Examples of applications of

Linear Programming
Optimization of pressure relief header
networks
• Refineries and several chemical plants have a
safety system formed by a pressure relief
header network (a pipe network that connects
the industrial units to the discharge zones or
flares)
• In an accident, gas streams from the units can
be deviated through the network to be
burned at the flare, avoiding the possibility of
dispersion of dangerous gases.
A network to be optimized
Optimization of pressure relief header
networks
• A pressure relief header network must allow
maximum flow through each relief valve
• It results in an upper bound on the pressure
drop of each valve-flare path along the
network
• The problem of optimal design consists in
selecting the set of diameters related to the
minimum cost network subject to pressure
drop constraints
 Optimization objective
• The cost of a pipe is assumed to be proportional
to its length and the cost per unit length is a
linear function of the diameter.
• The objective function of a network containing S
sections
= ( + ),
– is the length of section k
– = 7.12 $/ and = 341.05 $ / are constants
– is the diameter of the pipe used in section k
 Standard pipe diameters
• The commercial diameters available are given
in the Table:
n 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9
Diam. 0.051 0.102 0.152 0.203 0.254 0.305 0.356 0.406 0.457
(m)
 The pressure drop conditions
• The pressure drop in a pipe is:
= 0.3697 /
– is the pipe length
– is the mass flowrate
– is the universal gas constant
– is the gas temperature
– is the molecular weight
– is the pipe diameter
– and the friction coefficient
.
= 0.0475 1.1744 10
 The pressure drop conditions
• After simplification of the pressure drop terms,
the constraints are:

• is a constant taking into account the

parameters presented in the previous slide
• is the list of sections in the path between valve
t and the flare
• is the upper limit for the pressure drop in the
path
 LP formulation
• There can be pipes of different diameters in
the same section connected in series
• Decision variable is the length of the
segment with diameter in section k
• The condition for the total length of a section:
– =
– 0, ,
 LP formulation
• The objective to be minimized:
= +

• The pressure drop constraints:

.
 The optimization results

• The globally optimum solution is obtained

• The optimum objective function is 162 129 $
 Small size example
• Three inputs: I1, I2, I3
– Bounds on the pressure drop b1, b2, b3 (kPa)
• Five segments
– Lengths L1, L2, L3 , L4 , L5 (m) Exit I2
• Two pipe diameters 1 4
– Costs c1, c2 ($/m) 3

– Pressure drops k1, k2 (kPa/m) 2 5

I1 I3
 Small size example: solution
• Bounds on the pressure drop:
– )+
– )+
– )+
• The segment lengths:
–
–
–
–
–
 Small size example: solution
• Non-negativity constraint:
– 0, = 1 … 5, = 1, 2
• Objective function:
– Minimize + + + + +
( + + + + )
 Literature
• Costa A., Medeiros J., Pessoa F., (2000),
Optimization of pressure relief header
networks: a linear programming formulation,
Computers and Chemical Engineering, 24, pp.
153-156