On the basis of a study using entransy theory, the thermal resistance and heat transfer coefficient of a blast furnace stave is defined. Combined with the pump power of the cooling water pipe, a comprehensive performance optimization criterion of a blast furnace stave is defined. The new criterion takes the overall heat transfer of the stave and the flow resistance of the water pipe into account at the same time, so as to break through the traditional evaluation mode, which only considers the local single index. The calculation method of the thermal resistance, heat transfer coefficient and comprehensive performance optimization criterion of the blast furnace stave is illustrated by an example. The performances of blast furnace staves with different pipe spacings and different pipe shapes are analyzed using the new criterion. The results show that the use of a reasonable pipe spacing can effectively optimize the performance of the blast furnace stave. When a circular pipe is replaced by an elliptical pipe with the same cross-section area, the comprehensive performance of the stave cannot be optimized. When a circular pipe is replaced by a rectangular pipe with the same cross-section area, and the ratio of the shorter and longer axis is between 0.7 and 1, the overall heat transfer performance of the cooling stave is increased, but the pump power consumption is increased significantly. The comprehensive performance of the cooling stave is not optimized. The results of this paper provide a new criterion for the reasonable evaluation and design optimization of a blast furnace stave. (C) 2016 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.