DECISION-MAPPING - A TOOL FOR CONSISTENT AND COMPLETE DECISIONS IN-PROCESS SYNTHESIS

Decisions involved in process synthesis are often more complex than th ose involved in other disciplines. This arises from the fact that such decisions are concerned with specification or identification of highl y interconnected systems, e.g. process structures, which may contain a multitude of recycling loops. It appears that no rigorous technique i s available. which is capable of representing exactly and organizing e fficiently the system of decisions for a process synthesis problem. A novel mathematical notion, decision-mapping, has been introduced in th is work to render the complex decisions in process design and synthesi s consistent and complete. The basic terminologies of decision-mapping , including extension, equivalence, completeness, complementariness, a nd active domain, have been defined based on rigorous set-theoretic fo rmalism, and the most important properties of decision-mappings have b een identified and proved. Decision-mapping, as a rigorously establish ed technique, is directly applicable in developing efficient and exact process synthesis methods or improving existing methods. The applicab ility and meritorious features of this new technique are illustrated b y synthesizing a large scale process.