OPTIMAL DESIGN VIA STRUCTURAL PARAMETERS AND NONLINEAR PROGRAMMING

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Abstract
One systematic method of meshing optimization and design techniques is to employ structural parameters in association with nonlinear programming (NLP). Although the use of structural parameters expands the dimensionality of the nonlinear programming problem set up to determine the optimal operating conditions for a given configuration, it is nevertheless possible to determine an optimal configuration if an effective NLP code is available. How the optimization techniques mesh with the model of the process and the use of structural parameters is explained. An example of a waste treatment plant is included to illustrate the types of results that can be expected. Because of the character of the process model the Generalized Reduced Gradient method was the only successful NLP code among all those tested on the example problem.