A modified model parametrization algorithm for solving a special type of heat and mass transfer systems

Abstract

A new method for solving nonlinear heat and mass transfer design tasks was considered. Systems using the Number of Transfer Units (NTU) method are a special type of mathematical model of heat and mass exchangers. It was observed, that the NTU models in a form of differential-algebraic equations (DAEs) cannot be directly solved with higher values of NTU. The requirements for consistent initial conditions, as well as numerical limitations of DAEs solvers, result, that the solution to the considered design problems that cannot be obtained by a classical direct shooting procedure. To overcome the presented difficulties, the αDAE model optimization algorithm was adjusted for solving NTU-based models. The new approach consists of 3 main steps: 1) task discretization by a multiple-shooting approach, 2) design an appropriate function fNTU(α) to effectively influence the variability of the state variables described by dynamical relations, 3) the iterative numerical optimization algorithm for the new parametrized system. Moreover, computations can be performed by a chosen numerical optimization approach, which can be communicated with an available outer procedure for solving differential-algebraic equations. The presented algorithm was implemented and applied to solve the design task with the NTU model of a counter-flow exchanger. The new approach was used to modify the system dynamics to influence the difficulty of the considered problem. Finally, the presented method enabled failure-free numerical computations for the higher values of the NTU parameter.