Hetero-functional Network Minimum Cost Flow Optimization: A Hydrogen-Natural Gas Network Example

TL;DR

This paper introduces the first hetero-functional graph theory-based optimization program for multi-domain engineering networks, demonstrated on a hydrogen-natural gas infrastructure case, enabling flow optimization, operand transformation, and system analysis.

Contribution

It develops a novel optimization framework based on hetero-functional graph theory and Petri net dynamics, applicable to complex multi-operand engineering systems.

Findings

Successfully optimized hydrogen-natural gas network scenarios

Demonstrated system's ability to handle flow, transformation, and storage

Validated the approach's applicability to large, arbitrary topology systems

Abstract

Over the past decades, engineering systems have developed as networks of systems that deliver multiple services across multiple domains. This work aims to develop an optimization program for a dynamic, hetero-functional graph theory-based model of an engineering system. The manuscript first introduces a general approach to define a dynamic system model by integrating the device models in the hetero-functional graph theory structural model. To this end, the work leverages Petri net dynamics and the hetero-functional incidence tensor. The respective Petri net-based models are translated into the quadratic program canonical form to finalize the optimization program. The optimization program is demonstrated through the application of the program to a hydrogen-natural gas infrastructure test case. Four distinct scenarios are optimized to demonstrate potential synergies or cascading network effects of policy across infrastructures. This work develops the first hetero-functional graph theory-based optimization program and demonstrates that the program can be used to optimize flows across a multi-operand network, transform the operands in the network, store operands over time, analyze the behavior for a quadratic cost function, and implement it for a generic, continuous, large flexible engineering systems of arbitrary topology.