Application of artificial neural network method for performance prediction of a gas cooler in a CO2 heat pump

The objective of this work is to train an artificial neural network (ANN) to predict the performance of gas cooler in carbon dioxide transcritical air-conditioning system. The designed ANN was trained by performance test data under varying conditions. The deviations between the ANN predicted and measured data are basically less than ±5%. The well-trained ANN is then used to predict the effects of the five input parameters individually. The predicted results show that for the heat transfer and CO₂ pressure drop the most effective factor is the inlet air velocity, then come the inlet CO₂ pressure and temperature. The inlet mass flow rate can enhance heat transfer with a much larger CO₂ pressure drop penalty. The most unfavorable factor is the increase in the inlet air temperature, leading to the deterioration of heat transfer and severely increase in CO₂ pressure drop.     

Theoretical performance analysis of heat pump water heaters using carbon dioxide as refrigerant

The aim of this paper is to simulate the performance of an air source heat pump water heater using carbon dioxide (CO₂) as a working fluid. The heat pump water heating system consists of a compressor, a gas cooler, an expansion device and an evaporator. The computer simulation model has been developed by using the heat transfer data and the thermodynamic properties of CO₂. The effects on the heat pump performance by the operating parameters such as the compressor rotational speed, the inlet water temperature at the gas cooler, the inlet air temperature at the evaporator and the mass flow rate ratio of water to refrigerant were presented. For rated capacities of a 4 kW compressor with a 10 kW gas cooler and a 6 kW evaporator, the coefficient of performance is found to be between 2.0 and 3.0. The mass flow rate ratio of water and CO₂ between 1.2 and 2.2 is the most suitable value for generating hot water temperature above 60°C at 15–25°C ambient air temperature. Copyright © 2007 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Refinement of the Transfer Characteristic Correlation of Wet-Cooling Tower Fills

Transfer characteristic correlations given in the literature for wet-cooling tower fills are generally only a function of the air and water mass flow rates. This is a gross simplification of a very complex heat and mass transfer (evaporative cooling) process. In addition to the effects of the air and water mass flow rates, effects of the inlet water temperature, air drybulb temperature, wetbulb temperature, and fill height on the transfer characteristic, or Merkel number, are investigated in the present study. The accuracy of two different empirical equations is also evaluated. It is found that the transfer characteristic correlations for wet-cooling tower fills are functions of the inlet water temperature and fill height but not of the air drybulb and wetbulb temperatures.     

New Developments in Reboilers and Evaporators

Abstract

A prototype cooling tower was used to explore the potential of using cooling towers compared with radiator cooling systems with 3 MW diesel engines. The working parameters were the water mass flow rate, water inlet temperature, air mass flow rate, and humidity ratio. The water mass flow rate was relatively the most effective. Three methods of calculation were used to evaluate performance—namely, heat and mass balance, psychrometric chart, and the heat and mass transfer method. The first was the best in comparison with experiments. The economic analysis of both the cooling tower and radiator systems showed that it would be more economical in the long run to use cooling towers for diesel engines.     

Thermodynamic study of wet cooling tower performance

An analytical model was developed to describe thermodynamically the water evaporation process inside a counter‐flow wet cooling tower, where the air stream is in direct contact with the falling water, based on the implementation of the energy and mass balance between air and water stream describing thus, the rate of change of air temperature, humidity ratio, water temperature and evaporated water mass along tower height. The reliability of model predictions was ensured by comparisons made with pertinent experimental data, which were obtained from the literature. The paper elaborated the effect of atmospheric conditions, water mass flow rate and water inlet temperature on the variation of the thermodynamic properties of moist air inside the cooling tower and on its thermal performance characteristics. The analysis of the theoretical results revealed that the thermal performance of the cooling tower is sensitive to the degree of saturation of inlet air. Hence, the cooling capacity of the cooling tower increases with decreasing inlet air wet bulb temperature whereas the overall water temperature fall is curtailed with increasing water to air mass ratio. The change of inlet water temperature does not affect seriously the thermal behaviour of the cooling tower. Copyright © 2005 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Artificial neural network modelling of the thermal performance of a compact heat exchanger

