Framework for Proper Integration of Flexibility in Conceptual Designs of Energy and Industrial Infrastructures

Flexibility is an important performance indicator of any engineered system, yet a term often vaguely defined in the infrastructure domain. We have identified that though infrastructures often have more complex external interactions than process systems; infrastructure flexibility could still be dealt with in the existing process systems engineering (PSE) framework if a proper conceptual definition of flexibility as well as appropriate flexibility taxonomy is developed. In this paper, a conceptual definition of flexibility which suits infrastructure design has been proposed. By means of the identification of the interactions between an infrastructure and its surroundings and of the systemic uncertainties, taxonomy for infrastructure flexibility is developed. Based on this definition and taxonomy, a systems engineering framework for the design of flexible infrastructures has been proposed. To test the application effectiveness and utility of the proposed framework, it has been qualitatively applied in the conceptual synthesis of an infrastructure (gas pipeline network) design problem.