Human thermal comfort is one of major aspects of increasing demand of energy consumption for the heating, ventilation and air conditioning (HVAC) sector. The vapor compression refrigeration systems are predominantly used across the globe in the conditioning of the air. Such systems are highly energy intensive on account of the mechanically driven compressor, hence, not to be considered as a long-term option. It is the need of an hour to propose alternative and sustainable method for the cooling requirementsThe evaporative cooling is considered one of alternative cooling method. The incoming air is diffused with the moisture which simultaneously increases the humidity ratio. Such technique helps to cool the incoming air only up to the wet bulb temperature of the air. This method is known as direct evaporative cooling, which contaminates the incoming air. The continuous development in the past has proposed the indirect cooling methods to achieve the purpose. &nbsp;This method helps to achieve the temperature closer to the dew point temperature of the incoming air. Dew point evaporative cooler is an indirect evaporative cooling (IEC) technique to lower temperature of incoming air below its wet bulb temperature and near to dew point temperature. The said technique does not involve any change in moisture content of incoming air. Performance parameters of dew point evaporative cooler are significantly influenced by configuration and structural arrangement of heat exchanger. The different arrangements of heat exchangers commonly used are counterflow, cross flow and counter-cross flow. This work presents performance analysis of geometrically modified dew point evaporative cooler. The commonly geometries for the construction of heat and mass exchangers are flat plates, corrugated plates, plates with the perforations etc. In this work, the plate geometry shape is modified to corrugated trapezoid plates for the theoretical analysis. The modified geometry helps to provide more heat exchange area for the same heat exchanger volume, thus helps to achieve higher cooling capacity. The cooling efficiencies and temperatures at the outlet of the cooler were investigated for different intake air temperatures and flow rates. The plate and perforation spacing, extraction factor and plate dimensions affects the performance of the proposed dew point evaporative cooler to a greater extent hence are critical in the design of the heat exchanger matrix. The corrugated trapezoidal plates predict higher cooling efficiencies as compared to flat plates and corrugated plates. Dew point evaporative cooling technique does not make use of compressor and harmful refrigerants hence would be a better option to conserve the environment and helps to reduce the emission of greenhouse gases.&nbsp;Keywords: energy efficiency; cooling capacity; global warming; effectiveness; dew point evaporative cooler

Theoretical Analysis of Geometrically Modified Dew Point Evaporative Cooler

Paper Proceedings: https://asmedigitalcollection.asme.org/IMECE/IMECE2021/volume/85543

ASME 2021 International Mechanical Engineering Congress and Exposition (IMECE2021)

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