This paper reports the use of artificial neural network models to simulate the thermal performance of a compact, fin-tube heat exchanger with air and water/ethylene glycol anti-freeze mixtures as the working fluids. The model predictions were compared with experimental data over a range of flow rates and inlet temperatures and with various ethylene glycol concentrations. In addition, the inlet air flow was distorted by obstructing part of the inlet ducting near the front face of the exchanger. The artificial neural networks were able to predict the overall rate of heat transfer in the exchanger with a high degree of accuracy and in this respect were found to be superior over conventional non-linear regression models in capturing the underlying non-linearity in the data. Moreover the detailed spatial variations in outlet air temperature were also adequately predicted. The results indicate that appropriately trained neural networks can simulate both the overall and “local” characteristics of the compact heat exchanger. In addition the paper demonstrates how an alternative type of neural network, the so-called Self-Organising-Map (SOM), can be employed for heat exchanger condition monitoring by identifying and classifying the deterioration in exchanger performance which, in this case, was associated with different levels of inlet obstruction.     

Exergetic performance evaluation and parametric studies of solar air heater

The present study aims to establish the optimal performance parameters for the maximum exergy delivery during the collection of solar energy in a flat-plate solar air heater. The procedure to determine optimum aspect ratio (length to width ratio of the absorber plate) and optimum duct depth (the distance between the absorber and the bottom plates) for maximum exergy delivery has been developed. It is known that heat energy gain and blower work increase monotonically with mass flow rate, while the temperature of air decreases; therefore, it is desirable to incorporate the quality of heat energy collected and the blower work. First it is proved analytically that the optimum exergy output, neglecting blower work, and the corresponding mass flow rate depend on the inlet temperature of air. The energy and exergy output rates of the solar air heater were evaluated for various values of collector aspect ratio (AR) of the collector, mass flow rate per unit area of the collector plate (G) and solar air heater duct depth (H). Results have been presented to discuss the effects of G, AR and H on the energy and exergy output rates of the solar air heater. The energy output rate increases with G and AR, and decreases with H and the inlet temperature of air. The exergy-based evaluation criterion shows that performance is not a monotonically increasing function of G and AR, and a decreasing function of H and inlet temperature of air. Based on the exergy output rate, it is found that there must be an optimum inlet temperature of air and a corresponding optimum G for any value of AR and H. For values of G lesser than optimal corresponding to inlet temperature of air equals to ambient, higher exergy output rate is achieved for the low value of duct depth and high AR in the range of parameters investigated. If G is high, for an application requiring less temperature increase, then either low AR or high H would give higher exergy output rate.     

An experimental study on the bubble humidification method of polymer electrolyte membrane fuel cells

A necessary requirement for polymer electrolyte membrane fuel cell (PEMFC) performance is providing sufficient water content in the membrane. The bubble humidifier is the simplest and inexpensive method for PEMFC humidification. In this study, a prototype of bubble humidifier is designed, fabricated, and tested. The effects of water temperature in the reservoir, water level inside the reservoir and inlet air flow on the humidifier performance are investigated. The results show that the outlet air relative humidity decreases (about 6% - 11%) with an increase in the inlet air flow rate from 1 m³ h^?1 to 3 m³ h^?1 at four different water temperatures. The increase in the water temperature and water level inside the reservoir lead to the better humidifier performance. At the water temperature of 20^°C, increasing water level from 5 cm to 7.5 cm has a significant effect on humidifier performance but increasing water level from 7.5 cm to 15 cm does not offer any advantage.     

膜加湿器热质交换过程的理论分析

膜加湿器是保证质子交换膜燃料电池(PEMFC)正常高效运行的重要组成部分.以燃料电池的板式膜加湿器为研究对象,根据热质交换原理对膜加湿器的传热传质过程进行了理论计算,分析了空气质量流量、膜内加湿侧进口温度和膜内加湿侧进口湿度对传热传质过程的影响.在传热方面:当空气质量流量不同时,随着膜内加湿侧进口温度的变化,膜内的热流量变化趋势不一致;当膜内加湿侧进口相对湿度为95%时,随着空气质量流量的变化,膜内热流量变化不大.在传质方面:当加湿侧进口相对湿度不变时,膜中水传输速率随着空气质量流量的增大而减小;当空气质量流量不变时,膜中水传输速率随着加湿侧进口相对湿度的增大而增大.     

