AN EXPERT-SYSTEM FOR THE INTEGRATED DESIGN OF HEAT-EXCHANGERS

The selection of a shell-and-tube heat exchanger type and geometry is one of many engineering applications, where a wide range of specialized knowledge is available as qualitative rules that can be incorporated in an expert system. This paper presents a technique used for building a knowledge-base system utilizing object-oriented expert system shells. The described steps of system development are: identifying the sources of information, building the knowledge base and finally the production of the runtime program. The constructed prototype system assists the designer in making decisions about fluid allocation, selection of TEMA (Tubular Exchanger Manufacturers Association) shell type, bundle, heads and various geometrical details. The ultimate aim of developing an expert system of this type is to achieve an integrated design procedure covering all considerations from initial selection to the final thermohydraulic and mechanical design.