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Effect of efficient multi-stage indirect evaporative cooling on performance of solar assisted desiccant air conditioning in different climatic zones.

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Abstract

Over the past decade, different variants of desiccant cooling system integrated with direct/indirect evaporative cooler(s) have been simulated and/or analyzed in specific climatic conditions under rather limited operating parameters and for limited durations of time. Complete seasonal and multi-climate performance analyses of solar desiccant cooling system integrated with efficient, indirect Maisotsenko Cycle based evaporative cooler, having combinational installations at process and/or regeneration sides, is rarely investigated and reported. In the current work, multiple configuration variants of solar desiccant cooling system, integrated with multi-stage indirect evaporative cooling technique based on Maisotsenko Cycle, having a designed cooling capacity of 50 kW are analyzed through a model-based transient simulation approach. Simulations are carried out for a complete typical summer season in northern hemisphere, starting from April to September, using TRNSYS in three different climatic zones including subtropical humid summer (Cfa), hot desert (Bwh) and hot semi-arid (Bsh) conditions. The three selected climatic zones cover around 20% of global world map hosting more than 37% of world population. Each configuration is analyzed in terms of wet bulb and dew point effectiveness using their respective cooling techniques, system’s thermal coefficient of performance, and solar fraction for each climate zone. It is seen that the configuration using IEC at both process and regeneration sides has the highest values of coefficient of performance and solar fraction in all selected climatic zones compared to others. The respective values of coefficient of performance is 2.28 and solar fraction of 23.84% observed in Bwh while coefficient of performance of 2.03 and solar fraction of 23.33% in Cfa; and coefficient of performance of 2.12 and solar fraction of 46.86% in Bsh climatic zones are noted. The increase of solar fraction in hot and arid climates are expected compared to Cfa. While the value of coefficient of performance for such a system is significantly improved and shows promising prospects to efficiently provide thermal comfort during summer seasons.

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Abbreviations

a:

Auxiliary

amb:

Ambient

ds:

Desiccant System

dh:

Dehumidification

dp:

Dew Point

in:

Inlet

out:

Outlet

lat:

Latent

p:

Process

reg:

Regeneration

s:

Solar

sen:

Sensible

w:

Water

wb:

Wet Bulb

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Nomenclature/Abbreviation

AEAuxiliary Energy (kW)

C1Reference System.

CpSpecific heat of air (KJ/kg K)

C2Configuration-1

COPCo-efficient of performance (−)

C3Configuration-2

DECDirect Evaporative Cooler

DCSDesiccant Cooling System

HLatent heat of vaporization of water (kJ/kg)

HEnthalpy of air (kJ/kg K)

LLLatent load (kW)

IECIndirect evaporative cooler

QHeat Gain (kW)

\( \dot{m} \)Mass flow rate of Water (kg/s)

SFSolar Fraction (%)

SDCSSolar Desiccant cooling System

SLSensible load (kW)

TTemperature (°C)

VCSVapor compression system

Greek letter

ρDensity of Air (kg/m3)

εEffectiveness (−)

\( \dot{v} \)Volume Flow Rate of air (m3/h)

ωAbsolute Humidity (g of water vapor/kg of dry air)

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Mechanical Engineering Department, University of Engineering and Technology, Taxila, Pakistan

    Waqas Ahmad

  2. Energy Engineering Department, University of Engineering and Technology, Taxila, Pakistan

    Muzaffar Ali

  3. Department of Mechanical Engineering, Faculty of Engineering and Technology, International Islamic University, Islamabad, Pakistan

    Nadeem Ahmed Sheikh

  4. Mechanical Engineering Department, Universiti Teknologi PETRONAS, Iskandar, Perak, Malaysia

    Javed Akhtar

Authors
  1. Waqas Ahmad
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  2. Muzaffar Ali
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  3. Nadeem Ahmed Sheikh
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  4. Javed Akhtar
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Correspondence to Nadeem Ahmed Sheikh.

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Ahmad, W., Ali, M., Sheikh, N.A. et al. Effect of efficient multi-stage indirect evaporative cooling on performance of solar assisted desiccant air conditioning in different climatic zones.. Heat Mass Transfer 56, 2725–2741 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00231-020-02900-2

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