Optimization of shell and tube heat exchanger design in organic rankine cycle system using kinetic gas molecule optimization

Abstract

Among various types of heat exchanger, Shell and Tube Heat Exchanger (STHX) is highly used in the industrial application. The thermal efficiency of the heat exchanger is considered as a major factor for many applications. A considerable amount of heat is present in the low-temperature geothermal heat source, which is not sufficient to generate the electricity due to its low temperature. Many researches have been made to increase the thermal efficiency of the exchanger by the using of Organic Rankine Cycles (ORC). In this research, the Kinetic Gas Molecule Optimization (KMGO) is used to find the optimized parameter settings for the power plant. The geothermal ORC system is developed in the simulation and other various factors are considered to optimize the performance. The TEMA NFN STHX with a double-segmented baffle is analyzed for single-phase flow model. The different aspects such as baffle cut, baffle leakage, etc., are given as input to the heat exchanger. The proposed technique is evaluated with two different fluids such as R245fa and R134a. The KMGO technique is based on the swarm behavior of gas molecules, which is used to provide the optimized performance. The simulated results are measured and compared it with the existing methods for validation of the performance. The outlet temperature is achieved as 64.52°C and the enhancement factor is achieved as 1.88 for the R245fa fluid in STHX. This is achieved due to the KMGO technique identifies the global minima effectively due to the kinetic gas molecules theory, which shows the high efficiency compared to the existing method.