Modeling and simulating the transcritical CO2 heat pump system

In this paper, a mathematical model for steady-state simulation of transcritical CO₂ water-to-water heat pump system with an expander has been developed. It is used to simulate the performance of transcritical CO₂ system with CO₂ expander prototype. Simulated results are compared with experimental data to verify the accuracy of the simulation model. The comparison results show the average deviation of about 15% for COP_c(cooling coefficient of performance) and COP_h(heating coefficient of performance), about 17% for cooling and heating capacity at experimental high pressure ranges. With this model, which has been validated in a limited high pressure range, the influence of water mass flow rate and water inlet temperature of both evaporator and gas cooler on the performance of transcritical CO₂ expander system is analyzed. The results show that decreasing inlet temperature and increasing mass flow rate of cooling water cannot only increase the system performance but also reduce the optimal heat rejection pressure, at which the maximum COP (coefficient of performance) can be obtained. For chilling water, increasing its inlet temperature and mass flow rate is favorable for increasing the system performance, while the optimal heat rejection pressure does not vary very much.     

Thermal Characteristics of Paraffin Wax for Solar Energy Storage

A thermal energy storage medium must meet the requirements of a stable storage material with high heat capacity. Heat storage based on the sensible heating of media such as water, rock, and earth represents the first generation of solar energy storage subsystems and technology for their utilization is well developed. However, recently the heat storage based on the latent heat associated with a change in phase of a material offers many advantages over sensible heat storage. The most important characteristic of such a subsystem is its sufficient storage capacity. The PCM (phase change material) behavior is visualized by constructing an idealized model thermal capacitor subjected to simulated solar system environmental conditions which include thermal cycling utilizing the latent heat of paraffin for heating and cooling. The proposed model of the capacitor is of a flat plate geometry consisting of two panel compartments forming the body of the capacitor containing the paraffin, leaving at their inner surfaces a thin passage allowing the water flow. The whole structure is assumed to be insulated to minimize heat loss. Analysis solution is used to generate data about the temperature distribution, the melt thickness, and the heat stored in the PCM under two conditions of: (a) constant mass flow rate tests for various water inlet temperatures, and (b) constant water inlet temperature for various mass flow rates. A FORTRAN computer program is constructed to perform the analysis. It is found that water outlet temperature increases with time until it becomes nearly equal to the inlet temperature. Increasing the mass flow rate for a given inlet temperature, decreases the time required for outlet temperature to reach a given value. Increasing inlet temperature for a given mass flow rate gives a very rapid decrease in the time required for the outlet water temperature to reach a given value. Instantaneous rate of heat storage is determined from the inlet-to-exit temperature differential and measured flow rate. This rate is then integrated numerically to determine the cumulative total energy stored as a function of time. It is found that the instantaneous rate of heat storage decreases till reaching a nearly constant value. The total or cumulative heat storage as a function of time, showed a nearly linear trend in the mid-range time, and it increased with increasing inlet temperature.     

Predictions of moisture removal rate and dehumidification effectiveness for structured liquid desiccant air dehumidifier

In hot and humid climates such as in the Sultanate of Oman, the humidity puts extra load on the electric vapor-compression air conditioning (VAC) systems. Liquid and solid desiccants can reduce the moisture content of humid air and thus reduce the latent load imposed on the VAC systems. In the present work, the performance of air dehumidifiers using triethylene glygol (TEG) as desiccant was investigated. Three differently structured packing densities were used (77, 100 and 200 m²/m³). The performance of the dehumidifier was evaluated and expressed in terms of the moisture removal rate (m_cond) and the dehumidifier effectiveness (ε_y). The experimental work was undertaken to study the effects of several influencing design factors on this performance. The design factors covered included the air and TEG flow rates, air and TEG inlet temperatures, inlet air humidity and the inlet TEG concentration. The desiccant flow rate investigated was much less than that covered in previous studies and the range of the inlet temperatures of air and desiccant was significantly wider. The objective this study was to use the multiple regression method and the principal component analysis to obtain statistical prediction models for the water condensation rate and the dehumidification effectiveness in terms of these design factors. The results of both techniques agree with each other affirmed that the desiccant flow rate, desiccant inlet concentration and air inlet temperature are the most significant variables in predicting m_cond, whereas desiccant flow rate, air inlet temperature and packing density are the most significant variables in predicting ε_y.     

