Optimization Design of Tube-Shell Heat Exchanger Based on Genetic Algorithm

The optimization design of shell-and-tube heat exchanger in two stages was conducted by using the genetic algorithm(GA).This optimization is considered as a constrained nonlinear programming problem.Till now,there is no general method to find the global optimal solution for this kind of problem.The traditional direct search feasible direction(DSFD) can get the local optimal solution.However,the optimal solution depends on the start point seriously and needs several optimization processes to find the "global optimal solution".The approach of genetic algorithm optimization was adopted in this paper and the optimal solution was compared with the DSFD optimal solution.The result showed that genetic algorithm is more easy to find the "global optimal solution" and improve the efficiency of optimal process.