# Flash Unit¶

The IDAES Flash model represents a unit operation where a single stream undergoes a flash separation into two phases. The Flash model supports mutile types of flash operations, including pressure changes and addition or removal of heat.

## Degrees of Freedom¶

Flash units generally have 2 degrees of freedom.

Typical fixed variables are:

• heat duty or outlet temperature (see note),
• pressure change or outlet pressure.

Note: When setting the outlet temeprature of a Flash unit, it is best to set control_volume.properties_out[t].temperature. Setting the temperature in one of the outlet streams directly results in a much harder problme to solve, and may be degenerate or unbounded in some cases.

## Model Structure¶

The core Flash unit model consists of a single ControlVolume0DBlock (named control_volume) with one Inlet Port (named inlet) connected to a Separator unit model with two outlet Ports named ‘vap_outlet’ and ‘liq_outlet’. The Flash model utilizes the separator unit model in IDAES to split the outlets by phase flows to the liquid and vapor outlets respectively.

The Separator unit model supports both direct splitting of state variables and writting of full splitting constraints via the ideal_separation construction argument. Full details on the Separator unit model can be found in the documentation for that unit. To support direct splitting, the property package must use one of a specified set of state variables and support a certain set of property calacuations, as outlined in the table below.

State Variables Required Properties
Material flow and composition
flow_mol & mole_frac flow_mol_phase & mole_frac_phase
flow_mol_phase & mole_frac_phase flow_mol_phase & mole_frac_phase
flow_mol_comp flow_mol_phase_comp
flow_mol_phase_comp flow_mol_phase_comp
flow_mass & mass_frac flow_mass_phase & mass_frac_phase
flow_mass_phase & mass_frac_phase flow_mass_phase & mass_frac_phase
flow_mass_comp flow_mass_phase_comp
flow_mass_phase_comp flow_mass_phase_comp
Energy state
temperature temperature
enth_mol enth_mol_phase
enth_mol_phase enth_mol_phase
enth_mass enth_mass_phase
enth_mass_phase enth_mass_phase
Pressure state
pressure pressure

## Construction Arguments¶

Flash units have the following construction arguments:

• property_package - property package to use when constructing Property Blocks (default = ‘use_parent_value’). This is provided as a Property Parameter Block by the Flowsheet when creating the model. If a value is not provided, the Holdup Block will try to use the default property package if one is defined.
• property_package_args - set of arguments to be passed to the Property Blocks when they are created.

Additionally, Flash units have the following construction arguments which are passed to the Holdup Block for determining which terms to construct in the balance equations.

Argument Default Value
dynamic False
include_holdup False
material_balance_type MaterialBalanceType.componentPhase
energy_balance_type EnergyBalanceType.enthalpyTotal
momentum_balance_type MomentumBalanceType.pressureTotal
has_phase_equilibrium True
has_heat_transfer True
has_pressure_change True

Finally, Flash units also have the following arguments which are passed to the Separator block for determining how to split to two-phase mixture.

Argument Default Value
ideal_separation True
energy_split_basis EnergySplittingType.equal_temperature

Flash units write no additional Constraints beyond those written by the ControlVolume0DBlock and the Separator block.

## Variables¶

Name Notes
heat_duty Reference to control_volume.heat
deltaP Reference to control_volume.deltaP

## Flash Class¶

class idaes.generic_models.unit_models.flash.Flash(*args, **kwargs)
Parameters: rule (function) – A rule function or None. Default rule calls build(). concrete (bool) – If True, make this a toplevel model. Default - False. ctype (str) – Pyomo ctype of the block. Default - “Block” default (dict) – Default ProcessBlockData config Keys dynamic Indicates whether this model will be dynamic or not, default = False. Flash units do not support dynamic behavior. has_holdup Indicates whether holdup terms should be constructed or not. default - False. Flash units do not have defined volume, thus this must be False. material_balance_type Indicates what type of mass balance should be constructed, default - MaterialBalanceType.useDefault. Valid values: { MaterialBalanceType.useDefault - refer to property package for default balance type **MaterialBalanceType.none - exclude material balances, MaterialBalanceType.componentPhase - use phase component balances, MaterialBalanceType.componentTotal - use total component balances, MaterialBalanceType.elementTotal - use total element balances, MaterialBalanceType.total - use total material balance.} energy_balance_type Indicates what type of energy balance should be constructed, default - EnergyBalanceType.useDefault. Valid values: { EnergyBalanceType.useDefault - refer to property package for default balance type **EnergyBalanceType.none - exclude energy balances, EnergyBalanceType.enthalpyTotal - single enthalpy balance for material, EnergyBalanceType.enthalpyPhase - enthalpy balances for each phase, EnergyBalanceType.energyTotal - single energy balance for material, EnergyBalanceType.energyPhase - energy balances for each phase.} momentum_balance_type Indicates what type of momentum balance should be constructed, default - MomentumBalanceType.pressureTotal. Valid values: { MomentumBalanceType.none - exclude momentum balances, MomentumBalanceType.pressureTotal - single pressure balance for material, MomentumBalanceType.pressurePhase - pressure balances for each phase, MomentumBalanceType.momentumTotal - single momentum balance for material, MomentumBalanceType.momentumPhase - momentum balances for each phase.} energy_split_basis Argument indicating basis to use for splitting energy this is not used for when ideal_separation == True. default - EnergySplittingType.equal_temperature. Valid values: { EnergySplittingType.equal_temperature - outlet temperatures equal inlet EnergySplittingType.equal_molar_enthalpy - oulet molar enthalpies equal inlet, EnergySplittingType.enthalpy_split - apply split fractions to enthalpy flows.} ideal_separation Argument indicating whether ideal splitting should be used. Ideal splitting assumes perfect separation of material, and attempts to avoid duplication of StateBlocks by directly partitioning outlet flows to ports, default - True. Valid values: { True - use ideal splitting methods. Cannot be combined with has_phase_equilibrium = True, False - use explicit splitting equations with split fractions.} has_heat_transfer Indicates whether terms for heat transfer should be constructed, default - False. Valid values: { True - include heat transfer terms, False - exclude heat transfer terms.} has_pressure_change Indicates whether terms for pressure change should be constructed, default - True. Valid values: { True - include pressure change terms, False - exclude pressure change terms.} property_package Property parameter object used to define property calculations, default - useDefault. Valid values: { useDefault - use default package from parent model or flowsheet, PropertyParameterObject - a PropertyParameterBlock object.} property_package_args A ConfigBlock with arguments to be passed to a property block(s) and used when constructing these, default - None. Valid values: { see property package for documentation.} initialize (dict) – ProcessBlockData config for individual elements. Keys are BlockData indexes and values are dictionaries described under the “default” argument above. idx_map (function) – Function to take the index of a BlockData element and return the index in the initialize dict from which to read arguments. This can be provided to overide the default behavior of matching the BlockData index exactly to the index in initialize. (Flash) New instance

## FlashData Class¶

class idaes.generic_models.unit_models.flash.FlashData(component)[source]

Standard Flash Unit Model Class

build()[source]

Begin building model (pre-DAE transformation).

Parameters: None – None