Direct evaporative cooling performance of ambient air using a ceramic wet porous layer

Direct evaporative cooling is one of the efficient traditional strategies to provide summer comfort in a building or air-conditioning in storage rooms. The present paper concerns a new mathematical approach to analyse the influence of the effective parameters on the performance of direct evaporation...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Chemical engineering research & design 2019-02, Vol.142, p.225-236
Main Authors: Sellami, K., Feddaoui, M., Labsi, N., Najim, M., Oubella, M., Benkahla, Y.K.
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Air conditioners
Air conditioning
Air temperature
Algorithms
Ambient temperature
Aridity
Cooling
Direct evaporative cooling
Evaporative cooling
Finite volume method
Heat transfer
Mass transfer
Mathematical models
Moisture content
Non-darcian model
Porosity
Porous ceramic
Porous materials
Porous media
Temperature
Vertical walls
Water flow
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Summary:Direct evaporative cooling is one of the efficient traditional strategies to provide summer comfort in a building or air-conditioning in storage rooms. The present paper concerns a new mathematical approach to analyse the influence of the effective parameters on the performance of direct evaporation from a porous layer. The ambient air flows over a porous material, fed with water. The evaporation of an amount of water into the air reduces its temperature and, at the same time, raises the air’s humidity. A mathematical model that accounts for simultaneous heat and mass transfer characteristics in the ambient air and water flow in corporating non-Darcian model in the porous region within vertical parallel walls is presented. The solution of the mathematical model is based on the finite volume method and the velocity-pressure coupling is treated with the SIMPLE algorithm. The results showed that the porous evaporative cooler could satisfy the cooling requirements in arid climates. An average drop of 15°C of air temperature below the ambient temperature can be reached at the considered conditions. Therefore, the ambient air is satisfactorily cooled. Furthermore, the better cooling performance can be achieved for a high porosity with a thick porous medium and lower air velocity at the entrance.
ISSN:0263-8762
1744-3563
DOI:10.1016/j.cherd.2018.12.009