In hot and dry climatic zones, direct evaporative cooling (DEC) system is used as an economical and
efficient alternative to traditional air conditioning systems. The present paper concerns comprehensive
experimental investigations and analysis of heat and mass transfer characteristics and thermal performance
parameters of a bee-hive construction of corrugated-cellulose papers as a new cooling pad material.
The performance parameters used to evaluate the effectiveness of the cooling pad materials are
the outlet air temperature and relative humidity, pressure drop, humidifier effectiveness, rate of the
evaporated water, sensible cooling capacity, specific cooling capacity (SCC), coefficient of performance
(COP), specific water consumption (SWC), and Nusselt and Sherwood numbers. The cooling pad performance
was investigated for a wide range of air and water temperatures and flow rates and pad
thicknesses. The results show the enhancements of heat and mass transfer coefficients and the performance
parameters with rising air temperature and water flow rate to humidifier. High values of the
performance parameters (hc ¼ 45 W/m2 oC and hm ¼ 0.23 m/s, εhum ¼ 0.85 and COP ¼ 170) are obtained
compared to the traditional pad materials. Experimental correlations for the evaporative cooler performance
parameters in terms of air and water temperatures and flow rates pad thicknesses are presented |
