An imperialist competitive algorithm for optimal design of plate-fin heat exchangers

This paper presents the application of imperialist competitive algorithm (ICA) for optimization of a cross-flow plate fin heat exchanger. Minimization of total weight and total annual cost are considered as objectives. Seven design parameters, namely, heat exchanger length at hot and cold sides, fin height, fin frequency, fin thickness, fin-strip length and number of hot side layers are selected as optimization variables. A case study from literature is presented to show the effectiveness of the proposed algorithm. The numerical results reveal that ICA can find optimum configuration with higher accuracy in less computational time when compared to conventional genetic algorithm (GA).