Simulation Optimization and Experimental Study of Cross-Wall Adiabatic Dividing Wall Column Used to Separate Hexane-Heptane-Octane System

Through separation of the hexane-heptane–octane system in a cross-wall adiabatic dividing wall column, the effects of feed position, side-draw position, liquid split ratio, vapor split ratio and their interactions on the energy consumption were analyzed by Aspen Plus under the constant product purity, and the response surface model for the energy consumption was regressed. Based on the restriction on the optimal operating zone, the comparison of different combinations of surrogate models and optimization methods showed that, the combination of the Kriging model and multi-island genetic algorithm(Kriging-MIGA) had better prediction ability than the combination of the response surface model and partial derivative method(RSM-PD), and RSM-PD had better optimization effect than Kriging-MIGA. With a self-made cross-wall adiabatic dividing wall column, the temperature at measuring points and the energy consumption were measured during experiments, the comparison between measured values and simulated ones demonstrated that the optimized values of variables searched by RSM-PD and Kriging-MIGA could be both used as the optimum technological conditions since the experimental reliability was ensured, with the optimum technological conditions shown below: The feed position is 6, the side-draw position is 7, the combinations of liquid split ratio and vapor split ratio are [0.14, 0.5] and [0.16, 0.52], respectively. RSM-PD and Kriging-MIGA can provide the appropriate optimization methods for the dividing wall column.

A novel kind of multiple steady states characteristics in the dividing wall column

In this article, one kind of multiple steady states(MSS) phenomenon was investigated for a dividing wall column(DWC). The four-section model constructed in Aspen Plus was employed to simulate two DWC cases: mixture of n-hexane, n-heptane and n-octane;system of methanol, ethanol and n-propanol. It can be seen that there is a range of vapor split ratio in which multiple solutions of reflux ratio exist for fixed DWC configuration with the same feed and product streams. The width and the curve shapes of the MSS region, and the number of solutions change with the liquid split ratio. This MSS phenomenon was further explained using the component recovery around the prefractionator and the component recycling flow inside the DWC. This MSS phenomenon is helpful for DWC design by knowing the probable existence of multiple solutions in advance.

Energy conserving effects of dividing wall column

The energy-conserving performance of dividing wall column(DWC) is discussed in this paper. The heat transfer through the dividing wall is considered and the results are compared with that of common heat insulation dividing wall column(HIDWC). Based on the thermodynamic analysis of heat transfer dividing wall column(HTDWC) and HIDWC, both computer simulation and experiments are employed to analyze the energyconserving situation. Mixtures of n-hexane, n-heptane and n-octane are chosen as the example for separation.The results show that the energy consumption of HTDWC is 50.3% less than that of conventional distillation column, while it is 46.4% less than that of HIDWC. It indicates that DWC is efficient on separating threecomponent mixtures and HTDWC can save more energy than HIDWC. Thus it is necessary to consider the heat transfer while applying DWC to industry.

Optimization of Dividing Wall Column with Heat Transfer Process Across the Wall for Feed Properties Variation

This paper investigates the thermal-coupled effect across the wall and the optimal heat transfer region of the wall for enhancing the energy saving effect of dividing wall column (DWC), and also studies the effects of feed thermal condition (q) and middle component composition of feed (cB) on the heat transfer process, the optimal heat transfer region, and the maximum heat transfer quantity across the wall. The simulation results show that the maximum heat transfer quantity across the wall and the potential for energy saving increase with the increase of q, while with the limitation of temperature difference across the wall, the beneficial heat transfer effect between certain range of stages, which are involved in the optimal heat transfer region, cannot be realized completely for a specific value of q. Besides, compared with q, a changing cB does not change the degree of realizing the beneficial heat transfer effect, but can bring about the variation of liquid split ratio (RL) and vapor split ratio (Rv). Thus, for achieving a maximum energy-saving effect of DWC, different q and cB need to find its own corresponding suitable heat transfer process across the wall.

