An improved irreversible closed modified simple Brayton cycle model with one isothermal heating process is established in this paper by using finite time thermodynamics. The heat reservoirs are variable-temperature ones. The irreversible losses in the compressor, turbine, and heat exchangers are considered. Firstly, the cycle performance is optimized by taking four performance indicators, including the dimensionless power output, thermal efficiency, dimensionless power density, and dimensionless ecological function, as the optimization objectives. The impacts of the irreversible losses on the optimization results are analyzed. The results indicate that four objective functions increase as the compressor and turbine efficiencies increase. The influences of the latter efficiency on the cycle performances are more significant than those of the former efficiency. Then, the NSGA-II algorithm is applied for multi-objective optimization, and three different decision methods are used to select the optimal solution from the Pareto frontier. The results show that the dimensionless power density and dimensionless ecological function compromise dimensionless power output and thermal efficiency. The corresponding deviation index of the Shannon Entropy method is equal to the corresponding deviation index of the maximum ecological function.

One or more isothermal heating process was introduced to modify single and regenerative Brayton cycles by some scholars, which effectively improved the thermal efficiency and significantly reduced the emissions. To analyze and optimize the performance of this type of Brayton cycle, a regenerative modified Brayton cycle with an isothermal heating process is established in this paper based on finite time thermodynamics. The isothermal pressure drop ratio is variable. The irreversibilities of the compressor, turbine and all heat exchangers are considered in the cycle, and the heat reservoirs are variable-temperature ones. The function expressions of four performance indexes; that is, dimensionless power output, thermal efficiency, dimensionless power density and dimensionless ecological function are obtained. With the dimensionless power density as the optimization objective, the heat conductance distributions among all heat exchangers and the thermal capacitance rate matching among the working fluid and heat reservoir are optimized. Based on the NSGA-II algorithm, the cycle’s double-, triple- and quadruple-objective optimization are conducted with the total pressure ratio and the heat conductance distributions among heat exchangers as design variables. The optimal value is chosen from the Pareto frontier by applying the LINMAP, TOPSIS and Shannon entropy methods. The results show that when the pressure ratio in the compressor is less than 12.0, it is beneficial to add the regenerator to improve the cycle performance; when the pressure ratio is greater than 12.0, adding the regenerator will reduce the cycle performance. For single-objective optimization, the four performance indexes could be maximized under the optimal pressure ratios, respectively. When the pressure ratio is greater than 9.2, the cycle is simplified to a closed irreversible simple modified Brayton cycle with one isothermal heating process and coupled to variable-temperature heat reservoirs. Therefore, when the regenerator is used, the range of pressure ratio is limited, and a suitable pressure ratio should be selected. The triple objective (dimensionless power output, dimensionless power density and dimensionless ecological function) optimization’ deviation index gained by LINMAP or TOPSIS method is the smallest. The optimization results gained in this paper could offer some new pointers for the regenerative Brayton cycles’ optimal designs.

Based on the theory of finite-time thermodynamics (FTT), the effects of three design parameters, that is, inlet temperature, inlet pressure, and inlet total mole flow rate, of a tubular plug-flow sulfuric acid decomposition reactor on the total entropy generation rate (EGR) and SO₂ yield are analyzed firstly. One can find that when the three design parameters are taken as optimization variables, the minimum total EGR and the maximum SO₂ yield of the reference reactor restrict each other, i.e., the two different performance objectives cannot achieve the corresponding extremum values at the same time. Then, the second-generation non-dominated solution sequencing genetic algorithm (NSGA-II) is further used to pursue the minimum total EGR and the maximum SO₂ yield of the reference reactor by taking the three parameters as optimization design variables. After the multi-objective optimization, the reference reactor can be Pareto improved, and the total EGR can be reduced by 9% and the SO₂ yield can be increased by 14% compared to those of the reference reactor. The obtained results could provide certain theoretical guidance for the optimal design of actual sulfuric acid decomposition reactors.

A modified closed binary Brayton cycle model with variable isothermal pressure drop ratios is established by using finite time thermodynamics in this paper. A topping cycle, a bottoming cycle, two isothermal heating processes and variable-temperature reservoirs are included in the new model. The topping cycle is composed of a compressor, a regular combustion chamber, a converging combustion chamber, a turbine and a precooler. The bottoming cycle is composed of a compressor, an ordinary regenerator, an isothermal regenerator, a turbine and a precooler. The heat conductance distributions among the six heat exchangers are optimized with dimensionless power output as optimization objective. The results show that the double maximum dimensionless power output increases first and then tends to be unchanged while the inlet temperature ratios of the regular combustion chamber and the converging combustion chamber increase. There also exist optimal thermal capacitance rate matchings among the working fluid and heat reservoirs, leading to the optimal maximum dimensionless power output.