An Investigation of the Potential of Improving an R1234yf Parallel Flow Condenser Performance Using Modeling and Hybrid Procedure of the Modified NSGA-II and TOPSIS

ABSTRACT

In recent years, compact heat exchangers have been used widely to increase the performance of automotive air conditioning systems. In the present work, a R1234yf parallel flow condenser is optimized to investigate the potential of performance improvement without changing the condenser dimensions including length, width, and depth. To achieve this aim, a one-dimensional finite element model is developed to predict the parallel flow condenser performance. The developed model is then used for optimization procedure after validating by the experimental data. The modified NSGA-II approach is applied to maximize heat transfer rate and minimize entropy generation number, refrigerant pressure drop, and air pressure drop as the objective functions. The non-dominated optimum design points are then plotted and trade-off optimum points are obtained using the technique for order of preference by similarity to ideal solution. Hydraulic diameter and flat tube arrangement are the most important design parameters in an independent two-objective optimization of heat transfer rate and refrigerant pressure drop and the optimized design variables result in heat transfer rate increase of about 1.4% and refrigerant pressure drop reduction of about 80.6%. However, the outcome of considering heat transfer rate as the only objective function is 5.2% increment in heat transfer rate. Such design points unveil significant optimum design principles that can be obtained only by using a multi-objective optimization approach.

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Notes on contributors

Mohammad Hassan Shojaeefard

Mohammad Hassan Shojaeefard is a professor in the school of mechanical engineering at Iran University of Science & Technology. He obtained his B.Sc. at the Iran University of Science & Technology, and M.Sc. and Ph.D. at Birmingham University. His fields of research are fluid mechanics, heat transfer, turbomachinery and automotive engineering.

Javad Zare

Javad Zare is a Ph.D. student in the school of mechanical engineering at Iran University of Science & Technology. He obtained his M.Sc. from the same university. His fields of research are computational fluid dynamics, heat exchanger modeling and optimization, heat transfer, nanofluidics and thermodynamics.