GEOMETRICAL MODELING OF THE FEASIBILITY O F SEVERAL MIXTURES

Geometrical modelling of the feasibility of several mixtures. In this paper, we are interested in modelling the production of some given mix tures by mixing parts of basic products. This study is justified by a stock management problem in a oil refinery. We use a geometrical frame work in which mixtures and basic products are represented by vectors i n the vector space of physico-chemical species. The sum of vectors rep resents the mixing process. Minkowski sums and particular convex sets known as zonotopes, are the basic tools we use. The production and fea sibility of one mixture only, have been previously studied, as well as some optimal production strategies. In this paper, we deal with the f abrication of several mixtures. In a straightforward way, we develop e fficient generalizations of numerical methods used in the fabrication of one mixture. Then, we introduce the notion of coexistence between t wo families of vectors, and we are interested in some theoretical feat ures and computational applications of this important concept.