Description
Book SynopsisIn this thesis, two novel synthesis methodologies are proposed to facilitate the use of optimization for efficient and reliable DESS synthesis, thus making optimization accessible for practitioners: The automated superstructure-based and the superstructurefree synthesis methodology. The proposed methodologies avoid both the a priori definition of a superstructure and the manual definition of many technology-specific replacement rules while accounting for the major characteristics inherent to DESS synthesis problems. The superstructure-based framework (chapter 4) relies on an algorithm for automated superstructure-generation. The method employs a successive superstructure expansion and optimization strategy that continuously increases the number of units included in the superstructure until the optimal solution is identified. The superstructure-free approach (chapter 5) combines evolutionary optimization and deterministic optimization for simultaneous alternatives generation and opti
