An Experimental Study on the Performance of a Cross-Flow-Type, Indirect Evaporative Cooler Made of Paper/Plastic Film

Abstract

In Korea, a typically hot and humid summer means that air-conditioners consume a large quantity of electricity; accordingly, the simultaneous usage of an indirect evaporative cooler may reduce the sensible-heat level and save the amount of electricity that is consumed. In this study, the heat-transfer and pressure-drop characteristics of an indirect evaporative cooler made of paper/plastic film were investigated under both dry and wet conditions; for the purpose of comparison, an indirect evaporative cooler made of plastic film was also tested. Our results show that the indirect evaporative efficiencies under a wet condition are greater than those under a dry condition, and the efficiencies of the paper/plastic sample (109% to 138%) are greater than those (67% to 89%) of the plastic sample; in addition, the wet-surface, indirect evaporative efficiencies of the paper/plastic sample are 32% to 36% greater than those of the plastic sample. Further, the wet-surface pressure drops of the paper/plastic sample are 13% to 23% larger than those of the plastic sample, and this might have been caused by the surface roughness of the samples. A rigorous heat-transfer analysis revealed that, for the plastic sample, 30% to 37% of the wet channels remained dry, whereas all of the channels were wet for the paper/plastic sample.Key words Indirect Evaporative Cooler(간접증발소자), Paper(종이), Plastic(플라스틱), Performance(성능) †Corresponding author, E-mail: knh0001@incheon.ac.kr