Analysis of enthalpy change with/without a heat pipe heat exchanger in a tropical air conditioning system

In an earlier paper (Yau, 2006. Application of a heat pipe heat exchanger to dehumidification enhancement in tropical HVAC systems—a baseline performance characteristics study. Int. J. Thermal Sci., accepted for publication), the baseline performance characteristics of the 8‐row wickless heat pipe heat exchanger (HPHX) were established for it being used in a vertical configuration under tropical climate conditions. The present paper covers the tests and simulation conducted on the same experimental HVAC system without the HPHX installed, thereby determining the enthalpy change for the air passing through the chilled water coil (CWC) alone (i.e. without the pre‐cooling or reheating effect of the HPHX). These experimental results, in comparison with those already obtained, would also allow an examination of how the reheat recovery with the 8‐row HPHX installed was influenced by the same key inlet parameters. The final results show that the enthalpy change with a HPHX installed for all cases examined are significantly higher than enthalpy change without a HPHX installed, demonstrating that the cooling capability of the CWC was enhanced by the HPHX. Copyright © 2006 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Application of a heat pipe heat exchanger to dehumidification enhancement in a HVAC system for tropical climates—a baseline performance characteristics study

In Malaysia, humidity control is a common problem in built environments in tropical hot and humid climates as it is an important aspect of the maintenance of comfortable and healthy conditions within a controlled airspace. An 8-row thermosyphon-based heat pipe heat exchanger (HPHX) for tropical building HVAC systems was studied experimentally. This research was an investigation into how the sensible heat ratio (SHR) of the 8-row HPHX was influenced by each of three key parameters of the inlet air state, namely, dry-bulb temperature, relative humidity and air velocity. On the basis of this study, it is recommended that tropical HVAC systems should be installed with heat pipe heat exchangers for dehumidification enhancement.     

Heat extraction characteristics by coaxial heat exchanger

This study was performed to investigate the heat extraction characteristics from shallow geothermal resources using a coaxial heat exchanger. First, a computer simulation program for a coaxial heat exchanger was checked and verified by laboratory experiments. After inspecting the effectiveness of the computer program described herein, a numerical simulation for a real scale model was conducted under the condition that the heat transfer mechanism in the stratum was heat conduction. Unsteady heat extraction characteristics are presented herein, and the effects of the tube material, inner diameter, and circular modes on the heat extraction rate are discussed. From the computer results it was found that the heat extraction performance using a coaxial heat exchanger greatly depended on the factors mentioned above in the range of the parameters covered in this study. © 2005 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Heat Trans Asian Res, 34(7): 496–513, 2005; Published online in Wiley InterScience ( www.interscience.wiley.com ). DOI 10.1002/htj.20083     

Thermal and hydraulic analysis of a brazed aluminum evaporator

This paper presents an analytical/computer model to predict the performance of a brazed aluminum evaporator operating under dehumidifying conditions. The evaporator uses small hydraulic diameter, flat multi-channel tubes and louver fins. The in-tube refrigerant flow was divided into three regions including the two-phase, liquid deficient and superheat regions. For each region, correlations were selected from the open literature to calculate the local heat transfer and pressure drop. The effects of refrigerant pressure drop along tube and pressure losses at the tube entrance and exit were accounted for in the heat transfer calculations. The air-side fins were assumed to operate at the fully wet condition and the sensible heat transfer coefficient of the wet fins was assumed to be equal to that of the dry fins. The overall heat transfer coefficient was calculated using the enthalpy driving potential method. The total heat transfer rate and refrigerant pressure drop depend on the ratio of the number of tubes in the first and second passes. Parametric studies were done to illustrate selection of the preferred number of tubes per pass. The average refrigerant side heat transfer coefficient is sensitive to the dry-out vapor quality. However, the total heat transfer rate is relatively insensitive to the dry-out vapor quality. As the air inlet humidity increases, the latent and total heat transfer rates increase, but the sensible heat transfer rate decreases. The program was used to design an R-404A evaporator, for which a prototype was built and tested. The program over-predicted the evaporator capacity by 8%. The over-prediction is believed due to flow mal-distribution in the branch tubes.     

