An Optimization and Performance Analysis of Industrial Scale Heat Exchanger Using Genetic Algorithm & AspenTech. Optimizer Tool

In this study, the Genetic Algorithm (GA) has been used to investigate the optimum operating conditions and the total annual cost of heat exchangers. It is postulated to use a COM server in order to make communication easier between Genetic Algorithm (GA) toolbox of MATLAB and Aspen HYSYS® software. The reason of choosing the proposed algorithm is to improve heat exchanger performance. This has been achieved by minimizing the total annual cost of shell and tube heat exchanger, then implementing the output values of the decision variables into the Aspen EDR® software. The calculated cost of the GA - EDR case is compared with different scenario of the same shell and tube heat exchanger. It can be seen that the cost for the GA-EDR case is less than the cost of the studied heat exchanger by 37.5% and 29.2% respectively for a new and optimized cases.