Optimization Design for Air Heat Exchanger of Large Fast Reactor Based on Genetic Algorithm

The passive design for decay heat removal system of future fast reactor will put forward higher requirement for air heat exchanger (AHX), which is directly relevant to the structure and anti-seismic design of stack. Under considering the heat exchanger ability and the structure compactness comprehensively, a strategy for the optimization design of AHX based on genetic algorithm was developed in this paper. The air resistance in shell side of vertical fin tube AHX was chosen as the objective function, and the effect of design parameters including fin pitch, number of tube rows, tube pitch and tube length on the air resistance was discussed. The results of the study show that the method for the optimization design of AHX based on genetic algorithm can effectively optimize the structure of AHX and improve the resistance characteristic of the shell side evidently, which leads to design the fast reactor plant, stack structure and seismic resistance simply.