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Experimental study on the evaporative cooling of an air-cooled condenser with humidifying air

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Abstract

Using six different materials to construct a water curtain, this study aims to determine the most effective spray cooling of an air cooled heat exchanger under wet conditions. The experiments were carried out at a mass flow rate of 0.005–0.01 kg/s (spraying water), an airspeed of 0.6–2.4 m/s and a run time of 0–72 h for the material degradation tests. The experimental results indicate that the cooling efficiency, the heat rejection, and the sprinkling density increase as the amount of spraying water increases, but, the air-flow of the condenser is reduced at the same time. In addition, the cooling efficiency of the pads decreases with an increase of the inlet air velocity. In terms of experimental range, the natural wood pulp fiberscan can reach 42.7–66 % for cooling efficiency and 17.17–24.48 % for increases of heat rejection. This means that the natural wood pulp fiberscan pad most effectively enhances cooling performance, followed in terms of cooling effectiveness by the special non-woven rayon pad, the woollen blanket, biochemistry cotton and kapok, non-woven cloth of rayon cotton and kapok, and white cotton pad, respectively. However, the natural wood pulp fiberscan and special non-woven rayon display a relatively greater degradation of the cooling efficiency than the other test pads used in the material degradation tests.

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Abbreviations

A :

Outlet area of air side at the heat exchanger (m2)

C p :

Specific heat of air (kJ/kg K)

A c :

Cross-sectional area of water curtain (m2)

G :

Volumetric air flow rate (m3/s)

M :

Mass flow rate of spraying water (kg/s)

Q :

Heat transfer rate obtained from the refrigerant (kW)

T :

Temperature (K)

T 1, T 2 :

Inlet and outlet dry bulb temperatures of the air at the water curtain, respectively (K)

T 3, T 4 :

Inlet and outlet temperatures of the refrigerant at the heat exchanger, respectively (K)

T s :

Inlet wet bulb temperature of the air at the water curtain (K)

v:

Velocity of air (m/s)

ρ :

Density of air (kg/m3)

ρ w :

Sprinkling density (kg/m2 s)

Ψ:

Rate of heat rejection with/without the humidifying cases

η c :

Evaporative saturation efficiency of the water curtain

η w :

Rate of volumetric flow rate with/without the humidifying cases

c:

Water curtain

in:

Inlet at the water curtain

o:

Without humidifying case

out:

Outlet at the water curtain

w:

With humidifying case

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Acknowledgments

The study was supported by the WENHO Industry Inc. (WENHO), Taiwan. The authors gratefully acknowledge the help and cooperation of Z. H. Cai, and D. L. Xie from WENHO.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Mechanical Engineering, Cheng Shiu University, Kaohsiung, 833, Taiwan, ROC

    Mao-Yu Wen, Kuang-Jang Jang & Cheng-Hsiung Yeh

  2. Department of Mechanical Engineering, Hwa Hsia Institute of Technology, Taipei, 235, Taiwan, ROC

    Ching-Yen Ho

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  1. Mao-Yu Wen
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  2. Ching-Yen Ho
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  3. Kuang-Jang Jang
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  4. Cheng-Hsiung Yeh
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Correspondence to Mao-Yu Wen.

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Wen, MY., Ho, CY., Jang, KJ. et al. Experimental study on the evaporative cooling of an air-cooled condenser with humidifying air. Heat Mass Transfer 50, 225–233 (2014). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00231-013-1243-7

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00231-013-1243-7

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