Multi-Objective Optimization of Plate Fin Heat Exchanger Using Evolutionary Algorithm

In this paper, thermal modeling and optimal design of a plate fin heat exchanger are presented. Based on the applications, design parameters under given restrictions namely, cold stream flow length, hot stream flow length, no-flow length, fin pitch, fin offset length and fin height were considered as optimization variables. The multi objective bees algorithm (MOBA) has been applied to obtain the minimum number of entropy generation units (EGU) and total annual cost (sum of investment and operation costs). Since the functions are in conflict with each other, so that, with improvement of one objective, the other objective goes to undesirable end, a single solution can’t satisfy both of the objective functions simultaneously. So, instead of a specific solution, optimal solutions (Pareto curve) are required the designer to choose one of these points as the optimal solution according to his need. In order to show the effectiveness of the proposed algorithm the obtained results of this study compared to a case study of references. The numerical results reveal that results of this study better than references in some design points. Generally, the results of this study have lower total annual costs (988) as well as the number of entropy generation units (0.0921).

کلیدواژه ها:

Plate fin heat exchanger ، Optimization ، Bees algorithm