Optimal Geometry Design of Radiative Enclosures Using the Genetic Algorithm

Abstract

An implementation of the genetic algorithm to geometry design of two-dimensional radiant enclosures is described. The primary objective of the work is to find the optimal shape of a radiant enclosure to create a desired heat flux distribution over the temperature-specified design surface. The radiative transfer equation in the radiant enclosure with diffuse-gray walls and containing a transparent medium is solved by the discrete transfer method. The enclosure design problem is reduced to an optimization problem for finding the positions of control points which represent the B-spline curves. The optimization problem is solved by the microgenetic algorithm, which allows for a very small population size. The influence of mesh refinement and shape parameters on the rate of convergence and the optimal shape of the enclosure are investigated using some numerical experiments.