APPROXIMATE EVALUATION OF PROCESS TIME CONSTANTS AND DOMINANT VARIABLES BY QUASIDIAGONALIZATION

use of order-of-magnitude arguments and canonical transformations for second-order systems, an approximate method is developed for the quick evaluation of the dominant time constants of processes described by sets of linear differential equations. Excellent estimates of all the time constants are obtained even for very stiff systems where the time constants vary by a factor of 106. At the same time, the dominant process variables to be included in lower order models and the most effective control variables are identified. © 1979, American Chemical Society. All rights reserved.