved, with the objects the change did not reach. Snapshots save as
.dwsnap and compare across sessions.
MCP: dwsim_scenario_snapshot, dwsim_scenario_compare.
Live Sliders¶
Question: what happens if I turn this knob? Menu: Flowsheet Analysis > Live Sliders. Needs: a solved flowsheet.
Bind a specification to a slider, watch a few results, drag: every position is solved as it
comes, and the first result is traced against the first slider so the response curve draws
itself. Case files .dwsld.
Colour streams by property¶
Question: where is it hot, where is it two-phase? Menu: View > Colour Streams By.
Every solved stream and its lines take a colour from its temperature, pressure, vapour fraction, phase or mass flow, with a scale in the corner. The choice is saved with the simulation.
Tutorial samples¶
The finished flowsheet of every tutorial ships in the Samples list of the welcome screen as
Tutorial 01 to Tutorial 16, each with a title, a note on what to try, a table of every stream,
the results of the units that matter and the profiles of the columns. They are the flowsheets
this track refers to.
From a script or an AI client¶
The MCP server exposes the checks, the explanation and the scenario tools by the names above;
the FluentAPI carries the diagnostics (FlowsheetDiagnostics, DegreesOfFreedomAnalysis) and
the assistant's HTTP routes wrap them. A grading script, a notebook or an AI client can therefore
ask the same questions this track asks, on any flowsheet, without opening the interface.