The numerical computation of the evaporative cooling of falling water film in turbulent mixed convection inside a vertical tube

An analysis has been developed for studying the evaporative cooling of liquid film falling inside a vertical insulated tube in turbulent gas stream is presented. Heat and mass transfer characteristics in air–water system are mainly considered. A low Reynolds number turbulence model of Launder and Sharma is used to simulate the turbulent gas stream and a modified Van Driest model suggested by Yih and Liu is adopted to simulate the turbulent liquid film. The model predictions are first compared with available experimental data for the purpose of validating the model. Parametric computations were performed to investigate the effects of Reynolds number, inlet liquid temperature and inlet liquid mass flow rate on the liquid film cooling mechanism. Results show that significant liquid cooling results for the system with a higher gas flow Reynolds number Re, a lower liquid flow rate Γ₀ or a higher inlet liquid temperature T_L0.     

Artificial neural network analysis of liquid desiccant dehumidification system

The dehumidification process involves simultaneous heat and mass transfer and reliable transfer coefficients are required in order to analyze the system. This has been proved to be difficult and many assumptions are made to simplify the analysis. The present research proposes the use of ANN based model in order to simulate the relationship between inlet and outlet parameters of the dehumidifier. For the analysis, randomly packed dehumidifier with lithium chloride as the liquid desiccant is chosen. A multilayer ANN is used to investigate the performance of dehumidifier. For training ANN models, data is obtained from analytical equations. Eight parameters are used as inputs to the ANN, namely: air and desiccant flow rates, air and desiccant inlet temperatures, air inlet humidity, desiccant inlet concentration, dimensionless temperature ratio, and inlet temperature of the cooling water. The outputs of the ANN are the water condensation rate and the outlet desiccant concentration as well as its temperature. ANN predictions for these parameters are validated well with experimental values available in the literature with R² value in the range of 0.9251-0.9660. This study shows that liquid desiccant dehumidification system can be alternatively modeled using ANN with a reasonable degree of accuracy.     

An experimental study on vapor transport of a hollow fiber membrane module for humidification in proton exchange membrane fuel cells

Water management is key in the optimization of proton exchange membrane fuel cell performance and durability. Humidifiers can be used to provide water vapor to cathode air, ensuring the proper operation of proton exchange membrane fuel cells. In this study, water vapor transport characteristics of hollow fiber membrane modules were investigated in shell-tube humidifiers under isothermal conditions, using two different test jig constructions: a convection jig and a diffusion jig. The mass transfer rate of water vapor was evaluated via the impact of various operating parameters, including temperature, flow rate, pressure, and relative humidity of inlet wet air, flow arrangements, and surface area of the tube side. The result was presented by the water vapor transport rate from wet air flow to dry air flow across the hollow fiber membrane. It was found that humidification performance could be improved with higher operating temperature, flow rate, and relative humidity of inlet wet air, lower pressure, larger membrane surface area, higher convection effect, and substituting co-current with counter-current flow configuration.     

Performance of a gas engine heat pump (GEHP) using R410A for heating and cooling applications

A gas engine heat pump (GEHP) represents one of the most practicable systems which improve the overall energy utilization efficiency and reduce the operating cost for heating and cooling applications. The present work aimed at evaluating the performance of a GEHP for air-conditioning and hot water supply. In order to achieve this objective, a test facility was developed and experiments were performed over a wide range of engine speed (1200 rpm–1750 rpm), ambient air temperature (24.1 °C–34.8 °C), evaporator water flow rate (1.99 m³/h–3.6 m³/h) and evaporator water inlet temperature (12.2 °C–23 °C). Performance characteristics of the GEHP were characterized by water outlet temperatures, cooling capacity, heating capacity and primary energy ratio (PER). The results showed that the effect of evaporator water inlet temperature on the system performance is more significant than the effects of ambient air temperature and evaporator water flow rate. PER of the considered system at evaporator water inlet temperature of 23 °C is higher than that one at evaporator water inlet temperature of 12.2 °C by about 22%. PER of the system decreases by 16% when engine speed changes from 1200 rpm to 1750 rpm.     

