On the performance study of a hybrid indirect evaporative cooling and latent-heat thermal energy storage system under commercial operating conditions

Wan, Yangda; Huang, Zhifeng; Soh, Alexander; Chua, Kian Jon

doi:10.1016/j.applthermaleng.2022.119902

Cited by 17 publications

(8 citation statements)

References 41 publications

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…However, in hot and humid regions, the high outdoor humidity significantly limits the effectiveness of evaporative cooling. Therefore, some researchers propose to utilize exhaust air from air-conditioned spaces as the secondary air to enhance the cooling effect of the IEC [23,25]. However, for buildings with specialized uses such as DCs which typically involve air recirculating between the indoor space and air handling units without fresh air [30], the source of secondary air can only be from outdoors, and this outdoor air needs to be pre-treated to reduce its humidity and wet-bulb temperature before it can be used as the secondary air in the second-stage IEC.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Wan et al evaluated the IEC system integrated with a paraffin-based phase change material (PCM) under commercial operating conditions. The use of PCMs shifts the peak load and enables a higher temperature of the chiller water [23]. Nemati et al proposed to precool the air by the ground source heat exchanger and further cool the supply air through the IEC, which resulted in a 45% reduction in water consumption [24].…”

Section: Literature Reviewmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Feasibility Analysis of Indirect Evaporative Cooling System Assisted by Liquid Desiccant for Data Centers in Hot-Humid Regions

Shi,

Ma,

Min

et al. 2024

Sustainability

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The rapid development of data centers (DCs) has led to a marked increase in energy consumption in recent years, which poses a direct challenge to global efforts aimed at reducing carbon emissions. In regions with hot and humid climates, the energy demand is largely driven by air conditioning systems necessarily to maintain appropriate operational temperatures. This study proposes a novel multi-stage indirect evaporative cooling (IEC) system, incorporating a liquid desiccant in the primary air channel to address the cooling demands of such DCs. Our approach involves a two-stage process where the first stage uses a liquid desiccant-based IEC (LD-IEC) for air dehumidification and the second stage utilizes the treated air from the first stage as the secondary air to enhance the cooling effect. A simulation model of the proposed system is established with validation, and the performance of the multi-stage system was also discussed based on different operation modes. Furthermore, a case study was conducted to investigate the feasibility of using this system in the DC under a typical hot and humid zone. The findings reveal that the first-stage LD-IEC is capable of diminishing the wet-bulb temperature of the ambient air. Furthermore, the case study demonstrates that the proposed system can greatly improve the temperature drop by 72.7% compared to the single IEC, which noticeably reduces the operation time of energy-intensive supplementary cooling equipment from 5092 h to 31 h given the supply air temperature threshold of 25 °C. In summary, the proposed system could substantially decrease reliance on traditional cooling systems, which demonstrates a promising avenue to fully use this passive cooling technology for cooling DCs.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Literature Reviewmentioning

confidence: 99%

See 1 more Smart Citation

Feasibility Analysis of Indirect Evaporative Cooling System Assisted by Liquid Desiccant for Data Centers in Hot-Humid Regions

Shi,

Ma,

Min

et al. 2024

Sustainability

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“…The building cooling approach relies on three methods-decreasing heat input, minimizing temperature changes, and increasing heat dissipation-to prevent the temperature from exceeding a predetermined threshold [62]. The use of PCMs can effectively achieve all of these objectives by (i) providing free nighttime cooling storage; (ii) providing daytime solar energy storage to drive absorption chillers; (iii) providing air pre-cooling for air conditioning systems to reduce the peak load; and (iv) integrating PCM storage into evaporative cooling systems [63,64].…”

Section: Pcm Cooling Applicationmentioning

confidence: 99%

A Review of Phase Change Materials as a Heat Storage Medium for Cooling Applications in the Built Environment

Masood,

Haggag,

Hassan

et al. 2023

Buildings

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The air conditioning demand varies significantly in the hot and desert climates of the UAE due to diurnal temperature variation, seasonal shifts, and occupancy patterns. One of the challenges faced by the relatively higher energy-consuming UAE building stock is to optimize cooling capacity utilization and prevent excessive energy loss due to undesired cooling. A potential route to achieving such a goal involves cooling energy storage during low demand and releasing the stored cooling at peak demand times via thermal energy storage (TES). Latent heat thermal energy storage (LHTES) employing phase change materials (PCMs) provides impactful prospects for such a scheme, thus gaining tremendous attention from the scientific community. The primary goal of the current article is to provide a comprehensive state-of-the-art literature review on PCM-based TES for cooling applications to understand its efficacy, limitations, and future prospects. The article involves various applications, designs, and validations. The article emphasizes the importance of material innovations and heat transfer augmentation strategies to render this technology feasible for real-life integration into cooling systems.

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“…In pursuit of carbon peak and carbon neutrality targets, it is imperative to reduce carbon emissions from air-conditioning [6][7][8][9]. If the efficiency and cooling capacity of the IEC (Indirect Evaporative Cooler) can be improved by integrating with other technologies, such as dehumidification [10], electrical refrigeration [11], and phase change heat storage [12], and by employing measures, such as M-cycle [13], baffles [14], and multi-stage series coolers [15], IEC would be a preferred choice due to it being eco-friendly [16,17]. Among evaporative coolers, the PIEC (Plate Indirect Evaporative Cooler) and its performance improvements has received attention due its compact structure, high efficiency, and product air (primary air) with a constant humidity [18,19], of which the baffle is a practical component.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Numerical Analysis on Performance Improvement of a Vertical Plate Indirect Evaporative Cooler with Baffles

Zhou,

Cheng,

Wang

et al. 2024

Energies

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The performance of the Plate Indirect Evaporative Cooler (PIEC) can be effectively improved by incorporating baffles in the dry channel. However, in the dimensional influence of the baffles on PIEC performance there remains a research gap. In order to investigate the impact of baffle dimensions on the wet bulb efficiency, namely the average heat transfer coefficient and the cooling capacity of the PIEC, this paper proposed and verified a three-dimensional numerical model and method based on the species transport model and the Euler wall film model. At the same time, in order to obtain the equilibrium point between the enhanced heat transfer performance and the additional resistance induced by baffles, a comprehensive performance evaluation index is introduced. The results indicate that, under the same conditions, (1) the baffle effect on PIEC performance is significant at a lower inlet air velocity, and the wet bulb efficiency of the PIEC with baffles can be improved by 22.8%; (2) the baffle effect on PIEC performance is negative if its relative length exceeds 60% or the primary air inlet velocity surpasses 4 m/s under the conditions specified in this paper; and (3) the baffle effect on PIEC performance is significant when its channel height is lower and its channel width is larger, and the wet bulb efficiency of the PIEC with baffles can be improved by 29.3%.

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On the performance study of a hybrid indirect evaporative cooling and latent-heat thermal energy storage system under commercial operating conditions

Cited by 17 publications

References 41 publications

Feasibility Analysis of Indirect Evaporative Cooling System Assisted by Liquid Desiccant for Data Centers in Hot-Humid Regions

Feasibility Analysis of Indirect Evaporative Cooling System Assisted by Liquid Desiccant for Data Centers in Hot-Humid Regions

A Review of Phase Change Materials as a Heat Storage Medium for Cooling Applications in the Built Environment

Numerical Analysis on Performance Improvement of a Vertical Plate Indirect Evaporative Cooler with Baffles

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