STRUCTURAL OPERABILITY ANALYSIS OF HEAT EXCHANGER NETWORKS.

A designer-driven interactive approach has been developed for the operability analysis of heat exchanger networks. The method is based on a modified formulation of the problem that takes into account the underlying process structure for the streams of a network, thus reducing the dimensionality of the problem. It explores the characteristics of the two nonconvexity generating mechanisms, and provides a series of analytic rules for their efficient handling. The computer implementation of the developed operability analysis uses object-oriented concept, derived within artificial intelligence, and allows for a transparent, graphics-based interaction with the designer. A series of examples demonstrates the various aspects of the proposed methodology.