Experimental Study on Effectiveness of Celdek Packed Liquid Desiccant Cooling System

Dehumidifier and regenerator are the most important components in a liquid desiccant cooling system. Present paper is focused on study the effect of inlet process parameters on the effectiveness of dehumidifier and regenerator of liquid desiccant cooling system. Experimental study is performed with varying inlet process parameters; mass flow rate of air, desiccant solution flow rate, inlet air temperature, inlet solution temperature, inlet specific humidity and concentration of desiccant solution. Celdek structured pads as packing material and calcium chloride as liquid desiccant is investigated first time using counter flow of the desiccant solution and air. It is concluded from the results that the effectiveness of dehumidifier increases with solution flow rate, inlet specific humidity while decreases with increasing mass flow rate of air, inlet temperature of air and desiccant, temperature and concentration of desiccant solution. The effectiveness of regenerator increases with increasing solution flow rate and inlet desiccant concentration and it decreases with increasing inlet air temperature, air flow rate and inlet solution temperature. Present paper adds to effect of inlet specific humidity, inlet temperature of the air and solution on the effectiveness of desiccant cooling system on the past research.     

Prediction of the air temperature and humidity at the outlet of a cooling coil using neural networks

The main objective of this study is to predict air temperature and humidity at the outlet of a wire-on-tube type heat exchanger using neural networks. For this purpose, initially the heat exchanger was coupled to a refrigeration unit and placed in a wind tunnel. Afterwards, its performance was tested under various experimental conditions. We measured nine input parameters, namely, temperature and humidity of the air entering the coil, air velocity, frost weight, the temperature at the coil surface, mass flow rate of the heat transfer fluid and its temperatures at the inlet and outlet of the coil along with ambient temperature. Additionally, we measured temperature and humidity of the air leaving the coil as the output parameters. Then, a feed-forward neural network based on backpropagation algorithm was developed to model the thermal performance of the coil. The artificial neural network (ANN) was trained using the experimental data to predict the air conditions at the outlet of the coil. The predicted values are found to be in good agreement with the actual values from the experiments with mean relative errors less than 1% for outlet air temperature and 2% for outlet humidity. This demonstrates that the neural network presented can help the manufacturer predict the performance of cooling coils in air-conditioning systems under various operating conditions.     

Thermal Compensation Effect of Passage Arrangement Design for Inlet Flow Maldistribution in Multiple-Stream Plate-Fin Heat Exchanger

ABSTRACT

Passage arrangement design in fin channels is an efficient methodology for the reduction of the thermal deterioration influence of inlet flow maldistribution in multiple-stream plate-fin heat exchangers. In this work, the thermal compensation effects of passage arrangement design under different statistical parameters of inlet flow maldistribution are investigated. The inlet flow maldistribution in inlet header is analyzed and represented with distribution types, mean, and standard deviation of inlet mass flow rate entering the fin channels. A thermal calculation model based on integer–mean temperature difference method is established, and then, the passage arrangement under inlet flow maldistribution is optimized using a hybrid particle swarm algorithm. The thermal compensation effects for different inlet flow maldistributions and passage arrangements are calculated and compared. The results indicate that the compensation effect of optimization design of passage arrangement increases from 1.1% to 3.9% as the standard deviation of inlet mass flow rate increases from 0.06 kg/s to 0.12 kg/s. The results presented in this study can be used by other researchers to guide the passage arrangement design of actual heat exchanger with inlet flow maldistribution.     

Determination of optimum working conditions R22 and R404A refrigerant mixtures in heat-pumps using Taguchi method

In this study, refrigerants R22 and R404A five of their binary mixtures which contain about 0%, 25%, 50%, 75% and 100% mass fractions of R404A were tested. It is investigated experimentally the effects of gas mixture rate, evaporator air inlet temperature (from 24 to 32 °C), evaporator air mass flow rate (from 0.58 to 0.74 kg/s), condenser air inlet temperature (from 22 to 34 °C) and condenser air mass flow rate (from 0.57 to 0.73 kg/s) on the coefficient of performance (COP) and exergetic efficiency values of vapor compression heat-pump systems. To determine the effect of the chosen parameters on the system and optimum working conditions, an experimental design method suggested by Genichi Taguchi was used. In this study, it was observed that the most effective parameters are found to be the condenser air inlet temperature for COP and exergetic efficiency.