1988 Volume 21 Issue 4 Pages 375-381
Any heat exchanger network has an inherent region of tolerance for variations in the overall heat transfer coefficients. A simple rule on shift of the inherent region of tolerance by redesign of each heat transfer area has been extracted from the characteristics of the system model. This property allows development of a graphical design method for a flexible heat exchanger network with a specified region of required tolerance. The design method is an iterative one composed of a feasibility test of the proposed design for the specified region of required tolerance and a noninferiority test of the design for optimality. As an illustration, a noninferior solution with feasibility in the specified orthotope was effectively obtained by the proposed design method for acyclic or cyclic heat exchanger networks.
