DA-13-C004 -- Volume Optimization of Polymer Tube-Bundle Heat Exchangers in Air-Heating Applications PDF

Tube-bundle heat exchangers are widely utilized in gas-to-gas and gas-to-liquid applications. Interest remains high in improving the efficiency of these heat exchangers to obtain high cost effectiveness and/or small volume. Due to the excellent resistance to fouling and corrosion, polymer heat exchangers have been mainly applied under some extreme working conditions where such concerns are important. Recently, however, there has been interest in using polymer heat exchangers as a substitute or competitor to conventional metallic heat exchangers in general applications. The present study explores the optimization of bare polymer tube-bundle (PTB) heat exchangers in air-heating applications using a Genetic Algorithm (GA) through minimizing volume of PTB heat exchangers and making comparisons to conventional metallic heat exchangers.