You could use Aspen HYSYS or Aspen Plus (both are products from Aspen Technologies Corporation) to model and simulate the operation of a water desalination plant. You can simulate steady state or transient operation. However, it is difficult to find a software that simulate fouling/ scaling build up. You have to do some creative to work around this like manually changing the heat transfer coefficient in heat exchangers to mimic performance degradation due to scaling buildup on the heat exchanger tubes.

Hope this helps answer your question.

Professor Yehia Khalil

Yale University

USA

Dear Nishtha,

The innovative "Silent Alarm™" technology discussed in the attached article makes a giant and an unconventional leap in that direction by allowing for real-time detection, measurement and monitoring of membrane fouling and scaling. 

To view the full publication "Real-Time Monitoring of Membrane Fouling", please see attached file.

Hoping this will be helpful,

Rafik

Thank you Rafiq for your introduction to our SMART (Silent Membrane Alarm in Real Time) technology and MASAR software. Please contact me at [email protected] or visit our web site MASAR.com or smartwatersoftware.com for any question on the application and licensing of the software. Thanks. Mohamad Amin Saad, MASAR Technologies, inc., USA