Optimization of baffle configurations to prevent aeroacoustic instabilities in heat exchangers: Preliminary experiments

Gas heat exchangers are prone to aeroacoustic instabilities, which often lead to severe noise levels, structural vibrations, and fatigue. Actually, this problem is solved by placing rigid baffles inside the container, which modify the acoustic modal fields and eventually inhibit the instability. For realistic industrial components using a restricted number of acoustical baffles, their optimal location is a challenging problem, as trial and error experimentation is often a costly and frustrating procedure. Recently, some strategies were proposed for the optimal location of a single baffle in a typical re‐heater from a power station boiler, based on simulated annealing as well as genetic algorithm approaches. In this paper and using the above‐mentioned optimization strategies, a more complex case of the problem—the optimal location of a given number (two or more) of baffles in a typical re‐heater, was addressed. Some preliminary experiments were performed and compared with the simulation results. From the d...