Numerical Investigation on Effect of Vapor Split Ratio to Performance and Operability for Dividing Wall Column

Operability problem of dividing wall column (DWC) raised by vapor split was investigated by numerically analyzing four cases defined by different compositions of a three-component mixture. DWCs were firstly designed for each case by optimizing the vapor split to the two sides of the dividing wall, and then their feasibilities and total annual costs in operation were evaluated against different vapor split ratios. The analysis on the operability of the DWC for four cases was made based on two scenarios: (1) vapor split is shifted by the vapor resistance difference between the column sections in the two sides of the dividing wall and (2) the feed composition is changed. It was demonstrated that the positioning of the dividing wall and the decision on the vapor split may affect significantly the operability of a DWC.

Experimental and simulation of the reactive dividing wall column based on ethyl acetate synthesis

Reactive dividing wall column(RDWC) is a highly integrated unit which combines reaction distillation(RD) with dividing wall column separation technology into one shell, and it realized the chemical reaction and the separation of multiple product fractions simultaneously. In this paper, the reaction of esterification with acetic acid and ethanol to produce ethyl acetate was used as the research system, experiments and simulations of the RDWC were carried out. This system in the traditional process mostly used the homogeneous catalyst(e.g. sulfuric acid). However, in view of the corrosion of the equipment caused by the acidity of the catalyst, we used the heterogeneous catalysts – iron exchange resins – Amberlyst15 and proposed a novel catalyst loading method. Firstly,the reliability of the model of the simulation was verified by the experimental study on the change of liquid split ratio and reflux ratio. After that, the four-column model was established in Aspen Plus to analyze the effects of the amount of azeotropic agent, reflux ratio and acetic acid concentration. Finally, for a fair comparison, the economic analysis was conducted between traditional RD column and RDWC. The results showed that RDWC can save34.7% of total operating costs and 18.5% of TAC.

Reactive dividing wall column for hydrolysis of methyl acetate:Design and control

Reactive distillation and dividing wall column distillation are two kinds of effective separation technologies,and their integrated configuration,reactive dividing wall column(RDWC),presents attractive advantages.In this study,the rigorous simulation of RDWC for methyl acetate hydrolysis is performed,and sensitivity analysis is conducted to obtain the minimum reboiler duty.Then a comparison is made between the conventional process and RDWC process,and it shows that 20.1% energy savings can be achieved by RDWC process.In addition,the dynamic characteristic of RDWC is studied and an effective control strategy is proposed.The simple PI control scheme with three temperature loops can obtain reasonable control performance and maintain products at desired purities.It is proved that this RDWC process is an energy efficiency alternative with good controllability.

Shortcut Method of Design and Energy-Saving Analysis of Sargent Dividing Wall Column

The Sargent dividing wall column can implement four products separation sequences in one column based on Fully Thermally Coupled Distillation Column. The initial design parameters are required for the design optimization or dynamic control of the Sargent dividing wall column, and in order to make the rigorous simulation of the Sargent dividing wall column more conducive to convergence, a ten column model for complex Sargent column is established in this paper,and the shortcut design method of this model is proposed. The internal minimum vapor and liquid flow are obtained by the Underwood equations and the mass balance method and the V-min method. The separation for a 4-component shortcut mixture of pentane, hexane, heptane and octane was considered, while the initial values of design parameters and the ratio of vapor-liquid distribution of each column were calculated by using the shortcut design method of a ten column model. And by comparing the shortcut calculations with rigorous simulation results, the practicality and reliability of shortcut calculations were verified. The reason for energy saving was analyzed based on back-mixing. A virtual heat exchanger is proposed to make the Sargent dividing wall column more energy efficient.

