Research Initiation Award: Stability and Steady State Multiplicity of Reactive Distillation Processes

9309172本项目通过三个部分的研究来探索放热反应精馏塔的多重性和稳定性的稳态。研究的第一部分用多参数同伦延拓技术揭示了物理性质在稳态多重性中所起的作用。研究的第二部分是对反应精馏塔的稳定性进行评估，这一分析是复杂的，因为液体流出量与精馏塔板上的持液率变化率之间存在逻辑关系。这种逻辑关系在动态模型中造成了不连续，因此，传统的特征值分析技术是不合适的。提出了一种替代的基于最优化的稳定性检验方法，该方法可以很容易地考虑不连续性。这种基于最优化的稳定性测试也将用于寻找分岔图的边缘稳定点。研究的第三部分通过物理实验对数值预测进行检验。***

9309172 Ciric This project explores the steady state of multiplicity and stability of exothermic reactive distillation columns via a three part study. The first part of the study unravels the role physical properties play in steady state multiplicity using a multiparameter homotopic continuation technique. The second part of the study evaluates the stability of a reactive distillation column, This analysis is complicated by a logical relationship between the amount of liquid runoff and the rate of change of the liquid holdup on a distillation tray. This logical relationship creates discontinuities in the dynamic model, and as a consequence, conventional eigenvalue analysis techniques are inappropriate. An alternative optimization based stability test is proposed that readily incorporates the discontinuities. this optimization based stability test will also be used to find points of marginal stability for a bifurcation diagram. The third part of the research tests the numerical predictions with physical experiments. ***