Metaheuristic Optimization of a Discrete Array of Radiant Heaters

The design of radiant enclosures is an active area of research in radiation heat transfer. When design variables are discrete such as for radiant heater arrays with on-off control of individual heaters, current methods of design optimization fail. This paper reports the development of a metaheuristic thermal radiation optimization approach. Two metaheuristic optimization methods are explored: simulated annealing and tabu search. Both approaches are applied to a combinatorial radiant enclosure design problem. Configuration factors are used to develop a dynamic neighborhood for the tabu search algorithm. Results are presented from the combinatorial optimization problem. Tabu search with a problem specific dynamic neighborhood definition is shown to find better solutions than the benchmark simulated annealing approach in less computation time.