Experimental study of an ultrasonic regenerative evaporative cooler for a desiccant cooling system

Abstract

This paper presents fabrication of an ultrasonic regenerative evaporative cooler, coupled with a desiccant dehumidifier. Ultrasonic regenerative evaporative cooler consists of several sets of a dry channel and a wet channel. A part of the air from the dry channel is redirected into the wet channel where it is cooled by evaporation of water mist from an ultrasonic atomiser. Air flowing through dry channels is pre-cooled by heat transfer between wet and dry channels, without changing its humidity. In this cooler, the conventional hygroscopic layer for wetting the plate surface is replaced with the water mist. It is observed that the performance of the cooling system significantly depends on the channel spacing, channel length, inlet airflow rate and extraction ratio, and marginally depends upon feed water temperature. The room cooling capacity is eminently responsive to both air mass flow rate and extraction ratio. The maximum available room cooling capacity of 339.8 W is obtained for the optimal values of 0.0488 kg/s mass flow rate of air and 0.37 extraction ratio. The prototype achieved wet-bulb effectiveness values as high as 1.15 and delivered more than 10℃ temperature drop. Practical application: An ultrasonic regenerative evaporative cooler can be coupled with a desiccant dehumidification unit for use in hot and humid climate to achieve comfort condition utilising less energy and feed water when compared to the vapour compression refrigeration system. From this prototype researchers and engineers can develop, by combining desiccant regenerators and evaporative coolers which use ultrasonic method for low-temperature dehydration of desiccant substance. Solar thermal energy can also be directly utilised for marginally heating the desiccant substance during the regeneration process. Overall, this system can contribute to the development of energy efficient buildings.