Indirect evaporative cooling of air to a sub-wet bulb temperature

Indirect evaporative cooling is a sustainable method for cooling of air. The main constraint that limits the wide use of evaporative coolers is the ultimate temperature of the process, which is the wet bulb temperature of ambient air. In this paper, a method is presented to produce air at a sub-wet bulb temperature by indirect evaporative cooling, without using a vapour compression machine. The main idea consists of manipulating the air flow inside the cooler by branching the working air from the product air, which is indirectly pre-cooled, before it is finally cooled and delivered. A model for the heat and mass transfer process is developed. Four types of coolers are studied: three two-stage coolers (a counter flow, a parallel flow and a combined parallel-regenerative flow) and a single-stage counter flow regenerative cooler.It is concluded that the proposed method for indirect evaporative cooling is capable of cooling air to temperatures lower than the ambient wet bulb temperature. The ultimate temperature for such a process is the dew point temperature of the ambient air. The wet bulb cooling effectiveness (E_wb) for the examples studied is 1.26, 1.09 and 1.31 for the two-stage counter flow, parallel flow and combined parallel-regenerative cooler, respectively, and it is 1.16 for the single-stage counter flow regenerative cooler. Such a method extends the potential of useful utilisation of evaporative coolers for cooling of buildings as well as other industrial applications.     

The impact of fouling on performance evaluation of evaporative coolers and condensers

Fouling of evaporative cooler and condenser tubes is one of the most important factors affecting their thermal performance, which reduces effectiveness and heat transfer capability with time. In this paper, the experimental data on fouling reported in the literature are used to develop a fouling model for this class of heat exchangers. The model predicts the decrease in heat transfer rate with the growth of fouling. A detailed model of evaporative coolers and condensers, in conjunction with the fouling model, is used to study the effect of fouling on the thermal performance of these heat exchangers at different air inlet wet bulb temperatures. The results demonstrate that fouling of tubes reduces gains in performance resulting from decreasing values of air inlet wet bulb temperature. It is found that the maximum decrease in effectiveness due to fouling is about 55 and 78% for the evaporative coolers and condensers, respectively, investigated in this study. For the evaporative cooler, the value of process fluid outlet temperature T_p,out varies by 0.66% only at the clean condition for the ambient wet bulb temperatures considered. Copyright © 2005 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Thermodynamic behaviour of an air-conditioning system employing combined evaporative-water and air coolers

The performance of an open absorption-system, energized by low-grade heat such as insolation and/or waste heat, has been investigated. This combined evaporative cooler (CEC) [i.e. an indirect evaporative cooler (IEC) together with a direct evaporative-cooler (DEC)] was used to cool the air. A computer simulation of the cooling cycle was devised, so that the performance characteristics of the system could be predicted for a range of operating conditions: the influences of various design-parameters on the coefficient of performance (COP) were also evaluated. The COP of the CEC system was at least 20% greater than those achieved when employing either the IEC or DEC systems alone.     

Performance evaluation of indirect evaporative cooling using whole-building hygrothermal simulations

In an indirect evaporative cooling (IEC) installation the return air is cooled by adiabatic humidification. In an air/air heat exchanger this air cools down the supply air. This paper presents a simulation methodology focusing on the interaction between the thermal performance of an IEC system and the heat and moisture balance of the building where it is applied. The thermal effectiveness of an IEC system is first studied by measurements. It was found that the effectiveness is independent of the air inlet conditions. In the second part the influence of the ventilation rate, the indoor moisture production and the moisture buffering capacity on the thermal performance were evaluated using dynamic calculations with the multizone building simulation program TRNSYS. Increasing the indoor moisture production and lowering the ventilation rate both reduce the thermal performance of the system. Hygroscopic materials may ameliorate the applicability of IEC.     

Performance evaluation and comparison of multistage indirect evaporative cooling systems in two operation modes

The evaporative cooling technique is an efficient approach for cooling application. This study aims to establish a performance evaluation method to advance the appropriate design for multistage indirect evaporative cooling systems. A mathematical formulation has been developed for the indirect evaporative cooler (IEC). After the validation, the mathematical model was used to analyze the evaluation criteria by considering the simultaneous influence of the cooling effectiveness, the pressure drop, and the cooling capacity of the multistage IEC operating in two modes. The Mode-1 IEC is a conventional counterflow unit, while the Mode-2 IEC employs a regenerative M-cycle arrangement. The IECs are operated in a tandem arrangement. The multistage system is capable of improving the cooling performance and reducing the outlet air temperature. In addition, the multistage system displays a higher pressure drop resulting in a lager consumption of fan power. The analysis of performance evaluation criteria indicates that the appropriate maximum stage is suggested to be three-stage and two-stage for the Mode-1 and the Mode-2 IEC, respectively.     

