An implementation framework for wastewater treatment models requiring a minimum programming expertise

摘要

Mathematical modelling in environmental biotechnology has been a traditionally difficult resourcento access for researchers and students without programming expertise. The great degree ofnflexibility required from model implementation platforms to be suitable for research applicationsnrestricts their use to programming expert users. More user friendly software packages howeverndo not normally incorporate the necessary flexibility for most research applications. This worknpresents a methodology based on Excel and Matlab-Simulink for both flexible and accessiblenimplementation of mathematical models by researchers with and without programming expertise.nThe models are almost fully defined in an Excel file in which the names and values of the statenvariables and parameters are easily created. This information is automatically processed innMatlab to create the model structure and almost immediate model simulation, after only anminimum Matlab code definition, is possible. The framework proposed also providesnprogramming expert researchers with a highly flexible and modifiable platform on which to basenmore complex model implementations. The method takes advantage of structural generalities innmost mathematical models of environmental bioprocesses while enabling the integration ofnadvanced elements (e.g. heuristic functions, correlations). The methodology has already beennsuccessfully used in a number of research studies.