OPTIMIZATION OF SOLAR COLLECTOR GEOMETRIC PARAMETERS USING A HEURISTIC OPTIMIZATION METHODS

Abstract

This paper is an extension of ongoing research in the field of solar collector efficiency optimization. The present research is based on a method known as a ran-dom search optimization, which is one of the oldest heuristic optimization methods. In this paper, the results of previous research are compared to results of a new op-timization method named the Teaching-Learning based optimization - TLBO. It is presented the mode of this method operation, as well as its application in optimiza-tion of solar collectors. For the TLBO method an extended mathematical model is used in order to involve as many variables as it passible, which affect both the pro-duction and the costs of solar collectors. This research takes into consideration the collectors with the cross section of square pipe profile and collectors with the round cross section pipe profile. At the end of the paper conclusions for the parallel analy-sis of the results obtained by the random search method and TLBO.