Shell-and-tube heat exchanger optimization - impact of problem formulation and cost function

Abstract

The design optimization of shell-and-tube heat exchangers (STHEs) is studied.Impact of using standard lengths and shell diameters is investigated, and two types of cost function are compared: a simple area-based correlation typically used in STHE optimization studies, and a more detailed one. Special emphasis is placed on selecting the decision variables. The most difficult problem, the discrete one, is evaluated with four decision variable choices. Both the problem formulation and cost function proved important for the convergence rate as well as the solutions found. The simple area-based cost correlation was confirmed to be severely limited for optimization purposes.