A graph-theoretic approach to process plant design

Abstract

Somewhere between the almost mindless computer simulation of process plants and the tedious circuit analysis of process plants lies the graph-theoretic approach to process plant design. This approach permits a visual understanding of process plants while providing for sufficient mathematical rigor to obtain realistic plant designs. The graph-theoretic approach, unlike some computer simulation programs, involves the designer in the intelligent decision-making activities of process plant design. This approach offers the advantage of being able to be used with sophisticated optimization strategies, of being able to be computerized when designing large process plants, and of also offering a very rapid non-algebraic solution and sensitivity analysis when working on smaller process problems.