Experimental and thermal analysis of energy efficient novel design wet cooling towers

Waste heat is generally dissipated from process water to atmospheric air in cooling towers. In the present study, a novel design is used to extract more amount of heat without any additional energy input by incorporating secondary ambient air in an induced draft wet cooling tower. In addition, more fresh air is induced in the tower from the rain zone, which increases the effectiveness at any value of the water to air flow rate (L/G ratio). Moreover, tower characteristics, range, and evaporation loss were also increased due to the novel design. It is noteworthy that secondary fresh air increases effectiveness, heat rejection, and tower characteristics by 10.12%, 19.65%, and 26.11%, respectively, and decreases approach by 16.32% at 0.55 L/G ratio, 44°C inlet water temperature, 29.7°C dry bulb temperature, and 18.4°C inlet air wet bulb temperature.     

Investigation of water droplet carryover phenomena in industrial evaporative air-conditioning systems

Water droplet carryover phenomena and pressure drop characteristics in drip-type direct evaporative coolers have been experimentally investigated. Ten different evaporative cooling pads were tested for different air frontal velocities, and the onset of carryover has been determined. The onset of water carryover has been found to be at air velocities between 3.5 and 4.2 m/s. Also, the effect of flute height and pad thickness on pressure drop characteristics of cooling pads has been examined. In addition, it has been determined that for the steady-state operation of drip-type direct evaporative coolers, water temperature in the reservoir approaches the wet bulb temperature and can be taken as constant for long term steady-state operations in practice.     

Simplified model for the determination of the steady state response of cooling systems

This paper looks at the propagation of temperature disturbances through above ambient cooling systems and its determination at steady state. A cooling system consists of a cooling tower, a pumping system and a network of heat exchangers or coolers arranged in parallel, in series or in a combination of both. Temperature disturbances are introduced into a cooling system in various ways, namely: changes in the wet bulb temperature, changes in the heat load and by the deterioration of the coolers performance due to fouling. The response of a cooling systems to temperature disturbances is shown to be a function of the overall system thermal effectiveness which in turn is a function of the cooling tower thermal effectiveness and of the network overall thermal effectiveness. The way the latter parameter is determined depends on the network structure.     

板式间接蒸发冷却器热工特性的实验研究

对自行研制设计的间接蒸发冷却换热试件开展了实验,研究了影响换热器换热性能的因素。结果表明：板式间接蒸发冷却器换热效率随二次空气入口的速度升高、一次空气入口的温度、二次空气入口的湿球温度升高而变大,随一次空气入口的速度变大而变小。实验结果对于深入认识间接蒸发冷却器的换热机理及开展换热器的优化设计有着很大的指导意义。     

Advanced solar assisted desiccant and evaporative cooling system equipped with wet heat exchangers

This work concerns an innovative solar assisted desiccant and evaporative cooling (DEC) system for building air conditioning. In this system, air-to-air packaged wet heat exchangers are used to maximize the exploitation of the evaporative cooling potential associated with the exhaust air stream.The thermodynamic cycle is first theoretically described, and then an example of a real application is shown.The system presented is an experimental DEC system originally installed at the beginning of 2008 at the Solar Laboratory of the University of Palermo and recently modified and updated. These modifications have been implemented with the aim to foster some problems related to the conventional indirect evaporative process and to increase the overall performance of the process.Different energy performance figures, such as thermal and electrical COP, are presented and discussed.The obtained results are very positive, showing that DEC systems can benefit from the use of wet heat exchangers to efficiently cool the air stream after the adsorption process in the desiccant wheel without any change in moisture content.     

