Title: A novel variable drive modelling approach for general framework of chemical production scheduling

Authors: Yuandong Chen; Jinhao Pang; Zhen Jiang; Yuchen Gou; Dewang Chen

Addresses: School of Transportation, Fujian University of Technology, Fuzhou 350118, China ' School of Transportation, Fujian University of Technology, Fuzhou 350118, China ' School of Transportation, Fujian University of Technology, Fuzhou 350118, China ' School of Transportation, Fujian University of Technology, Fuzhou 350118, China ' School of Transportation, Fujian University of Technology, Fuzhou 350118, China

Abstract: In this paper, we present a modelling approach named as variable drive modelling (VDM) to develop general modelling framework of chemical production scheduling. VDM builds models from variables (i.e., variable-based), while the traditional method building model is built from rule aspect (i.e., rule-based) with constraint blocks such as allocation constraints, mass balance, capacity constraints and operation rule constraints. In this paper, we analyse three shortcomings of the traditional rule-based model building method. A novel scheduling time axis is presented, while the confusing position of variables at time axis can be avoided. A systematic method to define variables and description rules of driving functions are given. At last, a crude oil scheduling case is given to illustrate how to implement this approach. The results show fewer variable numbers, fewer constraints, fewer branching nodes, and shorter solution time of the proposed approach against the existing model.

Keywords: simulation and modelling; scheduling; variable drive modelling; VDM; chemical processes; refinery.

DOI: 10.1504/IJSPM.2023.139767

International Journal of Simulation and Process Modelling, 2023 Vol.21 No.1, pp.33 - 46

Received: 26 Mar 2023
Accepted: 05 Jan 2024
Published online: 05 Jul 2024 *

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