Why the algorithm fails when increase the number precision? How can we decrease the sensitivity of the algorithm to the number precision? - algorithm

Question

I am using Newton Raphson +successive Substitute algorithm to perform flash calculation(chemical process simulation).
The algorithm can converge well when the input is in low precision like 0.1, but when the number precision is increased to 0.11111 or 0.99999. The algorithm will not converge.
When I am using the quasi newton method with BFGS update, the same problem occurs again. How can we decrease the sensitivity of the code to the numerical precision?
Here is a simple example using matlab to solve the Rachford-Rice equation. When the comp_overall=[0.9,1-0.9], it converges well. However, when the number precision increase to like[0.99999,1-0.99999]. It will not converge.
K=[0.053154011443159 34.234731216532658],
comp_overall= [0.99999 1- 0.99999], phi=0.5; %initial values
epsilon = 1.0;
iter1 = 1;
while (epsilon >=1.e-05)
rc=0.0;
drc=0.0;
for i=1:2
% Rachford-Rice Equation
rc = comp_overall(i)*(K(i)-1.0)/(1.0+phi*(K(i)-1.0))+rc;
% Derivative
drc = comp_overall(i)*(K(i)-1.0)^2/(1.0+phiK(i)-1.0))^2+drc;
end
% Newton-Raphson
phi1 = phi +0.01 (rc / drc);
epsilon = abs( (phi1-phi)/phi );
% Convergence
phi = phi1;
iter1=iter1+1;
end

Answer 1

The Newton–Raphson method relies on the function being differentiable between any two consecutive approximations. Depending on the choice of the initial value, this may not be the case for z₁ = 0.99999. Let's look at the graph of the Rachford-Rice function:
The root of this function is φ₀ ≈ –0.0300781429 and the nearest point of discontinuity is –1/(K₂-1) ≈ –0.0300890052. They are close enough for the Newton–Raphson method to overshoot, to jump over that discontinuity.
For example:
φ₁ = –0.025
f(φ₁) ≈ -0.9229770571
f'(φ₁) ≈ 1.2416569960
φ₂ = φ₁ + 0.01 * f(φ₁) / f'(φ₁) ≈ -0.0324334302
φ₂ lies to the left of the discontinuity, so the following steps will be away from, not towards the root.
φ₃ = -0.0358986759 < φ₂
What can be done about it:
When the algorithm fails to converge, repeat it with smaller steps. For example, start with the coefficient 0.01 (as it is now) and decrease it 10 times after every failure.
Detect overshoots. On each iteration check if there is a discontinuity point (–1/(Kᵢ-1)) between the current approximation and the previous one. When it happens, discard the current approximation, decrease the coefficient and continue.
Limit the scope of the search. Are solutions outside of [0, 1] physically meaningful? If not, you can stop once the approximated value falls out of that range.
Use different method. The function is monotonic on any interval between two consecutive discontinuity points, so you can perform binary search on each such interval. It will be both faster and more robust than the Newton–Raphson method.