Going below the wet-bulb temperature by indirect evaporative cooling: Analysis using a modified ε-NTU method

The objective of this paper is to study a method to achieve sub-wet bulb temperature by indirect evaporative cooling of air (without using a vapor compression machine). For this purpose, an analytical model is developed based on the effectiveness-NTU method (ε-NTU). The main idea for achieving a sub-wet bulb temperature by indirect evaporative cooling of air is by indirectly pre-cooling the working air before it enters the wet passage. It is shown that a modified analytical model for indirect evaporative coolers could be based on the ε-NTU method for sensible heat exchangers when proper adjustments are made by redefining the potential gradients, transfer coefficient, heat capacity rate parameters and assuming a linear saturation temperature-enthalpy relation of air. This modified model is used to find the performance of a regenerative indirect evaporative cooler. The model results show very good agreement with results from experimental measurements and a numerical model.     

Novel design and modelling of an evaporative cooling system for buildings

Passive evaporative cooling has great potential as an alternative to conventional air‐conditioning in arid hot climates because of its low cost and zero pollution. This paper describes a novel evaporative cooling system with an automatic wind‐tracking device to improve its operating efficiency. The design and operating principles are discussed. A mathematical model is simplified by the assumption of convective heat and mass transfer of staggered streamlets of water. A computer program has been developed to calculate the deflection and length of spray water streamlets, as well as evaporative water mass, minimum cooled water temperature and required cooling time. A typical example illustrates that approximately 20 kg water are evaporated and around 26 min are required for 980 kg of water to be cooled from 28°C to the wet bulb temperature of 19.2°C of ambient air in a typical arid hot climate (relative humidity = 0.30, dry bulb temperature = 32°C and wind velocity = 4 m s^?1). The application of adsorbents, would allow the evaporative cooling system to be applied in hot, humid climates, in addition to hot climates with low humidity. Copyright © 2006 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Performance enhancement of gas turbines by inlet air‐cooling in hot and humid climates

In this paper, a model to study the effect of inlet air‐cooling on gas turbines power and efficiency is developed for two different cooling techniques, direct mechanical refrigeration and an evaporative water spray cooler. Energy analysis is used to present the performance improvement in terms of power gain ratio and thermal efficiency change factors. Relationships are derived for an open gas turbine cycle with irreversible compression and expansion processes coupled to air‐cooling systems. The obtained results show that the power and efficiency improvements are functions of the ambient conditions and the gas turbine pressure ratio. The performance improvement is calculated for, ambient temperatures from 30 to 50°C, the whole range of humidity ratio (10–100%) and pressure ratio from 8 to 12. For direct mechanical refrigeration air‐cooling, the power improvement is associated with appreciable drop in the thermal efficiency. The maximum power gain can be obtained if the air temperature is reduced to its lowest limit that is the refrigerant evaporation temperature plus the evaporator design temperature difference. Water spray cooling process is sensitive to the ambient relative humidity and is suitable for dry air conditions. The power gain and efficiency enhancement are limited by the wet bulb temperature. The performance of spray evaporative cooler is presented in a dimensionless working graph. The daily performance of the cooling methods is examined for an ABB‐11D5 gas turbine operating under the hot humid conditions of Jeddah, Saudi Arabia. The results indicate that the direct mechanical refrigeration increased the daily power output by 6.77% versus 2.57% for the spray air‐cooling. Copyright © 2005 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Indirect evaporative cooling: Past,present and future potentials

