Resumen

MUESES, Miguel A  y  MACHUCA, Fiderman. A Solution of the Rachford-Rice Equation for Multiphase Systems by Using the Newton-Raphson Method, Broyden Parameter and the Negative Flash. Inf. tecnol. [online]. 2010, vol.21, n.4, pp. 3-10. ISSN 0718-0764.  http://dx.doi.org/10.4067/S0718-07642010000400002.

A solution is obtained for the generalized Rachford-Rice equation (GR-R) for multiple phases and multicomponent systems by using a numeric approach that coupled a modified Newton-Raphson’s method, a Broyden-type damping parameter (obtained from the Euclidian vector norm of the GR-R residual functions) and the Negative Flash, which conditioned the positive nature of the component fractions in the resulting phases. This solution was tested on hypothetical systems of P phases and N components randomly generated, and the same was done with the initial value vectors. It was found that the proposed solution is highly stable and converges for any type of the initial value vector and that the number of iterations is critically affected by this vector and not necessarily for the amount of phases or the number of components.

Palabras llave : Rachford-Rice Equation; Broyden parameter; euclidean norm; negative flash.