Multi-objective Optimization of a Plate-finned Tube Heat Exchanger for Fast Axial Flow CO2 Lasers Using a Genetic Algorithm
D. Esmaeilpour Ghoochani, G.H. Dehghan, M. Hasanvand, S. Jelvani and M. Montazerolghaem
In this paper thermal modeling and optimal design of a heat exchanger for the fast axial flow (FAF) CO2 laser cooling system are presented. The log mean temperature difference (LMTD) method is applied to estimate the heat exchange performance. The tube diameter, tube pitch, tube length, number of tubes in face and depth, tube passes and fin numbers are considered as seven design parameters. Fast and elitist Non-dominated Sorting Genetic-Algorithm (NSGA-II) is applied to obtain the minimum heat exchange surface area and pressure drop as two objective functions. The results of optimal designs are a set of multiple optimum solutions, called “Pareto optimal solutions”.
Keywords: CO2 laser, fast axial flow (FAF), plate finned tube heat exchanger, pressure drop, multi-objective optimization, Genetic algorithm, NSGA-II