The Application of Entransy Dissipation Theory in Optimization Design of Heat Exchanger Available to Purchase

The heat conduction and fluid friction are two main detrimental irreversibilities in heat exchanger. According to the entransy dissipation theory, the entransy dissipation can be employed to quantify these two irreversibilities. In the present work, the optimization of heat exchanger design is investigated by applying the entransy dissipation theory and genetic algorithm. Firstly, by taking the total dimensionless entransy dissipation caused by heat conduction and fluid friction as objective function, a single-objective optimization approach to heat exchanger design is developed. However, it is found that the role played by the fluid friction is not fully taken into account in this approach when the working fluid of heat exchanger is liquid. In order to circumvent this problem, the non-dimensional entransy dissipations associated with heat conduction and fluid friction are taken as two separate objective functions and a multi-objective optimization approach to heat exchanger design is established. In comparison with the single-objective optimization approach, the multi-objective optimization approach demonstrates more advantages and flexibilities for heat exchanger design.