Enhancement in Evaporative Effectiveness of an Evaporative Tubular Heat Dissipator Using Experimental Design Approach

An experimental investigation of evaporative effectiveness and mass transfer coefficient on a bundle of tubes of an evaporative tubular heat dissipator is presented. Based on the experiments, correlations of evaporative effectiveness and mass transfer coefficient are derived using multiple regression analysis. A statistical model is developed to correlate the operating variables using design of experiment approach by selecting central composite design of a response surface methodology. Results shown in this article indicate that as the cooling film flow rate increases, evaporative effectiveness and mass transfer coefficient increases provided that the air flow rate is constant which is flowing from underneath the tubes of the evaporative tubular heat dissipator. Derived correlations are helpful in improvement of the design of heat transfer devices and many other engineering applications. Consideration of relative humidity of upstreaming air as one of the operating variables leads to the contribution to heat and mass transfer study of evaporative tubular heat dissipators in the present investigation.     

湿土壤含湿特性对传热影响研究

针对于地源热泵地能换热系统在具有热源条件下土壤热湿迁移现象,进行了初步分析和实验,并对模拟计算应用可行性进行了认证。土壤含水静态传热实验,目的在于探讨土壤含湿程度对传热能力的影响,以及地下含水程度对换热区域换热性能的影响。研究土壤不同含水率情况下的传热性能,从而推断含水率在工程中的影响程度。为进一步研究地源热泵应用中关于土壤含水的传热问题奠定基础。     

Air side heat transfer characteristics of plate finned tube heat exchangers with slit fin configuration under wet conditions

An experimental study was performed on compact finned tube heat exchangers under wet conditions. Eight different finned tube heat exchangers having slit fins with hydrophilic coatings were tested. The effects of tube diameter, the number of tube rows, and inlet air relative humidity on air side heat transfer and pressure drop characteristics were investigated. Air side heat transfer coefficients were calculated using the log mean enthalpy difference method. The effects of the number of tube rows and the tube diameter on the Colburn j-factor and the f-factor were larger compared with those of the inlet air relative humidity. The Colburn j-factor and the f-factor of the single-row heat exchanger were larger than those of two- or three-row heat exchangers. The j-factor for the 5.30 mm tube diameter was compared with those for 7.35 mm and 9.95 mm tube diameters at 46% RH and was found to be 33% and 55% larger, respectively.     

An experimental study on the heat recovery from the exhaust air of stenters with a packed bed column

Stenters are the dryers that are commonly used in textile finishing mills. The exhaust air of the stenters is of great potential of energy saving via heat recovery mainly using the latent heat of condensation of the water vapour involved. This study reveals the usage possibility of a packed bed column for the heat recovery from the exhaust air of the stenter. An experimental investigation was carried out with a laboratory‐scale counter flow packed bed column. Additionally, an exergetic evaluation of the system was performed. Water inlet temperature and relative humidity ratio of the exhaust air are the main factors that affect the water outlet temperatures and efficiency of the system. It was observed that a decrease in the water inlet temperature increases the recovered exergy; however, water outlet temperature is not significantly affected by the inlet temperature of the water. The exergy efficiency of the system increases with the increase in the relative humidity ratio of the exhaust air. Copyright © 2007 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

利用第二类吸收式热泵回收地热余热的模拟研究

根据溴化锂第二类吸收式热泵系统的传热、传质平衡以及各部件的传热关系,建立了系统的稳态数学模型,分析了系统主要参数对系统性能的影响。提出了利用第二类吸收式热泵回收地热余热的方案;利用模拟计算得出了相应的设计参数。对第二类吸收式热泵系统的模拟分析以及仿真编写了软件,并且对设计参数下的机组系统进行了仿真模拟,以观察主要参数的变化对机组运行的影响。     

Experimental study on heat and mass transfer characteristics of louvered fin-tube heat exchangers under wet condition

An experimental study was conducted to investigate the effect of a tube row, a fin pitch and an inlet humidity on air-side heat and mass transfer performance of louvered fin-tube heat exchangers under wet condition. Experimental conditions were varied by three fin pitches, two rows, and two inlet relative humidities. From the experimental results, it was found that the heat transfer performance decreased and the friction increased with the decrease of a fin pitch, for 2 row heat exchanger. The effect of a fin pitch on heat transfer performance was negligible with 3 row heat exchanger. The change in a relative humidity was not affected heat transfer and friction. However, the mass transfer performance was slightly decreased with the increase of a relative humidity and with the decrease of a fin pitch. The mass transfer performance decreased with the decrease of a fin pitch. The mass transfer performance of the louvered fin-and-tube heat exchanger was different according to the number of a tube row.     

