Rp. Stateva et Sg. Tsvetkov, A DIVERSE APPROACH FOR THE SOLUTION OF THE ISOTHERMAL MULTIPHASE FLASH PROBLEM - APPLICATION TO VAPOR-LIQUID-LIQUID SYSTEMS, Canadian journal of chemical engineering, 72(4), 1994, pp. 722-734
The paper presents a novel approach for the solution of the isothermal
multiphase flash problem with particular application to systems exhib
iting liquid-liquid-vapor equilibria. The approach includes a rigorous
method for thermodynamic stability analysis as a first step and an ef
ficient phase identification procedure. The stability analysis, exerci
sed only once, uses a modification of the Gibbs tangent plane criterio
n. The identification procedure implements the results of the stabilit
y test in a sequence of Liquid-liquid and liquid-vapor calculations on
ly till the phase configuration with a minimum Gibbs energy is determi
ned. The efficiency and reliability of the proposed new method is illu
strated by solving three typical problems encountered in enhanced oil
recovery, natural gas processing and petrochemical industry.