Multi-objective optimization based on economic analysis for a printed circuit heat exchanger with application to Brayton cycle

Performance improvement of the printed circuit heat exchanger (PCHE) plays a vital role in improving the comprehensive performance of the supercritical carbon dioxide (S-CO2) Brayton cycle. In this study, three design parameters are selected to improve the comprehensive performance of a PCHE, including channel type, channel number, and channel length. The thermal effectiveness and the total cost are selected as the optimization objectives. And the total cost is based on the capital cost and the operation cost. For the optimal design of a PCHE, a simplified model is applied to obtain the heat transfer coefficient and pressure drop. The Pareto-optimal solutions and the corresponding design variables have been obtained after the optimization procedure. Then, the optimal results on straight channel PCHE are compared with the zigzag channel PCHE. Finally, we discuss the results of PCHE with different types of channels, and the design point is reported. The results show that the straight channel PCHE performs a better comprehensive performance than zigzag channel PCHE when it works under a small heat transfer rate.