Cheetah optimization algorithm for optimum design of heat exchangers

Abstract Thermal system optimization is always a challenging task due to several constraints and critical concepts of thermo-hydraulic aspects. Heat exchangers are one of those devices that are widely adopted in thermal industries for various applications such as cryogenics, heat recovery, and heat transfer applications. According to the flow configurations and enhancement of fins, the heat exchangers are classified as plate-fin heat exchangers, shell and tube heat exchangers, and tube-fin heat exchangers. This article addresses the economic optimization challenge of plate-fin heat exchangers using cheetah optimization (CO) algorithm. The design variables were optimized using the CO algorithm, and statistical results were compared with eight well-established algorithms. The study revealed that the cheetah algorithm is prominent in terms of realizing minimizing the overall cost of the plate-fin heat exchanger with a 100 % of success rate. Furthermore, the study suggests adopting the cheetah optimizer for solving optimization challenges in different fields.