A comparative study on the shell and tube and gasket-plate heat exchangers: The economic viewpoint

This paper presents a comparative study for optimization of gasket-plate and shell and tube heat exchangers. Total cost of the system (the capital and operating costs) is selected as objective function and Genetic Algorithm is applied to find the minimum of it for each case. Seven design parameters (decision variables) are used for gasket-plate while nine design parameters are selected for shell and tube heat exchanger. The optimum results show a noticeable improvement in the total cost in comparison with the results presented in the literature. For example, 35% improvement in the total cost is observed in the case of shell and tube compared with the literature. Furthermore, the comparison of the optimum results in the case of gasket-plate shows 13% improvement in the total cost compared with shell and tube heat exchanger with the same operating condition. Finally, sensitivity analysis for the change in the design parameters at the optimum point for each heat exchanger is performed and their results are reported.