Changing roles for supercomputing in chemical engineering

Journal Article · Fri Jan 01 04:00:00 EST 1988 · Int. J. Supercomput. Appl.; (United States)

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1177/109434208800200203· OSTI ID:6890059

McRae, G J; Milford, J B; Slompak, B J

Traditionally, supercomputers have been used by the chemical engineering community to provide the power needed to obtain solutions of mathematical models that describe complex physical and chemical processes. That view is changing. Beyond simply increasing the resolution of the calculations, or decreasing the elapsed time for a solution, chemical engineers are now beginning to use supercomputers to perform design and optimization of chemical processes, as a way to augment and improve conventional experimental research, and, most importantly, as a way to open up new problem areas that in the past have only been solved by heuristic techniques. Several illustrative examples - reacting polymer systems, design of control strategies for photochemical air pollution, solution of stiff differential systems, and batch scheduling - are presented to demonstrate the benefits associated with this new view of how supercomputers can be used by the chemical engineering profession.

• Research Organization: Carnegie Mellon Univ., Pittsburgh, PA (US)
• OSTI ID: 6890059
• Journal Information: Int. J. Supercomput. Appl.; (United States), Journal Name: Int. J. Supercomput. Appl.; (United States) Vol. 2:2; ISSN IJSAE
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

37 INORGANIC, ORGANIC, PHYSICAL, AND ANALYTICAL CHEMISTRY
400500 -- Photochemistry
99 GENERAL AND MISCELLANEOUS
990210* -- Supercomputers-- (1987-1989)
990230 -- Mathematics & Mathematical Models-- (1987-1989)
AIR POLLUTION
CALCULATION METHODS
CHEMISTRY
COMPUTERS
DATA ACQUISITION SYSTEMS
DIGITAL COMPUTERS
DISPERSIONS
ENGINEERING
EXPERIMENT PLANNING
MATHEMATICAL MODELS
MIXTURES
PHOTOCHEMISTRY
PLANNING
POLLUTION
RESEARCH PROGRAMS
SEPARATION PROCESSES
SOLUTIONS
SUPERCOMPUTERS
TECHNOLOGY IMPACTS