Ph.D student Helge Tørvi

Status

I started my Ph.D. study in August 1994 and expect to complete my thesis in 1997. My doctoral work is financed by the DAK II project, and my supervisor is Prof. Terje Hertzberg.

Research area

My project includes modeling and simulation of dynamic systems, with particular regard to the aspect of uncertainty.

Activities

During the spring I was fully occupied with taking courses. These courses were:

• Matrix methods
• Reactor modelling
• Numerical analysis
• Mathematical modelling and model fitting

Last autumn I completed my course-plan by following:

• Thermodynamics of hydrocarbon mixtures

In addition I have:

• Participated in a colloquium on process systems technology.
• Presented my work on effects of parameter-correlation's on probabilistic simulations, on the AIChE conference in Miami, Florida.
• Participated on the ESCAPE-5 conference in Bled, Slovenia.
• Worked on methods for solving dynamic probabilistic simulations with low computational effort, i.e. an alternative to Monte-Carlo simulation. A simulation based on fixed points at the parametric confidence ellipsoid can in some simple cases give a fair approximation, but in general the results are difficult to interpret.

Publications

• Tørvi, H. Hertzberg T. (1995), `Influence of Parameter-correlation's on Probabilistic Simulation of an Isothermal Flash', AIChE 1995 Annual meeting, Miami FL, USA.

Plans for 1995

• In 1996 I will arrange and participate in a colloquium on process systems technology.
• Continue working on my research area, especially on nonlinear parameter estimation.