Strategy for Synthesis of Flexible Heat Exchanger Networks Embedded with System Reliability Analysis

System reliability can produce a strong influence on the performance of the heat exchanger network(HEN).In this paper,an optimization method with system reliability analysis for flexible HEN by genetic/simulated annealing algorithms(GA/SA) is presented.Initial flexible arrangements of HEN is received by pseudo-temperature enthalpy diagram.For determining system reliability of HEN,the connections of heat exchangers(HEXs) and independent subsystems in the HEN are analyzed by the connection sequence matrix(CSM),and the system reliability is measured by the independent subsystem including maximum number of HEXs in the HEN.As for the HEN that did not meet system reliability,HEN decoupling is applied and the independent subsystems in the HEN are changed by removing decoupling HEX,and thus the system reliability is elevated.After that,heat duty redistribution based on the relevant elements of the heat load loops and HEX areas are optimized in GA/SA.Then,the favorable network configuration,which matches both the most economical cost and system reliability criterion,is located.Moreover,particular features belonging to suitable decoupling HEX are extracted from calculations.Corresponding numerical example is presented to verify that the proposed strategy is effective to formulate optimal flexible HEN with system reliability measurement.

An Explicit Solution for Thermal Calculation and Synthesis of Super-structure Heat Exchanger Networks

For the optimal design of a heat exchanger network,the inlet and outlet stream temperatures of each heat exchanger in the network should be known.An explicit analytical solution of stream temperatures of an arbi-trary connected heat exchanger network was introduced,which is suitable for the thermal calculation of heat ex-changer networks.For the heat exchanger network synthesis,this solution was further developed and coupled with the stage-wise superstructure heat exchanger networks.The new calculation procedure reduced the computer mem-ory requirement dramatically.On the basis of this solution,a mathematical model for synthesis of heat exchanger networks with genetic algorithm was formulated,which is always feasible and no iteration is needed.Two examples were calculated with the proposed approach and better results were obtained.

Study on Multi-stream Heat Exchanger Network Synthesis with Parallel Genetic/Simulated Annealing Algorithm

The multi-stream heat exchanger network synthesis (HENS) problem can be formulated as a mixed integer nonlinear programming model according to Yee et al. Its nonconvexity nature leads to existence of more than one optimum and computational difficulty for traditional algorithms to find the global optimum. Compared with deterministic algorithms, evolutionary computation provides a promising approach to tackle this problem. In this paper, a mathematical model of multi-stream heat exchangers network synthesis problem is setup. Different from the assumption of isothermal mixing of stream splits and thus linearity constraints of Yee et al., non-isothermal mixing is supported. As a consequence, nonlinear constraints are resulted and nonconvexity of the objective function is added. To solve the mathematical model, an algorithm named GA/SA (parallel genetic/simulated annealing algorithm) is detailed for application to the multi-stream heat exchanger network synthesis problem. The performance of the proposed approach is demonstrated with three examples and the obtained solutions indicate the presented approach is effective for multi-stream HENS.

A comprehensive review of recent advancements and developments in heat exchanger network synthesis techniques

The rapid development of computational technology and the increasing energy demand have improved heat exchanger network(HEN)synthesis.The HEN synthesis involves several optimizations of matches,distributions of heat loads,and stream splitting of heat units.Thus,obtaining good results at high efficiency has been the main standard for evaluating the techniques in the research area of HEN synthesis.This paper first summarizes and analyzes the main contributions of the existing HEN synthesis techniques.To compare related data quantitively,information on ten typical cases is presented in this paper.Furthermore,recently improved solutions for commonly encountered existing literature cases demonstrate the evolution and competition trends in the field of HEN synthesis.The comparison data presented in this paper not only provide a useful reference for future research but also present the optimization directions.Based on the findings of this study,it is noted that there is still a large room for improvement,and current approaches are incapable of dealing with all HEN cases.Moreover,it is still difficult to escape a local optimum and overcome structural constraints when seeking the global optimum.As a follow-up to the current work,the parallel computing mode and adaptively coordinating the ratio of global and local searching abilities are major development trends for future investigation.

Design of heat exchanger network based on entransy theory

The heat exchanger network(HEN) synthesis problem based on entransy theory is analyzed. According to the characteristics of entransy representation of thermal potential energy, the entransy dissipation represents the irreversibility of the heat transfer process, the temperature difference determines the entransy dissipation, and four HEN design steps based on entransy theory are put forward. The present study shows how it is possible to set energy targets based on entransy and achieve them with a network of heat exchangers by an example of heat exchanger network design for four streams. In order to verify the correctness of the heat exchanger networks design method based on entransy theory, the synthesis of the HEN for the diesel hydrogenation unit is studied. Using the heat exchange networks design method based on entransy theory, the HEN obtained is consistent with energy targets. The entransy transfer efficiency of HEN based on entransy theory is 92.29%, higher than the entransy transfer efficiency of the maximum heat recovery network based on pinch technology.

Combined mass and heat exchange network synthesis based on stage-wise superstructure model

Integrating multiple systems into one has become an important trend in Process Systems Engineering research field since there is strong demand from the modern industries. In this study, a stage-wise superstructurebased method is proposed to synthesize a combined mass and heat exchange network(CM&HEN) which has two parts as the mass exchange network(MEN) and heat exchange network(HEN) involved. To express the possible heat exchange requirements resulted from mass exchange operations, a so called "indistinct HEN superstructure(IHS)", which can contain the all potential matches between streams, is constructed at first. Then, a non-linear programming(NLP) mathematical model is established for the simultaneous synthesis and optimization of networks. Therein, the interaction between mass exchange and heat exchange is modeling formulated.The NLP model has later been examined using an example from literature, and the effectiveness of the proposed method has been demonstrated with the results.