Passage Arrangement Optimization of Plate-Fin Heat Exchanger under Uncertain Operating Conditions

Abstract

As the total flow rate and passage number increase, the quality of the passage arrangement has an important influence on the thermal efficiency of a multi-stream plate-fin heat exchanger (PFHE). The operating conditions are uncertain due to changes in environmental and product requirements, which affect the design of passage arrangements. If this influence is not considered enough in design, it will lead to the loss of heat transfer efficiency of the PFHE. Therefore, an optimization design method for passage arrangement is developed considering the influences of uncertain operating conditions. First, the uncertain operating conditions of the PFHE are represented using probability density functions of mass flow rates and temperature. Next, the optimization goals are chosen through the correlation calculation between the passage arrangement and the heat transfer indexes by the integral-mean temperature difference method. The particle swarm optimization algorithm is adaptively improved for the passage arrangement calculation. Then, the result under uncertain operating conditions is compared with the result under a single condition. The total heat transfer rate is increased, and the dimensionless mean square error of the cumulative heat load is decreased, so the method of designing the passage arrangement under uncertain operating conditions is effective.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (grant number 51875525), the Zhejiang Provincial Natural Science Foundation of China (grant numbers LY21E050008, LY20E050020, LY20E050015), Open Foundation of the State Key Laboratory of Fluid Power and Mechatronic Systems (number: GZKF-201916).

Notes on contributors

Qilong Gao

Qilong Gao is a Master student at the College of Mechanical Engineering, Zhejiang University of Technology, China. He is currently working on optimization design of passage arrangement in heat exchangers.

Congda Lu

Congda Lu is a professor at the College of Mechanical Engineering, Zhejiang University of Technology, China. He is currently working on mechanical digital design and thermal analysis of heat exchangers.

Xiang Peng

Xiang Peng is an associate professor at the College of Mechanical Engineering, Zhejiang University of Technology, China. He received his Ph.D. from Zhejiang University, China, in 2014. He is currently working on mechanical design of heat exchangers.

Jiquan Li

Jiquan Li is a professor at the College of Mechanical Engineering, Zhejiang University of Technology, China. He received his Ph.D. from Shanghai Jiao Tong University, China, in 2008. He is currently working on thermal analysis of heat exchangers.

Shaofei Jiang

Shaofei Jiang is a professor at the College of Mechanical Engineering, Zhejiang University of Technology, China. He received his Ph.D. from Zhejiang University, China, in 2003. He is currently working on mechanical design of heat exchangers.