Original article

Proc IMechE Part E:

J Process Mechanical Engineering
A modified firefly algorithm to maximize 2019, Vol. 233(6) 1203–1216
! IMechE 2019

heat dissipation of a rectangular porous Article reuse guidelines:

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fin in heat exchangers exposed to both DOI: 10.1177/0954408919861244

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convective and radiative environment

Tuhin Deshamukhya1, Ratnadeep Nath2,

Saheera Azmi Hazarika1, Dipankar Bhanja1 and Sujit Nath1

Abstract
The current study deals with the optimization of significant parameters of aluminium and copper rectangular porous fins
using firefly algorithm with reflective boundary condition. The study has been done considering convective heat transfer, in
the first case, as well as combined convective and radiative modes of heat transfer, in the second case. To solve the non-
linear governing equation, a semi analytical technique, differential transformation method is adopted. The results obtained
by differential transformation method are validated by the numerical solution obtained by the finite difference method. The
performance of firefly algorithm is evaluated by comparing with the results obtained by particle swarm optimization where
it is seen that for the current set of equations, firefly algorithm took lesser number of iterations and computational time to
converge than particle swarm optimization for all the cases. The analysis has been done for three different fin volumes and
the effect of important variables which directly influence the heat transfer rate through porous fins has been discussed.

Keywords
Particle swarm optimization, firefly algorithm, porous fin, differential transformation method, radiation, heat transfer

Date received: 5 March 2019; accepted: 10 June 2019

Al-Nimr.6 On the other hand, effect of various par-

Introduction
Usually solid fins are used in industrial heating as
well as cooling systems. Installing porous fins in
heat exchangers and process cooling equipments like
chillers can significantly improve the heat transfer
ability of the equipments. This happens due to the
increase in effective thermal conductivity as a result
of the increase in surface area for convection through
pores. The theory of porous media was primarily
introduced by Kiwan.1 An approximate solution
was given by Vafai and Thiyagaraja2 on porous and
fluid zone interface for the velocity and temperature
distributions. An exact solution of the same problem
was carried out by Vafai and Kim.3 Kiwan and
Zeitoun4 studied natural convection in a horizontal
cylindrical annulus using porous fins where they
used energy equation and Darcy model to formulate
the governing equation. Cuce and Cuce5 used this
model to analyse the efficiency and effectiveness of
longitudinal porous fin. High thermal conductivity
porous fins and smaller Darcy numbers can enhance
heat transfer rate as reported by Hamdan and
ameters like Rayleigh number (Ra), Darcy number
(Da) and thermal conductivity ratio was investigated
by Kundu et al.7 It was noticed that thermal perform-
ance of porous fin increased at higher Ra and Da up
to a limited conductivity ratio. Similar conclusion was
given by Kiwan8 when analysing the thermo-physical
properties of porous fin for three different types.
It was also found that the heat transfer rate from
porous fin can be higher than that of a solid fin.
For the selection of a design criterion of porous fins
considering the influence of some parameters,
Kundu and Bhanja9 performed a study where all
three modes of heat transfer considering Rosseland
1
Department of Mechanical Engineering, National Institute of
Technology Silchar, Silchar, Assam, India
2
Department of Mechanical Engineering, Indian Institute of Technology
Roorkee, Roorkee, Uttarakhand, India
Corresponding author:
Dipankar Bhanja, National Institute of Technology Silchar, Campus
Cachar, Silchar, Assam 788010, India.
Email: dipankar.bhanja@gmail.com