Practical Aspects of Applying Evolutionary Algorithms for Optimizing Refrigerant Circuitry in Heat Exchangers

Published

August 21, 2011

Author(s)

Piotr A. Domanski, David A. Yashar, Sunil Lee, Janusz Wojtusiak

Abstract

A public domain finned-tube heat exchanger simulation program, EVAP-COND ver. 3.0, has been equipped with an evolutionary algorithm-based module, called ISHED – Intelligent System for Heat Exchanger Design, which facilitates optimization of refrigerant circuitry. Previous studies demonstrated that the best circuitry designs developed by the evolutionary methods in ISHED yielded capacity improvements over the original manufacturer’s designs. Since evolutionary methods inherently involve the element of randomness, they do not guaranty achieving the optimum outcome within a given optimization run. This paper presents optimization experiments with ISHED and provides recommendations for selecting optional run parameters to expedite convergence to the optimal circuitry designs. This paper also presents the implementation of a design constraint which forces all tube connections on one side of the heat exchanger to be short return bends between two neighboring tubes; i.e. so that each connected pair of tubes resembles a large “hairpin”, and evaluates this design constraint’s influence on the optimization process.

Proceedings Title

23rd IIR International Congress of Refrigeration

Conference Dates

August 21-26, 2011

Conference Location

Prague

Pub Type

Conferences

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Keywords

Condenser, evaporator, heat exchanger, optimization, refrigerant circuitry, vapor compression

Citation

Domanski, P. , Yashar, D. , Lee, S. and Wojtusiak, J. (2011), Practical Aspects of Applying Evolutionary Algorithms for Optimizing Refrigerant Circuitry in Heat Exchangers, 23rd IIR International Congress of Refrigeration, Prague, -1, [online], https://tsapps.nist.gov/publication/get_pdf.cfm?pub_id=908309 (Accessed October 6, 2025)