The purposeofthisstudyistodevelopanoptimizationmethodologyforthedetailedenergyandcost
effective designofafinned-tubecondensercoilinordertoenhancethesystemperformance.Using
this method,thefrontalareaofthecondensercoilismaintainedasconstant,whileothergeometrical
parameters ofthethermalandeconomicperformanceofthesystemarevariedandinvestigated.An
existing air-cooleddirectexpansion(DX)rooftoppackageunitofareal-worldcommercialbuildingis
used forexperimentaldatacollection.First,thetheoretical–empiricalmodelforthesystemcomponents
is developed.Basedonmathematicalmodelsandusingcollecteddata,anumericalalgorithmisdevel-
oped andembeddedinatransientsimulationtool.Theintegratedsimulationtoolisthenvalidatedby
using thewiderangeofoperatingdataobtainedexperimentallyfromthecoolingplantduringsum-
mer time.Furthermore,amixedheuristic–deterministicoptimizationalgorithmwasimplementedto
determine thesynthesisanddesignvariablesthatinfluencethecostandenergyefficiencyofeachcon-
figuration. Differentnewdesignsforcondensercoilwerethenconstructedtoevaluatethepotentialof
design improvements.Afterwards,thecomputermodelwasusedtopredicthowchangesincondenser
coil geometrywouldaffectthecostandenergyconsumptionofthesystem.
© 2014ElsevierB.