Basic Concept of Optimization
Optimization: The word optimum is Latin, and means the ultimate
ideal; similarly, optimus means the best. Therefore, to optimize refers
to trying to bring whatever we are dealing with towards its ultimate state.
Consider now the following interpretation of the term to optimize:
The concept of optimization is basic to much of what we do in our daily
lives: a desire to do better or be the best in one field or another. In
engineering we wish to produce the best possible result with the available
resources. In a highly competitive modern world it is no longer sufficient to
design a system whose performance of the required task is just satisfactory.
It is essential to design the best system. Thus in designing new products in
any field: aerospace, automotive, chemical, electrical, biomedical,
agricultural, etc, we must use design tools which provide the desired results
in a timely and economical fashion. Numerical optimization is one of the
tools at our disposal.
Optimization is a very general automated design technique. In studying this
technique it is important to distinguish between analysis and design.
Analysis is the process of determining the response of the specified system
to the certain combination of input parameters. For example, calculating
stresses in the structure as a result of certain loads. Design on the other
hand, means the process of defining a system. For example, designing a
structure would mean selecting specific dimensions and location of the
structural members that will allow the structure to withstand the specified
load.
Much of the design task in engineering is quantifiable, and so we are able to
use computers to analyze alternative designs rapidly. The purpose of
numerical optimization is to aid us in rationally searching among alternative
designs for the best design to meet our needs.
The alternative designs of the same system differ from each other because
some parameters of the system are not the same. The parameters that
could be changed in the system while searching for the best design are
called design variables. Although we may not always think of it this way,
design process may be defined as the process of finding the minimum or
maximum of some characteristic, which may be called the objective
function. For the design to be acceptable it must also satisfy certain
requirements. These requirements are called design constraints.
Optimization automatically changes the design variables to help us find the
minimum or maximum of the objective function, while satisfying all the
required design constraints.
Optimization Of Unconstrained
Functions
Unconstrained Function: A function in which there are no constraints
on the variables is called unconstrained function. Unconstrained
optimization methods that do not use derivatives are often able to solve non
smooth NLP problems, whereas methods that use derivatives can fail.
Methods employing derivatives can get "stuck" at a point of discontinuity,
but -the function value-only methods are less affected. For smooth
functions, however, methods that use derivatives are both m ore accurate
and faster, and their advantage grows as the number of decision variables
increases. Unconstrained optimization methods are applicable when
searching for a minimum or maximum of a function that is not subject to
any constraints. Unconstrained optimization may be single or onedimensional
or multi-dimensional optimization.
Single or one-dimensional unconstrained optimization:
This is the most elementary type of optimization problem; the function f(x)
has only one independent variable. To develop the necessary and sufficient
conditions for a minimum or maximum of a function f(x), a Taylor series
expansion about the presumed extremes can be performed.
F(x*) is
minimum if f(n)(x*) > 0 and n is even; F(x*) is maximum of f(n)(x*) < 0
and n is even; and neither a minimum nor a maximum (inflection point) if n
is odd
Multidimensional unconstrained optimization:
The theory for the minimum or maximum applied in one dimensional
optimization is generalized and extended in the case of a function of n
independent variables. Therefore, for the necessary and sufficient conditions
for the minimum or maximum of an unconstrained function of several
variables, the
Taylors series expansion of a multi-variable function about a point X* is:
Unconstrained nonlinear multivariable optimization
The unconstrained nonlinear programming methods used for multivariable
optimization are iterative procedures in which the following two steps are
repeated:
These methods mainly differ in how they generate the search directions .
Direct/indirect methods:
Direct methods for single variable functions include:
(vii) Region elimination methods
(viii) Two-point equal interval search
(ix) Bisecting method
(x)Fibonacci method
(xi) Golden selection method
The last two methods are considered to be most efficient.
Direct method for multivariable functions include
Random search
Grid search
Univariate search
Sequential simplex method
The Hooke-Jeeves pattern search method
Powells conjugate direction method
These are simple but not as efficient as many of the indirect methods
The indirect method includes
Steepest decent/ascent gradient method
Conjugate gradient method
Newtons method
Marquardts method
Secant method
Broyden-Fletcher-Goldfarb-Shanno (BFGS) method
Material Handling
Material handling involves short-distance movement within the confines of a
building or between a building and a transportation vehicle. It utilizes a wide
range of manual, semi-automated, and automated equipment and includes
consideration of the protection, storage, and control of materials throughout
their manufacturing, warehousing, distribution, consumption, and disposal.
