TY - JOUR
T1 - Experimental and normalized sensitivity based numerical analyses of a novel humidifier-assisted highly efficient indirect evaporative cooler
AU - Ahmad, Muhammad
AU - Xu, Ben Bin
AU - Dala, Laurent
AU - Sultan, Muhammad
AU - Jie, Lin
AU - Shahzad, Muhammad Wakil
N1 - Funding information: The authors would like to thank KCI project by OSR KAUST Saudi Arabia and support provided by Northumbria University, UK under reference # RDF20/EE/MCE/SHAHZAD and MCE QR Steering Fund 2020/21.
PY - 2021/6/1
Y1 - 2021/6/1
N2 - Indirect evaporative cooling technology has emerged as an energy-efficient, low-cost, and sustainable alternative to conventional air conditioning systems for space cooling. This is because of its significant (40–50%) energy-saving potential compared to ventilation, vapor compression cooling, and desiccant cooling systems. The current paper presents a novel humidifier-assisted regenerative indirect evaporative cooler that eliminates the use of hydrophilic surfaces within the system and mitigates the fouling propensity and water management issues. A generic cell of the proposed system is fabricated and tested for different operating scenarios along with the uncertainty propagation analysis. Thereafter, a normalized sensitivity analysis is performed to identify the most influential parameters on the cooler performance. The experimental data shows an effective cooling performance with a temperature drop of 20 °C of outdoor air and cooling capacity of 175 watts of 1800 mm × 300 mm generic cell. The cooling coefficient of performance was calculated as 44 and maximum effectiveness of 83.82% for the proposed configuration. The sensitivity analysis reveals scaling trends of the coefficient of performance in the following order of primary air inlet temperature > primary air outlet temperature > primary air velocity and the cooler effectiveness as secondary air outlet temperature > primary air inlet temperature > primary air humidity > primary air outlet.
AB - Indirect evaporative cooling technology has emerged as an energy-efficient, low-cost, and sustainable alternative to conventional air conditioning systems for space cooling. This is because of its significant (40–50%) energy-saving potential compared to ventilation, vapor compression cooling, and desiccant cooling systems. The current paper presents a novel humidifier-assisted regenerative indirect evaporative cooler that eliminates the use of hydrophilic surfaces within the system and mitigates the fouling propensity and water management issues. A generic cell of the proposed system is fabricated and tested for different operating scenarios along with the uncertainty propagation analysis. Thereafter, a normalized sensitivity analysis is performed to identify the most influential parameters on the cooler performance. The experimental data shows an effective cooling performance with a temperature drop of 20 °C of outdoor air and cooling capacity of 175 watts of 1800 mm × 300 mm generic cell. The cooling coefficient of performance was calculated as 44 and maximum effectiveness of 83.82% for the proposed configuration. The sensitivity analysis reveals scaling trends of the coefficient of performance in the following order of primary air inlet temperature > primary air outlet temperature > primary air velocity and the cooler effectiveness as secondary air outlet temperature > primary air inlet temperature > primary air humidity > primary air outlet.
KW - Indirect evaporative cooler (IEC)
KW - space cooling,
KW - humidifier assisted IEC
KW - normalized sensitivity analysis
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85106326876&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1016/j.icheatmasstransfer.2021.105327
DO - 10.1016/j.icheatmasstransfer.2021.105327
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:85106326876
SN - 0735-1933
VL - 125
JO - International Communications in Heat and Mass Transfer
JF - International Communications in Heat and Mass Transfer
M1 - 105327
ER -
