HARDWARE COMPOSITES - A NEW CONCEPTUAL TOOL FOR THE ANALYSIS AND OPTIMIZATION OF STEAM-TURBINE NETWORKS IN CHEMICAL PROCESS INDUSTRIES - PART II - APPLICATION TO OPERATION AND DESIGN

The principles behind the Hardware Composites have been explained in P art I. Part II discusses the application of the new development on ope ration and design problems. An alternative representation is introduce d first, in view of the different objectives of these problems. In the context of operations, the Hardware Composites are used as a road-map for optimum operation under varying process demands and as an evaluat ion tool for assessing the flexibility of the network over uncertain l oad requirements. Problems of maintenance scheduling are discussed, in which the Hardware Composites are used to determine maintenance scena rios that cause the minimum disruption to the optimum operation of the turbine network. As a design tool the Hardware Composites can be inte grated with established design methods such as the total site analysis . The integration facilitates a comprehensive analysis of the process- utility system that accounts for both the thermodynamic constraints ar id the hardware limitations. The application of the Hardware Composite s is illustrated with an industrial case study in which comparisons wi th conventional mathematical programming tools (MINLPs) are made avail able. (C) 1998 Published by Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.