Algorithm for Searching the Optimal Regulator Supply Mode in the Process of Manufacturing Polymer Products
Authors: Miftakhov Eldar N. 
Published: December 2024

Introduction. The high demand for polymer products creates the need for constant mo­dernization of the technological aspects of their production, increasing the efficiency of which is impossible without a model description and solving problems of optimization of its main technological stages. The current needs for manufacturing the products with a specified structure and properties make the issue of creating tools for solving optimization problems very relevant. One of the tools for controlling the product molecular weight is using the fractional mode to supply a regulator, the composition and dosage of which are often selected empirically.Aim of the Study. The aim of the study is to develop methods and algorithms to determine the mode for multipoint supplying a regulator in the continuous-running manufacturing of polymer products with specified molecular characteristics.Materials and Methods. To choose the optimal regulator supply mode, there is used a heuristic method represented by a genetic optimization algorithm. This algorithm is based on the mechanism for creating a population of potential solutions that are subjected to the operations of crossing, mutation and selection imitating the processes of inheritance and evolution in nature. To assess the molecular characteristics of the copolymerization pro­duct, there is applied a kinetic modeling approach based on the use of molecular weight distribution moments. For a mathematical description of continuous-running production, there are used recurrent relations characterizing the transfer of the reaction mass between ideally mixed reactors.Results. According to the conditions for organizing continuous-running manufacturing, it is possible to add a regulator at the beginning of the process in the third and sixth poly­merizers along the battery. In order to determine the regulator supply mode, the optimization criterion was developed in the form of a functional reflecting the absolute difference between the calculated and specified values of the number-average and mass-average molecular weights. The software implementation of the developed method and optimization algorithm, and the computational tests carried out made it possible to identify a number of solutions, each of which contributes to manufacturing a product with specified molecular characteristics. Visualization of some resulting solutions demonstrates different molecular weight dynamics throughout the process.Discussion and Conclusion. Through using the developed method and algorithm, there has been solved the problem of identifying the three-point molecular weight control regime for the continuous-running process of producing styrene-butadiene copolymer. The choice of a genetic algorithm for the study and optimization of complex multifactorial physicochemical systems is justified by the fact that it allows searching for one or more system parameters in both a discrete and continuous set of variables and contributes to finding a global optimum due to the random nature in the search for solutions. The variety of solutions obtained for the problem makes it possible to control the process of polymer synthesis in the case of constant monitoring of the physicochemical characteristics of the product.