Enhancement of Chiller Performance by Water Distribution on the Adiabatic Cooling Pad’s Mesh Surface

Anatolijs Borodinecs, Kristina Lebedeva, Natalja Sidenko and Aleksejs Prozuments
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Anatolijs Borodinecs: Department of Heat Engineering and Technology, Riga Technical University, LV-1048 Riga, Latvia
Kristina Lebedeva: Department of Heat Engineering and Technology, Riga Technical University, LV-1048 Riga, Latvia
Natalja Sidenko: Department of Heat Engineering and Technology, Riga Technical University, LV-1048 Riga, Latvia
Aleksejs Prozuments: Department of Heat Engineering and Technology, Riga Technical University, LV-1048 Riga, Latvia

Clean Technol., 2022, vol. 4, issue 3, 1-19

Abstract: Evaporative cooling is widely recognized as an energy efficient and environmentally-friendly air conditioning solution, and it has drawn a lot of market interest in recent years. However, this technology is accompanied by several challenges. For instance, insufficient evaporation due to poor and non-homogenous water distribution of the pre-cooling pad significantly reduces the cooling performance. The aim of the study is to develop a technique for numerical simulation of the distribution of a droplet liquid (water) on the mesh surface of an adiabatic cooler to improve the performance of air conditioning equipment. Modern computer-aided design (CAD)/computational fluid dynamics (CFD) programs were used to solve the issue. For the mathematical modelling of the medium motion, non-stationary Navier–Stokes equations were used. Parameters such as heat, mass transfer, and the efficiency of liquid droplet spraying were determined. The current study presents CAD modelling, conducted in SolidWorks platform, of water distribution on the adiabatic cooling pad’s mesh surface for improving air conditioning equipment performance. This study provides the methodology for computer modeling and numerical calculation of the parameters of adiabatic cooling, such as modelling of water atomization process. The results show that the use of additional metal mesh intended as cooling pads increases the mass transfer coefficient by Sh ≈ 15–40%; heat transfer coefficient Nu increases by ≈20–40%; and the atomization efficiency increases by ≈30–40%. The installation of metal pad mesh allows for equalized uniformity of the water distribution. The results imply that there are more opportunities to optimize the parameters of adiabatic cooling, which should be evaluated in further research on the subject.

Keywords: air conditioning; energy consumption; evaporative cooling; CAD/CFD; water atomization; cooling pad; energy saving (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: Q2 Q3 Q4 Q5 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2022
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