Material handling can be used to create time and place utility through the
handling, storage, and control of material, as distinct from manufacturing,
which creates form utility by changing the shape, form, and makeup of
material
Types of Material Handling:
Manual handling:
Manual handling refers to the use of a workers hands to move individual
containers by lifting, lowering, filling, emptying, or carrying them. It can
expose workers to physical conditions that can lead to injuries that represent
a large percentage of the over half a million cases of musculoskeletal
disorders reported in the U.S. each year, and often involve strains and
sprains to the lower back, shoulders, and upper limbs.
Automated handling:
Whenever technically and economically feasible, equipment can be used to
reduce
and sometimes replace the need to manually handle material. Most existing
material
handling equipment is only semi-automated because a human operator is
needed for
tasks like loading/unloading and driving that are difficult and/or too costly to
fully
automate, although ongoing advances in sensing, machine intelligence, and
robotics
have made it possible to fully automate an increasing number of handling
tasks.
Role of material Handling
Material handling plays an important role in manufacturing and logistics,
which
together represent over 20% of the U.S. economy. Almost every item of
physical
commerce was transported on a conveyor or lift truck or other type of
material
handling equipment in manufacturing plants, warehouses, and retail stores.
While
material handling is usually required as part of every production worker's
job, over
650,000 people in the U.S. work as dedicated "material moving machine
operators"
and have a median annual wage of $31,530 (May 2012). These operators
use
material handling equipment to transport various goods in a variety of
industrial
settings including moving construction materials around building sites or
moving
goods onto ships.
Heat Transfer Including Furnaces And
Refrigeration units
FURNACE:
A furnace is a device used for heating. The name derives from Latin Fornax;
oven.
furnace is an enclosed structure for intense heating by fire, esp. of
metals,
whereas a kiln is described as as furnace or oven for burning, baking or
drying,
esp. for calcining lime or firing ceramics.
A furnace is an equipment to melt metals for casting or heat materials for
change of shape (rolling, forging etc) or change of properties (heat
treatment).
A blast furnace performs basic melting (of iron ore) operation to get pig
iron,
cupola furnace is used for getting cast iron and an electric arc furnace is used
for re-melting steel.
Different furnaces are employed for melting and re-melting ferrous and
nonferrous materials.
A furnace contains a high temperature zone or region surrounded by a
refractory wall structure which withstands high temperatures and being
insulating minimizes heat losses to the surroundings.
Since flue gases from the fuel come in direct contact with the materials,
the
type of fuel chosen is important. For example, some materials will not
tolerate
sulphur in the fuel. Solid fuels generate particulate matter, which will
interfere
the materials placed inside the furnace. For this reason:
o Most furnaces use liquid fuel, gaseous fuel or electricity as energy
input. o Induction and arc furnaces use electricity to melt steel and cast
iron.
o Melting furnaces for nonferrous materials use fuel oil.
o Oil-fired furnaces mostly use furnace oil, especially for reheating and
heat treatment of materials.
o Light diesel oil (LDO) is used in furnaces where sulphur is undesirable.
The following are the factors which are responsible for the selection of furnace.
(i) Considerations of initial cost and cost of its operation.
(ii) Relative average cost of repair and maintenance.
(iii) Availability and relative cost of various fuels in the particular locality.
(iv) Melting efficiency, in particular speed of melting.
(v) Composition and melting temperature of the metal.
(vi) MAJOR PARTS OF A TYPICAL FURNACE
Heat Transfer in Furnaces
In simple terms, heat is transferred to the stock by:
Radiation from the flame, hot
combustion products and the furnace
walls and roof.
Convection due to the movement of
hot gases over the stock surface
At the high temperatures, the dominant
mode of heat transfer is wall radiation.
Heat transfer by gas radiation is
dependent on the gas composition
(mainly the carbon dioxide and water
vapors concentrations), the temperature
and the geometry of the furnace.
Heat Transfer in Refrigeration Units
If you place your hand behind an operating refrigerator, you will notice that
this area is warmer than the room temperature. Or you may notice that the
refrigerator blows warm air on your feet as you stand in front of it. Yet the
interior of the freezing compartment is very cold! The refrigerator is taking
energy from the freezing compartment, making it colder, and exhausting
that heat to the room, making it warmer.
A refrigerator is a heat engine in which work is done on a refrigerant
substance in order to collect energy from a cold region and exhaust it in a
higher temperature region, there by further cooling the cold region.
