A numerical and experimental study on the energy efficiency of a regenerative Heat and Mass Exchanger utilizing the counter-flow Maisotsenko cycle

Abstract

In this work, a numerical and experimental study is performed to evaluate the affecting variables on energy efficiency of a novel regenerative evaporative cooler utilizing dew-point indirect evaporative cooling. For first time, an investigation is experimentally and numerically carried out to study the effects of the channel number on important parameters such as product temperature and humidity ratio. Investigations are carried out for five configurations with various channel numbers. The comparison of the numerical and experimental results is obtained and well accuracy observed. For the five studied configurations, the results show that with an increase in the number of channels, the outlet temperature decreases. For an inlet air flow rate of 100–600 m3/h, the cooled outlet flow temperature changes to the range of 23.4–30.7°C, 19.7–28.3°C, 18–26.4°C, 17.2–25°C and 16.6–23.8°C. For the configurations with finned channels, the percentage of increase in produced air temperature reaches 11.5% for HMX B, 18.6% for HMX C, 23.4% for HMX D and 26.9% for HMX E, as compared with HMX A.

Keywords

• counter-flow configuration
• heat and mass transfer modeling
• maisotsenko cycle
• regenerative evaporative cooling
• number of channels