Evaluation of Irreversibility and Optimal Organization of an Integrated Multi-Stream Heat Exchange System

This work proposes a structure synthesis and surface distribution algorithm in a heat exchange system for the case when all heat capacity rates and inlet temperatures of the hot streams are constant, while cold streams also have outlet temperatures set. The algorithm includes the possibility of changing the phase state of the contacting streams. The synthesis is based on minimization of dissipation for a given total heat load in the form of minimum total contact surface area, which again correlates with the cost of the heat exchange system. The proposed algorithm can be considered to follow a thermodynamic rationale and as development of pinch analysis.