Towards an algorithmic synthesis of thermofluid systems

Abstract

Individual technical components are usually well optimized. However, the design process of entire technical systems, especially in its early stages, is still dominated by human intuition and the practical experience of engineers. In this context, our vision is the widespread availability of software tools to support the human-driven design process with the help of modern mathematical methods. As a contribution to this, we consider a selected class of technical systems, so-called thermofluid systems. From a technical point of view, these systems comprise fluid distribution as well as superimposed heat transfer. Based on models for simple fluid systems as extensively studied in literature, we develop model extensions and algorithmic methods directed towards the optimized synthesis of thermofluid systems to a practical extent. Concerning fluid systems, we propose a Branch-and-Bound framework, exploiting problem-specific characteristics. This framework is then further analyzed using the application example of booster stations for high-rise buildings. In addition, we demonstrate the application of Quantified Programs to meet possible resilience requirements with respect to the systems generated. In order to model basic thermofluid systems, we extend the existing formulation for fluid systems by including heat transfer. Since this consideration alone is not able to deal with dynamic system behavior, we face this challenge separately by providing a more sophisticated representation dealing with the temporal couplings that result from storage components. For the considered case, we further show the advantages of this special continuous-time representation compared to the more common representation using discrete time intervals.