CaRMeN Documentation

This Manual aims to present the concepts of the software tool CaRMeN that can be used to rapidly analyse and derive models. Deriving any sort of model, may it be kinetic or physical, involves the comparison of the model at hand against experimental data. This involves several steps such as setting up problems (simulations) and post-processing data which must currently be done manually and are therefore a time-consuming and error-prone tasks. CaRMeN (Catalytic Reaction Mechanism Network) addresses this problem by automating the workflow of comparing model vs. experiment and by providing a platform to archive and evaluate structured experimental data, kinetic models, and simulation software.

To illustrate CaRMeN's capabilities consider all steps involved in simulating a rather simple experimental data set such as the concentration profile of a species over the length of a reactor channel. After choosing the desired chemical, transport and heat transfer models one must prepare the corresponding input files in the required code and run the simulation. The obtained data must then be processed (e.g. assigning column names, units, etc.) and imported into a graphics software or a spreadsheet along with the experimental data. Finally experimental and modelled data must be plotted together in order to be compared. At this point one may decide to change one or more parameters of the used models for which the whole workflow must be performed anew. This becomes rapidly unpractical for a case study involving several experimental data sets and models.

This documentation is divided into three Parts. The first part (Manual) is a formal description of CaRMeN's components. Here you can find information about the format used for the input files and a description of concepts such as cases, mixins, drivers, resources, and loaders. The second part (Tutorials) contains a series of tutorials aimed to get you working quickly with CaRMeN. Here you can learn how to load experimental data and models into CaRMeN, perform simulations, and write your own packages to simulate a series of different chemical reactor types. By the end of this tutorial series you should be able to perform a case study using CaRMeN. The third part (Reference) is a compilation of resources and options available in CaRMeN.