Optimal allocation of heat transfer area for a refrigeration plant

For an internally reversible refrigerant plant, Bejan proposed an optimal way of dividing the area ratio of heat transfer for the hot end and cold end heat exchangers. In the present study, an optimal design of a refrigeration plant has been developed by considering both the external and internal irreversibilities. The internal irreversibility is modeled by a heat bypass which represents the actual internal heat leak and the friction losses due to mechanism movement. A more general formulation than previous study of optimal area-ratio is obtained in this study. For the case of no internal irreversibility, this formulation is exactly the same as that obtained by Bejan.