engleski

Multi-Objective Optimization of a Tube Bundle Heat Exchanger

In this study, the tube positions in a heat exchanger are automatically adjusted such that the temperature increase is maximised while the pressure drop is kept minimal. This baseline problem has been described in [1]. A computational work-flow has been set-up to carry out the analysis of the physical problem. It involves the execution of a series of open source software packages where Salome [2] is used for geometry generation and OpenFOAM [3] is used for meshing, CFD analysis and post- processing. This work-flow has been validated against the results obtained by [1]. For automatic optimisation, the computational work- flow is controlled by the optimisation software suite Dakota [4]. This component implements iterative optimisation algorithms which require the evaluation of the objective functions (temperature increase, pressure drop) as functions of the input parameters (positions of the tubes) as implemented in the above work- flows. The system runs fully automatic, in parallel and without any user interaction. The result of the the multi- objective problem has been solved using an evolutionary algorithm. The result is the Pareto- front – the line of optimal solutions where each point represents a tube bundle configuration with an optimal compromise between pressure drop and temperature increase. The Pare-to front is extremely useful in the engineering practise when the acceptable trade-off has not been defined. Furthermore, initial results will be presented where the baseline problem has been modified to investigate Dakota’s capabilities in the field of optimisation under constraints and uncertainty.

optimisation ; tube bundle ; heat exchanger ; evolutionary algorithm

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