Design of Mass Flowrate Estimators for n-product Plants

Since product mass flowrates in metallurgical plants are usually unmeasured, they must be estimated from the stream component concentrations. This is a necessary step to initialize algorithms for data reconciliation through mass conservation constraints. It is sometimes critical as it conditions the non-linear programming algorithms that solve reconciliation problems. The weighted node imbalance estimation method is compared to the traditional n-product formula and ordinary regression methods, and optimized by selecting components that minimize flowrate estimate variances, and by removing abnormal data that could distort initial estimates.