Experimental and parametric sensitivity analysis of a novel indirect evaporative cooler for greener cooling

Muhammad Ahmad Jamil*, Nida Imtiaz, Kim Choon Ng, Ben Bin Xu, Haseeb Yaqoob, Muhammad Sultan, Muhammad Wakil Shahzad*

*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

3 Downloads (Pure)

Abstract

Energy-efficient space cooling is one of the biggest challenges because of high energy consumption and emissions and exponentially growing demand. Besides, the use of high global warming potential chemical-based refrigerants in the conventional system is stressing the need for a sustainable and economical alternative. Owing to these reasons, water-based cooling systems have gained significant attention because of their simple operation, low energy consumption, easy manufacturing, and benign environmental footprints. However direct evaporative cooling systems usage is limited by high humidity issues because such levels of humidity are incompatible with human comfort and certain industrial needs such as electronics cooling. Regarding the existing indirect evaporative cooling systems, they have design limitations that have hindered their commercial development. These include multilayer heat transfer walls, complex manufacturing, heavyweight, microbial growth on hydrophilic surfaces, and water management issues. The proposed innovative indirect evaporative cooling system addresses the major limitations in existing systems such as water management and wet channel surface development. A prototype has been fabricated and tested. Experimental investigation showed that the system achieved competitive performance with a maximum temperature drop of 18 °C, a coefficient of performance of 31, and wet bulb efficiency of 93%. Besides, the system also offers several advantages like high operational life, low maintenance, low cost, and resilient design which can lead to commercial scale development for greener cooling.

Original languageEnglish
Article number101887
Pages (from-to)1-14
Number of pages14
JournalThermal Science and Engineering Progress
Volume42
Early online date5 May 2023
DOIs
Publication statusE-pub ahead of print - 5 May 2023

Cite this