Multiobjective thermo‐economic and thermodynamics optimization of a plate–fin heat exchanger

In the present work, a multiobjective heat transfer search (MOHTS) algorithm is proposed and investigated for thermo‐economic and thermodynamic optimization of a plate–fin heat exchanger (PFHX). Heat exchanger effectiveness and total annual cost (TAC) are considered as thermo‐economic objective functions. Similarly, entropy generation rate and heat exchanger effectiveness are considered as thermodynamic objective functions. Six design variables including flow length of cold and hot streams, no flow length, fin height, fin pitch, and fin offset length are considered as decision variables. Effectiveness and accuracy of the proposed algorithm are evaluated by analyzing application examples of a PFHX. The results obtained using the proposed algorithm for thermo‐economic considerations are compared with the available results of NSGA‐II and TLBO in the literature. Results show that 3.56% to 10.29% reductions in TAC with 0.48% to 0.81% higher effectiveness are observed using the proposed approach compared to TLBO and NSGA‐II approaches. Additionally, the distribution of each design variable in its allowable range is also shown for thermo‐economic consideration to identify the level of conflict on objective functions. The sensitivity analyses of design variables on the objective functions value are also performed in detail.