For the heat and fluid flow analyses of a parallel flow heat exchanger, an improved model considering the effect of flat tube with micro-channels is proposed. The effect of flow distribution on the thermal performance of a heat exchanger is numerically investigated. The flow distribution is examined by varying geometrical parameters, i.e., the position of the separators and the inlet/outlet, and the aspect ratio of micro-channels of the heat exchanger. The flow nonuniformities along the paths of the heat exchanger are proposed and observed to evaluate the thermal performance of the heat exchanger. The optimization using ALM method has been accomplished by minimizing the flow nonuniformity. It is found that the heat transfer rate of the optimized model is increased by 6.0% of that of the reference heat exchanger model, and the pressure drop by 0.4%