Ph.D. student Abdolreza Hashemi-Ahmady

Status

I started my Ph.D. studies in August 1994 and plan to complete my thesis by September 1998. This doctoral work is financed by a scholarship from Telemark Institute of Technology. My supervisor is Professor Truls Gundersen, and Professor Kristian Lien of The Norwegian University of Science and Technology is the co-supervisor for this work.

Research area

Use of Mathematical Programming (MP) in Process Integration is the title of my Ph.D work. Focus will be on further extensions of existing models for design and optimization of Heat Exchanger Networks (HENs) primarily. Further, however, design of Distillation Based Separation Sequences (where MP is used as the tool) is considered as a possible secondary research area.

Activities

1995 was mostly used to pass the compulsory courses. For this purpose, I stayed in Trondheim the Spring semester of 1995. Time was also spent planning the actual research work. Some other activities were as follows:

• Teaching assistant in the courses Process Modelling I (thermodynamics and modelling of dynamic processes) and Thermodynamics for MSc students at Telemark Institute of Technology.
• Participated in the PROST industry seminar for dynamic simulation in Trondheim.

Publications

• Gundersen, T., S. Duvold and A. Hashemi-Ahmady, "An Extended Vertical MILP Model for Heat Exchanger Network Synthesis", to be presented at the ESCAPE-6 conference in Rhodes, May 1996.

Plans for 1996

Study simultaneous synthesis of reactor/separator/heat recovery systems in order to get acquainted with this field of process integration. This could later on become a major part of my research area. This Spring I will be co-supervisor for two diploma works, both quite relevant to my further research.