(40an) Application of the Weighted Set Covering Problem Combined to Computational Fluid Dynamics for Optimization of Gas Detectors in a Chemical Plant

In this paper we adopted the new approach to optimize the number and location of gas detectors employing the weighted set covering problem combined with computational fluid dynamics (CFD). Possible gas leak scenarios were simulated using CFD that provide the gas plume sizes. The data were used to determine the optimization mesh size of the set covering problem. In the second stage of the approach a 0-1 integer programming model was applied to solve the problem using the Balas Algorithm.

Our case study is focused on a chemical plant with many leak points, like a real case. A 3D model was built and used to simulate several leakage point scenarios and conditions. In this case, the optimization procedure was combined with the leak frequency for the determination of the weights of the objective function.

The results obtained from the weighted set covering problem were compared with the standard procedure (without weighted procedure) results. The quantity of gas detectors and the time to detect were analyzed by means of transient CFD simulations.

The analysis shows that the weighted approach findings lead to larger quantity of detectors and the time to detect is shorter.