Optimum arrangement of heaters in a three-dimensional radiant furnace using the genetic algorithm

Abstract

Paper presented at the 7th International Conference on Heat Transfer, Fluid Mechanics and Thermodynamics, Turkey, 19-21 July, 2010.

The optimum number and locations of heaters over the heater surface of a cubic radiant oven are optimized by using the genetic algorithm of searching. The objective of the problem is to produce the uniform temperature and heat flux distributions over the design surface. The wall surfaces of the oven are subdivided into surface elements and the net radiation method is used to calculate the radiative heat exchange between surface elements. The optimization procedure in the present study is based on the micro genetic algorithm. The procedure consists of the basic genetic operations, selection and crossover, and another recommended operation to use, elitism. The performance and accuracy of the method is evaluated by two numerical examples.