ANALYSIS AND OPERATION OF COOLING WATER FLOWS IN A HEAT-EXCHANGERS NETWORK

In general, the flow rates of cooling water flowing in a heat exchange rs network should be measured for its operational purpose. However, it is difficult to install flow meters on every spot because of the fina ncial and technical reasons. This work presents an explicit algorithm for determining the now rates of cooling water flowing in the heat exc hangers network in the chemical plant. An algorithm is also presented to obtain the desired now rates of cooling water in each heat exchange r. In order to solve this problem, multivariable optimization techniqu es will be used to minimize the differences between the desired now ra tes and the present cooling water flow rates which flows through the h eat exchanger. The commercial computer program GAMS/MINOS which solves the nonlinear optimization problem is used. Numerical examples are pr esented to illustrate the scope of this work which can be handled with the formulation.