Author's Contribution

The challenge in design is to create a process or equipment for future needs. The changing world and keen competition bring about challenges such as a faster project time which means, on one hand, the need to utilize both earlier designs and organizational memory, on the other hand, that creativity should be supported to create competitive designs. At the same time requirements for a robust design in which uncertainties exist need to be taken into account. The thesis presents new methods and application examples to answer the challenges. Case-based reasoning (CBR) provides a method for fast process and equipment design by utilizing earlier knowledge systematically. In new designs feedback from earlier experiences is taken into account, and a creative aspect can be included by the use of analogies. The thesis presents new method for CBR-based separation process synthesis and a CBR-based method for combinatorial mixer equipment design from parts. A further challenge in design is how to create a robust and flexible design capable of operating in changing situations. The challenge has been dealt with scenario-based approaches and stochastic simulation. Three new applications are presented: Scenariobased approaches for thermo-mechanical pulp plant design in the presence of demand uncertainty and paper machine consistency control with an uncertainty in head box consistency control measurement. Stochastic simulation has been applied to paper machine broke tank level control, where the uncertainty is caused by paper machine breaks.