Integrated product and process study: A system approach to mulitscale complex systems

Integrated product and process (IPP) research is drawing great attention in chemical systems engineering, especially due to ever-growing market demands on specific properties of products as response to social, economic, and environmental needs. In IPP research, one of the most active areas is integrated modeling, analysis, and optimization.; In this dissertation, a general IPP framework by means of multiscale engineering is presented. This framework consists of three components: (i) an IPP analysis approach at the multiscale level with multiple targets, (ii) an IPP modeling approach and multiscale information integration methods, and (iii) model implementation methods for optimization and online prediction.; The developed approaches have been successfully used to study automotive coating development through paint spray and curing operations. As to the paint spray, an IPP study is conducted to gain multiscale insights in the product development stage. The operating parameter, such as downdraft and particle initial size distribution, are analyzed to develop understanding of opportunities for simultaneous improvement of coating quality, energy and material efficiencies, and the cleanness of the working environment. In studying topcoat curing, CFD-based modeling, first-principles-based model simplification, and model-based optimization will be presented. This is the first time that the topcoat curing is optimized with distributed information involved at the plant-level. The methodologies are applicable to a variety of industrial problems, where product development and process operations have spatially distributed nature.; In addition, a Bayesian-based model-set management method is introduced for constructing a statistically superior model set for on-line application in paint spray; and a real industrial project is introduced for energy reduction with environmental quality constraints of paint spray booths...