Unified feature-based approach for process system design

This article may be used for research, teaching, and private study purposes. Any substantial or systematic reproduction, redistribution, reselling, loan, sub-licensing, systematic supply, or distribution in any form to anyone is expressly forbidden. The publisher does not give any warranty express or implied or make any representation that the contents will be complete or accurate or up to date. The accuracy of any instructions, formulae, and drug doses should be independently verified with primary sources. The publisher shall not be liable for any loss, actions, claims, proceedings, demand, or costs or damages whatsoever or howsoever caused arising directly or indirectly in connection with or arising out of the use of this material. Process system design, such as those engineering projects being developed in the global energy sector, involves well-established empirical engineering knowledge, standards and industrial codes. Their effective and efficient implementation has critical consequences to the success of projects. In a mechanical engineering domain, process system design covers process-flow modelling, pressure vessel and piping layout design, detailed structure design, etc. The authors are motivated to investigate an effective method for achieving the knowledge-driven design to address the efficiency drawback in traditional process system design applications. This article proposes a systematic method to embed in-depth engineering knowledge and to realise smart design changes in a unified feature-based approach. To prove the feasibility and effectiveness of the proposed method, a process fuel and water supply system has been comprehensively designed in the conceptual design stage. The findings of this research work are presented with some critical discussions at the end of this article. The authors believe that this approach is easy to implement and is useful to improve the knowledge reusability and engineering design productivity. 1. Introduction The ever-increasing demand for energy across the globe has sustained the growth of process engineering in the oil and gas and electrical generation sectors. In many underdeveloped and developing nations, there is still a wide gap between the demand and supply of electricity. As the demand for electricity has increased , so has the construction of new power plants. Process system engineering, including the design of processing vessels and piping, is a major effort for such project development and also plays an important role in the economics equations. So far, the engineering practice is very much based on the traditional procedural and iterative engineering code-checking approach, which is time consuming and error prone. In addition, …