A methodology of coupled modeling of vacuum blocks of industrial installations

The article presents the methodology of coupled modeling of the main blocks of a chemical-technological system operating under vacuum. The system analysis of vacuum blocks is carried out and the basic rules of technological calculation are formed, in which the evacuated technological object and the vacuum overhead system are considered as a single system with inter-dependent elements. The presented methodology was applied when calculating the vacuum block of the primary oil refining process of a mini-refinery working on fuel oil, as a result of which an integrative characteristic of the block was compiled, which takes into account the mutual influence of the vacuum system and the technological object on the residual pressure at the top of the vacuum column. The adequacy of the developed model was ascertained by comparing with industrial research data. In line with the proposed methodology, numerical experiments were carried out accordingly in which the temperature of the service liquid being fed into the pump was changed. The results of the calculations showed that, achieving the given project Pressure under the current block component setup (P= 40 mm Hg) was not possible as a reason of the increased resistance in the shell side of the condenser.