OPTIMAL-SOLUTIONS OF PROCESSES DESCRIBED BY SYSTEMS OF DIFFERENTIAL-ALGEBRAIC EQUATIONS

A new procedure for the determination of optimal solutions for processes described by differential-algebraic equations is presented in this paper. It is shown to overcome the usual drawbacks of the feasible-path methods and compare favourably with the recently developed unfeasible-path algorithms. Furthermore, it is shown to be algorithmically equivalent to eliminating the algebraic part of the system by variable substitution, when the algebraic equations can be solved analytically and no inequality constraint is present. A numerical example is provided for illustration purposes.