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. Industrial Process Optimization

Hydraulic Modeler

Summary

Research and Ideation

Design

Iterations

Interaction Design

Initial Wireframes

A desktop application that provides the ability for industrial process engineers to model air duct networks that supply air in fired heater assets, utilized in the asset onboarding process of EMBER.

 

I was the principal designer, with some support from a consultant during the research and wireframe stage. The team included a product manager and engineers from OnPoint, Slalom, and AWS.

Summary

A desktop application that provides the ability for industrial process engineers to model air duct networks that supply air in fired heater assets, utilized in the asset onboarding process of EMBER.

 

I was the principal designer, with some support from a consultant during the research and wireframe stage. The team included a product manager and engineers from OnPoint, Slalom, and AWS.

Idelchik Library

Handbook of Hydraulic Resistance by I.E. Idelchik can be used to calculate the pressure drop when a fluid passes through different spaces.

 

Modeling the air duct network with this method, we can understand how air behaves and determine the pressure drop at each burner.

User Research in Tulsa (November 2019)

 

 

  • Interviewed the process engineers who comprised the Solution Delivery Team

 

  • Utilized Sponsored User Approach (IBM)

Problem Statement

Domain Research

 

  • Intro to fired heaters

 

  • Modeling air networks

 

  • Understanding of computational fluid dynamics (CFD)

 

EMBER is dependent on certain inputs, such as airflow and fuel flow(stoichiometry), to output accurate setting recommendations.

  • The Solutions Delivery Team, must manual map out air networks and make hundreds of calculations to onboard a client.

 

  • This creates a bottleneck that impacts both users and the business

Solution Statement

  • A digital solution will allow process engineers to quickly model air duct networks, it will calculate k-values (pressure drops) automatically using the Idelchik Library.

Feature Prioritization Workshop in Tulsa

 

  • Must support model assignment (Client/Site/Asset)

 

  • Flow Elements based on Idelchik Library

 

  • User input values for flow element attributes

 

  • The final model would output in JSON format

Developed Product

 

November 2019 - November 2020

Results, Feedback, Retrospective

Challenge

  • Team communication and support is essential in an agile environment

 

  • Collaborating with the developers during implementation leads to more elegant solutions for the end-user.
  • Staying ahead of a fast development team with limited discovery complete

 

  • “Design handoff” is not the end of a designer’s responsibility, they must continue to collaborate through release.

Learning