Cao. Nascimento et R. Giudici, NEURAL-NETWORK-BASED APPROACH FOR OPTIMIZATION APPLIED TO AN INDUSTRIAL NYLON-6,6 POLYMERIZATION PROCESS, Computers & chemical engineering, 22, 1998, pp. 595-600
The basic idea of the proposed optimisation method is to replace the m
odel equations by an equivalent neural network (NN) that mimics the ph
enomenological model, and use-this NN to carry out a grid search, mapp
ing all the region of interest. The proposed optimisation approach was
applied to the industrial process of nylon-6,6 polymerisation in a tw
in-screw extruder reactor. This corresponds to the finishing stage of
an industrial polymerisation plant. A qualitative optimisation procedu
re is used taking in account safe operation conditions, wear and tear
of the equipment, product quality and energy consumption. The chosen o
perational variables are then checked with the phenomenological model.
This approach provides more comprehensive information for the enginee
r's analysis than the conventional non-linear programming procedure. (
C) 1998 Published by Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.