Refrigerators have made use of fluorinated hydrocarbons with trade names
like Freon-12, Freon-22, etc. which can be forced to evaporate and then
condense by successively lowering and raising the pressure. They can
therefore "pump" energy from a cold region to a hotter region by extracting
the heat of vaporization from the cold region and dumping it in the hotter
region outside the refrigerator. The statements about refrigerators apply to
air conditioners and heat pumps, which embody the same principles.
Piping And Pipeline Design
The basic concept of a geothermal piping design is to safely and
economically transport steam, brine, or two- phase flow to the destination
with acceptable pressure loss. The piping associated with geothermal power
plant can be divided in piping inside the power plant and the piping in the
steam field.
Piping in the steam field consists of pipelines connecting the production
wells to the separation station and those that run cross-country from the
separation station to the power plant, and lastly to re-injection wells. The
cross- country pipelines run on top of ridges, up and down steep hill slopes,
cross roads, areas threatened by earthquakes, wind, rain and landslides.
Geothermal piping system has to be flexible enough to allow thermal
expansion but also stiff enough to withstand the seismic and operational
load actions.
The steam field model used is a wet field as the piping encountered in this
model covers most, if not all the possible types of fluids and piping that
could be expected in any geothermal system.
The wet steam field system consists of:
Two-phase flow piping which collects the fluid from several well head and
sends them to the separator;
The separator vessel;
The steam pipelines which take the steam from the separator to the
power plant;
The brine pipelines which take the separated brine from the vessel
to a wellpad where the fluid is re- injected into several wells;
Miscellaneous cross-country piping includes the instrumental air
lines, the water- supply line and also the condensate line.
DESIGN CRITERIA AND DELIVERABLES
The design process consists of the establishment of the design criteria for
the piping system- For a proper piping design, it is essential that the client
and the contractor agree on a design basis, process, and mechanical, civil
and electrical control and instrumentation.
Table A presents a design criteria guideline for an existing or a new piping
system.
Before proceeding with the design of the pipelines, some restrictions or
assumptions about the characteristics of the production wells, re-injection
wells, power plant location need to be considered. The output
characteristics, mass flow rates, well head pressure, temperature and
chemistry of the wells enable the selection of optimum production values,
which will be considered for the entire life of the project.
The transportation of the steam from the separation station to the power
plant will take place with some heat losses, condensation and tapping due to
pressure losses and the imperfect thermal insulation. To determine the size
the diameter pipe and the insulation thickness, the general working equation
for open and steady system is:
TABLE A: Design criteria
General Process Mechanical Civil/Structural
Design life Steam field layout Design Parameters Design codes and
Process conditions procedures
design Loads
Meteorological & Economic analysis Design codes and Project layout
other local data procedures
Environmental Piping criteria: Piping systems design Access
requirements pressure drop
line sizing
pipe routing
design pressure
Operating and Draining & venting Pipes General Civil construction
maintenance criteria philosophy
Cost minimization Silica deposition Valves Thermal Ponds
Avoiding uphill two- Insulation Fittings Retaining walls
phase flow
Control valve types Vessels Foundation design
Pressure relief Mechanical Equipment Structural design loads
devices
Pumps Other components Pipe supports & anchors
System isolation Constructability and Structures
philosophy maintainability
Instrument air - Concrete design
source & materials
Sampling & testing Steel design
requirements
where Q =
Rate of heat transfer between the system and the surroundings (+
into the system);
W=
Rate of work transfer (power) between the system and the
surroundings (+ out of
s
the system);
i =Index that runs over all inlets and outlets of the system;
n =Total number of inlets and outlets;
mi =Mass flow rate crossing each inlet or outlet;
hi =Specific enthalpy of the fluid at each inlet or outlet;
Vi =Velocity of the fluid at each inlet or outlet;
zi =Elevation of each inlet or outlet; and
g =Local gravitational acceleration.
Design Of Piping Systems
The following items should be considered by the engineer when developing
the design for a piping system:
Choice of materials and sizes
Effects of temperature level and temperature
changes o Insulation
o Thermal expansion
o Freezing
Flexibility of the system for physical or thermal shocks
Adequate support and anchorage
Alterations in the system and the service
Maintenance and inspection
Ease of installation
Auxiliary or stand-by pumps and lines
Safety
o Design factors
o Relief valves and flare systems
A piping system should be designed so that maintenance and inspection
can be accomplished easily, and the possibility of future changes in the
system should not be overlooked.
