A.J. Owens (USA)
Chemical Process Modeling; Scale-Up; Support Vector Machines
To understanding a chemical kinetic reaction scheme, a large number of experiments are often performed in a ‘Lab’ or small-scale reactor. The experimental results can be represented by a fundamental mathematical model, typically a series of ordinary differential equations (ODEs) that are solved numerically. When the real process is ‘scaled up’ to a much larger ‘Plant’ reactor, some of the underlying model’s process parameters can change to new, unknown values. This paper proposes a simple method to re-calibrate the fundamental model based on lab data to accurately represent the plant process. The method involves running the lab scale fundamental model at a large number of design points, recording the simulation predictions and derivatives with respect to the model inputs. Only a few experiments need to be run in the plant, and those data are combined with the simulations in a specially trained support vector machine (SVM) that simultaneously adjusts its parameters to fit both sets of data. The resulting empirical model gives an accurate representation of the plant scale process.
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