A comprehensive thermo-economic analysis, optimization and ranking of different microturbine plate-fin recuperators designs employing similar and dissimilar fins on hot and cold sides with NSGA-II algorithm and DEA model

Abstract

This study aims to perform a comprehensive thermo-economic analysis, optimization and ranking of cross and counter-flow plate-fin recuperators employing rectangular, triangular, offset strip and louver fins. The analysis is mainly conducted for two recuperator structures: (i) fins’ configurations on both hot and cold sides are the same; (ii) fins on hot side and cold side are dissimilar in configuration. Considering effective practical optimization constraints and design parameters, Non-dominated Sorting Genetic Algorithm (NSGA-II) is used to maximize the recuperator effectiveness and minimize its total cost, simultaneously. Pareto-optimal fronts are presented to specify the desirable recuperator designs satisfying the constraints. Afterwards, in order to accurately and reliably rank the optimal designs based on significant factors including recuperator effectiveness, total cost, volume, mass and pressure drop, Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA) model is utilized. According to the ranking results achieved from the DEA model, the counter-flow recuperator employing louver fins on the cold side and rectangular fins on the hot side has the best performance among the investigated recuperator structures for which the values of effectiveness, cost, pressure drop, volume and mass are equal to 0.814359, 326688.3 $, 0.716857 kPa, 0.40834 m3, 419.3277 kg, respectively.