Optimal design of plate-fin heat exchangers by a Bees Algorithm

In this study, the application of Bees Algorithm (BA) in the optimum design of a cross flow plate-fin heat exchanger with offset strip fin is investigated. First, heat exchanger is optimized and designed according to the effectiveness optimization. Then, an analysis based on the second law of thermodynamics and minimizations of entropy generation units is performed. Specific heat duty, space restriction and permitted pressure drop are considered as the constraints for maximizing the effectiveness and minimizing the entropy generation units. Hot and cold flow length of the heat exchangers, number of fin layers, fin frequency, fin height, fin strip length and fin thickness are introduced as optimization variables. The effectiveness and accuracy of the suggested algorithm are compared with literature. The results have shown that BA can find optimum configuration with higher accuracy in comparison with Genetic Algorithm (GA), Particle Swarm Optimization (PSO), Imperialist Competitive Algorithm (ICA) and preliminary design. (C) 2013 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.