This paper reported a review based study into the Indirect Evaporative Cooling (IEC) technology, which was undertaken from a variety of aspects including background, history, current status, concept, standardisation, system configuration, operational mode, research and industrialisation, market prospect and barriers, as well as the future focuses on R&D and commercialisation. This review work indicated that the IEC technology has potential to be an alternative to conventional mechanical vapour compression refrigeration systems to take up the air conditioning duty for buildings. Owing to the continuous progress in technology innovation, particularly the M-cycle development and associated heat and mass transfer and material optimisation, the IEC systems have obtained significantly enhanced cooling performance over those the decade ago, with the wet-bulb effectiveness of greater than 90% and energy efficiency ratio (EER) up to 80. Structure of the IEC heat and mass exchanger varied from flat-plate-stack, tube, heat pipe and potentially wave-form. Materials used for making the exchanger elements (plate/tube) included fibre sheet with the single side water proofing, aluminium plate/tube with single side wicked setting (grooved, meshed, toughed etc), and ceramic plate/tube with single side water proofing. Counter-current water flow relevant to the primary air is considered the favourite choice; good distribution of the water stream across the wet surface of the exchanger plate (tube) and adequate (matching up the evaporation) control of the water flow rate are critical to achieving the expected system performance. It was noticed that the IEC devices were always in combined operation with other cooling measures and the commonly available IEC related operational modes are (1) IEC/DEC system; (2) IEC/DEC/mechanical vapour compression system; (3) IEC/desiccant system; (4) IEC/chilled water system; and (5) IEC/heat pipe system. The future potential operational modes may also cover the IEC-inclusive fan coil units, air handle units, cooling towers, solar driven desiccant cycle, and Rankine cycle based power generation system etc. Future works on the IEC technology may focus on (1) heat exchanger structure and material; (2) water flowing, distribution and treatment; (3) incorporation of the IEC components into conventional air conditioning products to enable combined operation between the IEC and other cooling devices; (4) economic, environment and social impacts; (5) standardisation and legislation; (6) public awareness and other dissemination measures; and (7) manufacturing and commercialisation. All above addressed efforts may help increase the market ratio of the IEC to around 20% in the next 20 years, which will lead to significant saving of fossil fuel consumption and cut of carbon emission related to buildings.     

Modelling of a direct evaporative air cooler using artificial neural network

This paper proposes the use of artificial neural networks (ANNs) to predict various performance parameters of a direct evaporative air cooler. For this aim, an experimental evaporative cooler was operated at steady‐state conditions, while varying the dry bulb temperature and relative humidity of the entering air along with the flow rates of air and water streams. Using some of the experimental data for training, a three‐layer feed‐forward ANN model based on back propagation algorithm was developed. This model was used for predicting various performance parameters of the cooler, namely the dry bulb temperature and relative humidity of the leaving air, mass flow rate of the water evaporated into the air stream, sensible cooling rate, and effectiveness of the cooler. Then, the performance of the ANN predictions was tested by applying a set of new experimental data. The predictions usually agreed well with the experimental values with correlation coefficients in the range of 0.969–0.993, mean relative errors in the range of 0.66–4.04%, and very low root mean square errors. This study reveals that, as an alternative to classical modelling techniques, the ANN approach can be used successfully for predicting the performance of direct evaporative air coolers. Copyright © 2007 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

A new approach to analysis and optimization of evaporative cooling system II: Applications

After introducing the concepts of moisture entransy, moisture entransy dissipation and thermal resistance based on moisture entransy dissipation (TRMED) in part I of this study, we further analyze several direct/indirect evaporative cooling processes based on the above concepts in this part. The nature of moisture entransy, moisture entransy dissipation and TRMED during evaporative cooling processes was reexamined. The results demonstrate that it is the moisture entransy, not the enthalpy, that represents the endothermic ability of a moist air, and reducing the entransy dissipation by both enlarging the thermal conductance of heat and mass transfer, and decreasing the temperature potential of the moist air, i.e. the difference between the dry-bulb temperature of moist air over its dew-point temperature, will result in a smaller system TRMED, and consequently a better evaporative cooling performance. Then, a minimum thermal resistance law for optimizing evaporative cooling systems is developed. For given mass flow rates of both moist air and water, with prescribed moist air and water conditions, minimizing the TRMED will actually lead to the most efficient evaporative cooling performance. Finally, the thermal conductance allocation for an indirect evaporative cooling system is optimized to illustrate the application of the proposed minimum thermal resistance law.     

Experimental study on the heat exchange effectiveness of a dry coil indirect evaporation cooler under various operating conditions

In this study, a pilot Dry Coil IEC unit, an indirect evaporation cooler established by connecting a direct evaporation cooler and a sensible heat exchanger (SHE) in series, was made, and the effectiveness data of the pilot unit were acquired under various operation conditions in an environmental chamber realizing a wide-range of indoor and outdoor air conditions. The test result shows that over 40% effectiveness can be acquired even in hot and humid climates by using the Dry Coil IEC proposed in this paper. The Dry Coil IEC reduces the cooling coil size by pre-cooling the process air during the cooling season. It can also be used as an SHE reclaiming the sensible heat from the exhaust air during winter operation. The pilot unit recovered over 60% of sensible heat in the test. In addition, a simplified model of Dry Coil IEC returning the various operation conditions was developed based on existing models of an SHE and a direct evaporative cooler. A polynomial equation returning the effectiveness of the Dry Coil IEC was derived as a function of seven independent variables highly influencing the performance of the unit. The experimental data acquired by the pilot unit operation agree well with the effectiveness values of the Dry Coil IEC predicted by the proposed model. It was also identified that the proposed equation agrees well with the existing model of the Dry Coil IEC applied to the energy simulation program.     