Composition control and temperature inferential control of dividing wall column based on model predictive control and PI strategies

The dividing wall column （DWC） is considered as a major breakthrough in distillation technology and has good prospect of industrialization. Model predictive control （MPC） is an advanced control strategy that has acquired extensive applications in various industries. In this study, MPC is applied to the process for separating ethanol, n-propanol, and n-butanol ternary mixture in a fully thermally coupled DWC. Both composition control and tem- perature inferent/al control are considered. The multiobjective genetic algor/thm function ＂gamult/obj＂ in Matlab is used for the weight tuning of MPC. Comparisons are made between the control performances of MPC and PI strategies. Simulation results show that although both MPC and PI schemes can stabilize the DWC in case of feed disturbances, MPC generally behaves better than the PI strategy for both composition control and tempera- ture inferential control, resulting in a more stable and superior performance with lower values of integral of squared error （ISE）.

Analysis and seismic tests of composite shear walls with CFST columns and steel plate deep beams

A composite shear wall concept based on concrete filled steel tube （CFST） columns and steel plate （SP） deep beams is proposed and examined in this study. The new wall is composed of three different energy dissipation elements： CFST columns; SP deep beams; and reinforced concrete （RC） strips. The RC strips are intended to allow the core structural elements - the CFST columns and SP deep beams - to work as a single structure to consume energy. Six specimens of different configurations were tested under cyclic loading. The resulting data are analyzed herein. In addition, numerical simulations of the stress and damage processes for each specimen were carried out, and simulations were completed for a range of location and span-height ratio variations for the SP beams. The simulations show good agreement with the test results. The core structure exhibits a ductile yielding mechanism characteristic of strong column-weak beam structures, hysteretic curves are plump and the composite shear wall exhibits several seismic defense lines. The deformation of the shear wall specimens with encased CFST column and SP deep beam design appears to be closer to that of entire shear walls. Establishing optimal design parameters for the configuration of SP deep beams is pivotal to the best seismic behavior of the wall. The new composite shear wall is therefore suitable for use in the seismic design of building structures.

Control of reactive dividing wall column for selective hydrogenation and separation of C3 stream

In our previous work, the reactive dividing wall column(RDWC) was proposed and proved to be effective for selective hydrogenation and separation of C3 stream. In the present paper, the dynamics and control of the proposed RDWC are investigated. Four control structures including composition and temperature controls are proposed. The feed forward controllers are employed in the four control strategies to shorten the dynamic response time, reduce the maximum deviations and offer an immediate adjustment. The control structures are compared by applying them into the RDWC system with 20% disturbances in both the feed flow rate and the feed compositions, and the results are discussed.

Application of the dividing wall column to olefin separation in fluidization methanol to propylene(FMTP) process

Dividing wall column(DWC)is shown to be energy efficient compared to conventional column sequence for multi components separation,which is used for olefin separation in fluidization methanol to propylene process in the present work.Detailed design for pilot DWC was performed and five control structures,i.e.composition control(CC),temperature control(TC),composition-temperature control(CC-TC),temperature difference control(TDC),double temperature difference control(DTDC)were proposed to circumvent feed disturbance.Sensitivity analysis and singular value decomposition(SVD)were used as criterion to select the controlled temperature locations in TC,CC-TC,TDC and DTDC control loops.The steady simulation result demonstrates that 25.7% and 30.2% duty can be saved for condenser and reboiler by substituting conventional column sequence with DWC,respectively.As for control structure selection,TC and TDC perform better than other three control schemes with smaller maximum deviation and shorter settling time.

