Simulation Spotlight

Look for new solutions powered by ExtendSim here.

Biomass Supply Chain 2017 August

Development of the IBSAL-SimMOpt Method for the Optimization of Quality in a Corn Stover Supply Chain Hernan Chavez & Krystel K. Castillo-Villar from the Mechanical Engineering Department at The University of Texas at San Antonio and Erin Web from the Environmental Sciences Division at Oak Ridge National Laboratory Energies, Volume 10, Issue 8  Up until now, most of the models developed to optimize biomass supply chains have failed to quantify the effect of biomass quality and the preprocessing operations required to meet biomass specifications on overall cost and performance. However, the IBSAL-SimMOpt method provides a novel approach for finding near-optimal solutions to the problem of designing biomass supply chains that improve the physical characteristics of the feedstock at an acceptable cost. The bioenergy sector and the research community now have access to a simulation-based optimization model with activity-based costing that is capable of representing the stochastic behavior of some elements intervening in the corn stover supply chain for the production of bioethanol. This analytical model can be used for decision making as well as educational and training purposes since it allows the user to conduct “what if” scenarios.

Oil & Gas Subsea Production 2017 June

Production Availability Analysis: Implications on Modelling due to Subsea Conditions Tianqi Sun Masters Thesis in Reliability, Availability, Maintainability and Safety (RAMS) Norwegian University of Science and Technology Department of Mechanical and Industrial Engineering Subsea production and processing systems have become a hot topic among research institutes and industries. While highlighting the advantages on production and economy, the reliability issues show a different picture with limited access, difficulty of maintenance and possibly lower availability. The influence of these issues on the system performance is studied in this paper to evaluate the benefit of subsea systems.

Disaster Med Public Health Preparedness 2017 February

Evaluating the Impact of Pharmacies on Pandemic Influenza Vaccine Administration Schwerzmann J, Graitcer SB, Jester B, Krahl D, Jernigan D, Bridges CB, Miller J Is it really beneficial for pharmacists to administer pandemic influenza vaccines? Absolutely! Using ExtendSim, researchers showed that weekly national vaccine administration capacity increased to 25 million doses per week when pharmacist vaccinators are integrated into pandemic vaccine response planning. In addition, the time to achieve 80% vaccination coverage nationally was reduced by 7 weeks, assuming high public demand for vaccination.