Optimization of Three-Stage Heat Exchanger Design Using Modified Differential Evolution Algorithm

The size plays a decisive part in the selection of a heat exchanger. A heat exchanger with a smaller size with equal or higher thermal performance is always desirable. In this paper, the amended differential evolution algorithm (ADEA) is modified (modified-ADEA), and utilized to optimize a three-stage heat exchanger (TSHE) design problem. Also, a novel penalty assignment method is introduced which assigns a penalty based on the degree of constraint violation and total constraints violated by the individual. The three-stage heat exchanger is optimized to obtain the same performance with minimum heat transfer area. The optimized solution is compared with the optimum solution reported by algorithms ADEA, BA, HS, and GA. The modified ADEA found the best optimum results among the compared algorithms.