Reactive dividing-wall column for the co-production of ethyl acetate and n-butyl acetate

Reactive dividing-wall column(RDWC) technology plays a critical role in the energy saving and high efficiency of chemical process.In this article, the process of co-producing ethyl acetate(EA) and n-butyl acetate(BA) with RDWC was studied.BA was not only the product, but also acted as entrainer to remove the water generated by the two esterification reactions.Experiments and simulations of the co-production process were carried out.It was found that the experimental results were in good agreement with the simulation results.Two kinds of RDWC structures(RDWC-FC and RDWC-RS) were proposed, and the co-production process operating parameters of the two types of RDWC were optimized by Aspen Plus respectively.The optimal operating parameters of the RDWC-FC were determined as follows: 0.6 of the reflux ratio of aqueous phase(RR), 0.66 of the vapor split(R_V) and 0.51 of the liquid split(R_L).And the optimal operating parameters of the RDWC-RS were shown as follows: RR was 0.295 and R_V was 0.61.Furthermore, the energy saving analysis of the co-production process was based on the annual output of 10000 tons of EA, compared with the traditional reaction distillation(RD) to prepare EA and BA, the reboiler duty of the RDWC-FC column could save 20.4%, TAC saving 23.6%; RDWC-RS reboiler energy consumption could save 17.0%, TAC 22.2%.

Investigation of the operability for four-product dividing wall column with two partition walls

For separating some specific four component mixtures into four products, the four-product dividing wall column(FPDWC) with two partition walls can provide the same utility consumption with the extended Petlyuk configuration, although with structure simplicity. However, the reluctance to implement this kind of four product dividing wall column industrially also consists in the two uncontrollable vapor splits associated with it. The vapor split ratios are set at the design stage and might not be the optimal value for changed feed composition, thus minimum energy consumption could not be ensured. In the present work, a sequential iterative optimization approach was initially employed to determine the parameters of cost-effective FPDWC. Then the effect of maintaining the vapor split ratios at their nominal value on the energy penalty was investigated for the FPDWC with two partition walls, in case of feed composition disturbance. The result shows that no more than + 2% above the optimal energy requirements could be ensured for 20% feed composition disturbances, which is encouraging for industrial implementation.

Rapid Repair of Earthquake Damaged RC Interior Beam-wide Column Joints and Beam-wall Joints Using FRP Composites

This paper studies the seismic performance of FRP-strengthened RC interior non-seismically detailed beam-wide columns and beam-wall joints after limited seismic damage.Four eccentric and concentric beam-wide column joints and two beam-wall joints,initially damaged in a previous study,were repaired and tested under constant axial loads(0.1fc′Ag and 0.35fc′Ag) and lateral cyclic loading.The rapid repair technique developed,aimed to restore the original strength and to provide minimum drift capacity.The repair schemes were characterized by the use of:(a) epoxy injections and polymer modified cementitious mortar to seal the cracks and replace spalled concrete;and(b) glass(GFRP) and carbon(CFRP) sheets to enhance the joint performance.The FRP sheets were effectively prevented against possible debonding through the use of fiber anchors.Comparison between responses of specimens before and after repair clearly indicated reasonable restoration in strength,drift capacity,stiffness and cumulative energy dissipation capacity.All specimens failed with delamination of FRP sheets at beam-column joint interfaces.The rapid repair technique developed in this study is recommended for mass upgrading or repair of earthquake damaged beam-column joints.

Numerical simulation of gas–liquid flow in the bubble column using Wray–Agarwal turbulence model coupled with population balance model

In this paper,an improved computational fluid dynamic(CFD)model for gas-liquid flow in bubble column was developed using the one-equation Wary-Agarwal(WA)turbulence model coupled with the population balance model(PBM).Through 18 orthogonal test cases,the optimal combination of interfacial force models,including drag force,lift force,turbulent dispersion force.The modified wall lubrication force model was proposed to improve the predictive ability for hydrodynamic behavior near the wall of the bubble column.The values simulated by optimized CFD model were in agreement with experimental data,and the errors were within±20%.In addition,the axial velocity,turbulent kinetic energy,bubble size distribution,and the dynamic characteristic of bubble plume were analyzed at different superficial gas velocities.This research work could provide a theoretical basis for the extension of the CFD-PBM coupled model to other multiphase reactors..

