Topological properties of refinery system: A complex network approach

Abstract

Recent development in complex network theory has boosted the exploration of topological properties of various natural and man-made complex systems. Refinery system is a typical complex system in process industry. However, only plant at equipment level has been studied by the complex network theory. This article treats the whole refinery system at plant level as a network. Study illustrates that the refinery network is a small-world network with heterogeneous distributions of node degree and betweenness centrality. The robustness of the refinery network under different attack strategies is evaluated by efficiency of network performance. Vulnerability study demonstrates the different importance of vertices in keeping the network structural efficiency. This study provides a good example to explain the structure-activity relationship in process industry.