Knowledge based plants layout configuration and piping routing

The design of industrial plants requires managing many geometrical and non geometrical data to reach a satisfactory solution in terms of costs, performance and quality. An approach is presented to support designers in the elicitation and formalization phase of the required knowledge. Then an integral prototypal software application accomplishes layout configuration tasks through a customized graphic wizard. A routing algorithm is presented to automate calculation and modelling of piping and electrical cables respecting design constraints. Cogeneration plant powered by micro gas-turbines has been chosen as test case to evaluate the proposed design method and tool. © Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg 2011