Shear reinforcement effect of reinforced concrete tie-columns on the lateral resistance of confined masonry walls

Tie-columns improve significantly the lateral resistance of masonry bearing walls against persistent, transient and accidental loads. The research work described herein has been carried out to assess the lateral resistance of confined masonry walls, where contribution of the masonry panel is evaluated according to material mechanics and tie-columns effect is estimated by a proposed analytical formulation based on a model reported on previously. This approach takes into account the effect of dowel support on the reaction of its adjacent shear reinforcement： the conditions for the various contributions of transverse reinforcements are better defined following a clear evaluation of the participation ratio of these reinforcements. Lateral resistances of confined masonry walls measured in full-scale tests and gleaned from the literature are compared and checked with resistances calculated using the present approach.

Elasto-plastic Analysis of High-strength Concrete Shear Wall with Boundary Columns Using Fiber Model

In this study,an experimental study and numerical calculations using fiber model were conducted for four high-strength concrete shear walls with boundary columns under low cyclic load.The boundary column and shear wall were divided into fiber elements,and PERFORM-3D finite element analysis software was used to carry out push-over analysis on the test specimens.The results show that the finite element analysis results were in good agreement with the experimental results.The proposed analysis method could perform elasto-plastic analysis on the high-strength concrete shear wall with boundary columns without distinguishing the categories of frame column and shear wall.The seismic performance of high-strength concrete shear wall with boundary columns was analyzed using the following parameters:axis compression ratio,height to width ratio,ratio of vertical reinforcement,and ratio of longitudinal reinforcement in the boundary column.The results show that the increase in the axial compression ratio causes the bearing capacity of the shear wall to increase at first and then to decrease and causes the ductility to decrease.The increase in the height to width ratio causes the bearing capacity of the shear wall to decrease and its ductility to increase.The ratio of vertical reinforcement was found to have little effect on the bearing capacity and ductility.The increase in the ratio of longitudinal reinforcement in boundary column resulted in a significant increase in the bearing capacity and caused the ductility to decrease at first and then to slowly increase.

Static behavior of semi-rigid thin-walled steel-concrete composite beam-to-column joints with bolted partial-depth flush end plate:experimental study

A new type of semi-rigid thin-walled steel-concrete composite beam-to-column joint has been proposed in this paper.Five semi-rigid composite beam-to-column joint specimens subjected to hogging moments under monotonic loading were tested to study the static behavior of this new type of joint.The main variable parameters for the five joint specimens were the longitudinal reinforcement ratio and the joint type.The experimental results designated that the magnitude of extension of the longitudinal reinforcement is the most important factor that influenced the moment-rotation characteristic of the new type of joint.The concrete slabs could resist 3.8%-19.1% of the total shear load applied to the cross-sections near the beam-to-column connection.The edge stiffened elements,such as the flange of the lipped I-section thin-walled steel beam,were capable of having considerable inelastic deformation capacity although they had comparatively large width-to-thickness ratios.The shear failure of the concrete cantilever edge strip must be taken into account in practical design because it has significant influence on the anchorage of the longitudinal reinforcement in the new type of external joints.

Study on the Distribution Law of Horizontal Seismic Forces between Slab-Column and Shear Wall

In slab column-shear wall structures,both the whole structure′s seismic behavior and failure mode are greatly influenced by the distribution of horizontal seismic forces between slab-column and shear wall.In this paper,a pushover analysis of topical slab column-shear wall structure was carried out,the seismic shear force that the slab-column and shear wall should undertake was worked out,the influences of plastic internal force redistribution and structure stiffness characteristic value on horizontal seismic distribution were studied and the calculation formula was given.The analysis results showed that with the yield of the shear walls,the story shear force was undertaken by slab-columns correspondingly increased while with the decrease of characteristic value of stiffness of a structure,and the horizontal seismic force was undertaken by slab-columns correspondingly decreased.According to the code,the design of horizontal force distribution may be cause insecurity problems,so it is necessary to give the distribution law of horizontal seismic forces in slab-column shear wall structures as the supplement to the corresponding regulation of the Code.