Performance assessment of contact heat pump drying

A comparative analysis is presented of a novel plate‐type isothermal heat pump dryer and a conventional adiabatic heat pump dryer. The energy performance and drying capacity of each dryer type is investigated subject to operational constraints on the maximum acceptable relative humidity and temperature of air passing over the product. The analysis demonstrates that for applicable products, a significant opportunity exists for improving the energy efficiency of heat pump drying, by a factor of 2–3 times compared with current adiabatic heat pump dryers. The moisture extraction rate is also increased in the contact heat pump dryer, by a similar factor. However, these improvements are shown to be sensitive both to the impact of product thickness on heat transfer and to the relative humidity constraint. Copyright © 2010 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Influence of enhancing features on dehumidifier performance: Laboratory measurements

The influence of an evaporator economizer and liquid subcooler on the operating parameters and performance of a heat pump dehumidifier has been measured in a pschyrometic calorimeter under a range of operating conditions. The results show that the enhancement in drying capacity and efficiency is most significant at low relative humidity (RH). At RH = 25% the specific moisture extraction rate of the test system was increased by 50%, and the rate of condensate formation increased by 65%, when both the economizer and subcooler were used. These increases were limited by the thermal effectiveness of the economizer which was typically 25%. The effectiveness of the subcooler was approximately 75%.     

果蔬预冷冰浆式湿冷热湿交换器性能实验

针对果蔬预冷设备应用场合,提出并设计了一套以冰浆作为载冷介质的湿冷热湿交换器,并搭建单体性能测试台架,以出风温度和相对湿度为指标,通过改变填料类型(金属、纸质填料)、载冷介质种类(冰浆、冷水)和喷淋流量进行了性能实验研究。结果表明:实验工况下,金属填料的换热性能较纸质填料好;以冰浆作为载冷介质相比以冷水的情况,可以获得更低的出风温度,但出风相对湿度也有所降低;随着进风干球温度的降低,出风温度明显降低,而出风相对湿度变化并不明显;在一定范围内,提高载冷介质的喷淋流量,有利于湿冷热湿交换器出风温度的降低和出风相对湿度的升高;低浓度的冰浆可以在湿冷热湿交换器中稳定运行,且降温效果较冷水湿冷热湿交换器更加明显,虽然相对湿度略有下降但仍然可保持在90%左右,适用于果蔬预冷和保鲜。     

Heat transfer effectiveness of three-fluid separated heat pipe exchanger

A heat transfer model for three-fluid separated heat pipe exchanger was analyzed,and the temperature transfer matrix for general three-fluid separated heat exchanger working in parallel-flow or counter-flow mode was obtained.It was found that the forms of temperature transfer matrix are similar for heat pipe rows with equal or different heat transfer surface area.Furthermore,by using the temperature transfer matrix of the heat pipe exchanger,the relationship between heat transfer effectiveness θ 1,θ 2 and M,NTU,U,Δt i were derived for the exchanger operating in parallel-flow or counter-flow mode,and a simple special example was adopted to demonstrate the correctness of these relationships.     

A comparison of the airside performance of the fin-and-tube heat exchangers in wet conditions; with and without hydrophilic coating

An experimental study was performed on compact fin-and-tube heat exchangers in wet conditions. Airside performance for both hydrophilic coated and un-coated surface is examined. It is found that the effect of inlet relative humidity on the heat transfer performance is small. For un-coated surfaces, the effect of inlet relative humidity has a pronounced effect on pressure drops. It is likely that this phenomenon is related to the condensate flow pattern along the fin surface. The heat transfer performance for the hydrophilic coating surface is lower than the corresponding un-coated surface tested at the same wet condition. Further, the degradation of heat transfer performance may be up to 20% for fin pitches of 1.2 mm. The pressure drops for the hydrophilic coated surface are also lower than the corresponding un-coated surfaces. A maximum 40% reduction is observed for plain fin geometry. The effect of inlet condition on frictional performance is more pronounced in the enhanced slit geometry.     

