Towards Resilient Process Networks - Designing Booster Stations via Quantified Programming

Abstract

Resilience of a technical system is the ability to overcome minor failures and thus to avoid a complete breakdown of its vital functions. A possible failure of the system's components is one critical case the system designer should keep in mind. From another perspective resilience can be interpreted as the existence of alternative paths in a process network if resources break down. In this context we deal with process networks corresponding to systems which must be designed to operate in different scenarios. In order to ensure the system's functionality and to step in as a replacement in case of failure a set of optional resources must be available. This means that the process network must have several degrees of freedom allowing to react to uncertain events. With those restrictions we try to find a preferably resource-efficient network. Hence, an optimization problem arises which can be modeled using quantified mixed-integer linear programming. As an example of a process which can be modeled using process networks we investigate the problem of finding cost-efficient resilient topologies of fluid systems that are able to fulfill different load scenarios.

Optimization and validation of pumping system design and operation for water supply in high-rise buildings

“…While in this work we particularly focus on the optimization of the efficiency and investment costs, other possible objectives are shown in the literature. One example is the optimization of resilient water supply networks as shown by Herrera et al (2016), Hartisch et al (2018), and Altherr et al (2019).…”

Strategies for Mastering Uncertainty

“…These and more techniques are applied in the QIP-solver Yasol [47], which is used, e.g. to solve a resilient booster design problem [78].…”

Towards an algorithmic synthesis of thermofluid systems

“…It should be noted that although applied to booster stations in this paper, the approach can be abstracted for a variety of technical system using the general representation of so-called process networks as shown in Hartisch et al (2018). Furthermore, similar to the concept of K-resilience examined in Altherr et al (2019), the simultaneous breakdown of multiple pumps can be considered if necessary.…”

“…The paper contains research which has been partly presented in conference proceedings, see Hartisch et al (2018), Weber and Lorenz (2017), Weber and Lorenz (2019a), Weber and Lorenz (2019b) and Weber et al (2020), and is organized as follows: Sect. 2 provides a deeper insight into a possible software tool for engineers to design technical systems as well as the associated workflow.…”