Optimal Design of Plate-Fin Heat Exchangers by a Bees Algorithm

This study explores application of a bees algorithm (BA) for economic optimal design of plate-fin heat exchangers. Therefore in this study, the optimization is targeting two single-objective functions separately. The first is the minimum heat transfer area which is mainly associated with the capital cost of the heat exchanger and the other is minimum total pressure drop that represents the operating cost for specific heat duty requirement under given space restrictions. Based on applications, heat exchanger length, fin frequency, numbers of fin layers, lance length of fin, fin height and fin thickness of the heat exchanger are considered for optimization. The constraints are handled by penalty function method. Also, the effectiveness and accuracy ofthe proposed algorithm is demonstrated through a case study. Comparing the results with the corresponding results using genetic algorithm (GA)and particle swarm optimization (PSO) algorithm reveals that the bees algorithm can converge to optimum solution with higher accuracy