Numerical investigation of thermal performance of extended surfaces for a novel heat exchanger

The present paper provides a thorough numerical study of variation in geometrical parameters that affect the performance of the novel finned‐tube type heat exchanger design. The finite volume method was employed to discretize and solve the governing partial differential equations of heat conduction. A wide range of constant convective heat transfer coefficient (5 < h < 200 W/m² K) is chosen to reduce the computational time and power, which covers thermal applications of latent thermal energy storage, refrigeration & air‐conditioning, etc. The effects of the ratio of fin spacing of fins to the outer diameter of the tube (0.1 ≤ δ* ≤ 8), the material of fins (copper and stainless steel) and the ratio of fin thickness to the outer diameter of the tube (0.0333 ≤ t* ≤ 0.4) on the performance parameters namely efficiency (η) and effectiveness (ε) of the fins were studied. Temperature contours for a wide range of geometries were depicted. The maximum effectiveness of copper fins is 304.62, whereas that for steel fin is 219.33 with the optimum dimensionless fin thickness reported to be t* = 0.1666. Furthermore, the maximum overall efficiencies of fins were 99.98% and 99.62% for copper and steel fins, respectively.     

Analysis of the Moisture and Heat Transport in a Wet Porous Sand Layer with Water Sucking Ability

The moisture content and heat transfer in a wet porous sand layer was influenced by the weather conditions while the layer was exposed outdoors. The changes in water content and temperature in the wet porous bed with water supplied due to the weather conditions differed from the case without water supplied via the bottom in the tests. A one‐dimensional mathematical model describing the heat and mass transfer in the unsaturated porous layer was used to analyze the change of the water content, temperature and rate of water evaporation or vapor condensation in the wet porous layer. As the ambient temperature, relative humidity and solar irradiation changed periodically and the gravity and capillary affected the water transport greatly in the wet porous media, variations of water content and temperature occurred cyclically in the wet porous layer that was exposed to outdoor conditions. In the wet porous bed, the rate of the water evaporation or vapor condensation was closely related to the temperature, gradient of the temperature along the depth and the rate of temperature variation over time. The particle size and porosity associated with the permeability had great impact on the water content and its variation range in the wet porous media with water sucking ability while the weather conditions changed periodically. The simulations of the water content and temperature variation in the sand bed agreed with the test data. All these results can be used to analyze the behavior of heat and moisture in the unsaturated porous layer under weather conditions.     

Performance and optimization analysis of SRC profile fins subject to simultaneous heat and mass transfer

Fin material near the tip of a uniform cross sectional (UC) fin does not participate actively in transferring heat. This effect may seem to have progressed much with the increase in fin length. A uniform cross sectional fin with a step reduction in local cross section (SRC) not only increases the effective utilization of fin material near the tip but also it promotes the ease of fabrication. In this study, an effort has been devoted to determine analytically the overall fin performance of both longitudinal and pin fins of SRC profile under fully dry, partially wet and fully wet conditions. The effect of various design and psychometric parameters on the fin performance of SRC fins has been investigated and compared it is with the corresponding UC fin. A scheme for optimizing SRC fins has also been demonstrated in the present work. From the result, it can be highlighted that the optimum values of Biot number and aspect ratio of SRC fins increase with the increase in relative humidity for the same fin volume. In comparison with the UC fin for the identical fin volume, the SRC fin transfers more rate of heat and consequently, this difference in heat transfer rate increases slowly with the relative humidity.     

Finite circular fin method for wavy fin-and-tube heat exchangers under fully and partially wet surface conditions

The present study proposes the finite circular fin method for analyzing the heat and mass transfer characteristics of wavy fin-and-tube heat exchangers under fully and partially wet surface conditions. The analysis is carried out by dividing the wavy fin-and-tube heat exchanger into many tiny segments. The tiny segments can be analyzed based on surface conditions, i.e. fully wet, fully dry or partially wet surface condition. From the experimental results, it is found that the heat and mass transfer characteristics are insensitive to the inlet relative humidity but the effect of relative humidity on mass transfer characteristic become more pronounced when the partially wet surface condition takes place. The heat transfer characteristic is independent of the fin spacing. Effect of fin spacing on mass transfer characteristic is small when fin spacing is larger than 2.5 mm. However, at smaller fin spacing, the mass transfer characteristic slightly decreases when the relative humidity increases. The ratios of h_c,o/h_d,oC_p,a are in the range of 0.6–1.2. Correlations are proposed to describe the heat and mass transfer characteristics. These correlations can describe 95.63% of the heat transfer characteristic within 15% and 95.14% of the mass transfer characteristic within 20%. Correspondingly, 94.68% of the ratios of h_c,o/h_d,oC_p,a are predicted by the proposed correlation within 20%.