Indirect evaporative cooling and economy cycle in summer air conditioning

The air‐side economy cycle has a large application in warm and dry climates, where the simple increase in the amount of outside air supplied to the conditioned space can substantially reduce the cooling load. Although the dry‐bulb economy cycle is the simplest implementation, requiring only a dry‐bulb temperature comparison to operate the air flow rate regulation, the greatest potential in cost reduction is achieved by the wet‐bulb economizer (WBE). Indirect evaporative cooling (IEC), based on energy recovery from the saturated exhaust airflow, is another technique to be applied in the reduction of a building cooling load. Preconditioning the outdoor airflow by IEC actually extends the applicability of the WBE. In such a way, specific synergies can be exploited when WBE and IEC are combined, even in humid climates. On the other hand, the largest benefits can be accomplished only by redefining the control strategy of the outside air flow rate. In the present paper, the outside air flow rate control strategies are described both for simple WBE and for preconditioned WBE cycles. Different regulation regions are defined on the psychrometric chart together with the relative control strategies. The incidence of these regions is evaluated for 14 different European and American climates. Finally, the seasonal cooling energy requirements are determined for the dehumidification by cooling process, which can be considered as mainly responsible for cooling energy costs in the considered localities. Traditional, preconditioned by heat recovery and IEC on the exhaust airflow, WBE and PWBE air conditioning cycles are compared. Copyright © 2003 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Experimental study of a direct evaporative cooling approach for Li-ion battery thermal management

A desirable operating temperature range and small temperature gradient is beneficial to the safety and longevity of lithium-ion (Li-ion) batteries, and battery thermal management systems (BTMSs) play a critical role in achieving the temperature control. Having the advantages of direct access and low viscosity, air is widely used as a cooling medium in BTMSs. In this paper, an air-based BTMS is modified by integrating a direct evaporative cooling (DEC) system, which helps reduce the inlet air temperature for enhanced heat dissipation. Experiments are carried out on 18650-type batteries and a 9-cell battery pack to study how relative humidity and air flow rate affect the DEC system. The maximum temperatures, temperature differences, and capacity fading of batteries are compared between three cooling conditions, which include the proposed DEC, air cooling, and natural convection cooling. In addition, a DEC tunnel that can produce reciprocating air flow is assembled to further reduce the maximum temperature and temperature difference inside the battery pack. It is demonstrated that the proposed DEC system can expand the usage of Li-ion batteries in more adverse and intensive operating conditions.     

An experimental study of a cross-flow type plate heat exchanger for dehumidification/cooling

The thermal and dehumidification behaviour of a standard cross-flow type plate heat exchanger, intended for use as a dehumidifier/cooler, has been investigated both experimentally and numerically. Three sets of experiments have been carried out where air is blown into the primary and secondary sides of the exchanger, while water and liquid desiccant were being sprayed in a counter flow arrangement. The first set represents the indirect evaporative cooling of the primary stream by the secondary air stream. The second set is with liquid desiccant only and no indirect evaporative cooling. In the third set of experiments the primary air stream is indirectly evaporatively cooled by the secondary air stream and dehumidified by the liquid desiccant sprayed into the primary side of the exchanger. The above experiments indicate that the heat exchanger performs well when used with liquid desiccant. Furthermore, for an exchanger angle of 45°, there is an optimum value of air mass flow rate at which the effectiveness and dehumidification efficiency of the plate heat exchanger are maxima. To investigate the effect of the ambient air conditions on the PHE performance, further experiments were carried out using a heater element and a humidifier. The results show that under laboratory conditions the exchanger effectiveness and dehumidification efficiency increase with increasing primary air inlet temperature and humidity ratio. The experimental results were used to validate a computer model developed for the cross-flow type plate heat exchanger/dehumidifier. Comparison indicates that the numerical results are in good agreement with the experiments.