Lehigh Design Course

Authors

  • Vincent G. Grassi Lehigh University
  • William L. Luyben Lehigh University
  • Cesar A. Silebi Lehigh University

Abstract

This paper discusses a two-semester senior design course that combines traditional steady-state economic process design with dynamic plantwide control. This unique course has been taught at Lehigh for more than a decade and has garnered rave reviews from students, industry, and ABET. Each student design group has its own industrial consultant who provides a design project for that group and serves as a mentor/expert for the students. Design projects are begun immediately at the beginning of the fall semester. Lectures are given on overall design principles, design trade-offs, reactor design, distillation column design, simple heuristic optimization methods, and engineering economics. In a computer-aided laboratory the students learn how to use a steady-state simulator. By the end of the first semester, each group has developed an economically optimum flowsheet. During the spring semester the students learn how to use a dynamic simulator, and lectures are given on control of individual units, plantwide control principles, and the interaction/conflict between design and control. The groups develop rigorous dynamic simulations of their multi-unit processes and evaluate alternative plantwide control structures for product quality performance and operability. A major advantage of incorporating dynamic simulation in the design course is that is permits quantitative dynamic studies of process safety issues. Quantitative studies of dynamic reactor runaways and vessel over-pressuring can be made with the dynamic simulations of the process equipment.

Author Biographies

Vincent G. Grassi, Lehigh University

Vince Grassi is the director of Global Learning at Air Products and an adjunct professor of chemical engineering at Lehigh University. Vince has more than 32 years of engineering, management, and global business industrial experience. He has a BS from the University of Rochester, and M.S. and Ph.D. degrees form Lehigh University, all in chemical engineering.

William L. Luyben, Lehigh University

William L. Luyben is a professor of chemical engineering at Lehigh University. He received his B.S. from Penn State and Ph.D. from the University of Delaware. He teaches Unit Operations Laboratory, Process Control, and Plant Design courses. His research interests include process design and control, distillation, and energy processes.

Cesar A. Silebi, Lehigh University

Cesar A. Silebi is a professor of chemical engineering at Lehigh University. He received his B.S. from Universidad del Atlantico in Colombia and his Ph.D. from Lehigh University. He teaches Heat Transfer, Mass Transfer, and Process Design courses. His research interests include electrokinetic and hydrodynamic fractionation of colloids and rheology of dispersions.

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Published

2011-07-01

Issue

Vol. 45 No. 3 (2011): Summer 2011

Section

Manuscripts