An investigation into the cooling effect of air desuperheater tower: A novel method to mitigate the heat island effect

Abstract

Urban heat islands (UHI) not only deteriorate the indoor thermal environment and increase of energy consumption for cooling in summer, but also pose unpredictable risks to human health. This study proposes the use of an air desuperheater tower (ADT) to reduce outdoor air temperature by heat exchange between low-temperature groundwater and high-temperature outdoor air. The ADT was reasonably arranged according to the layout characteristics of the residential area and the intensity of the heat island effect. The outdoor thermal environment of the residential area was simulated using PHOENICS software to compare the thermal environment of the residential area before and after the ADT operation. The results show that the error between the water-side and air-side heat exchange in the heat exchange process of ADT is ±5%, which is in line with the conservation of energy efficiency. The energy efficiency ratio of ADT can reach up to 27.7 under each group of working conditions, which indicates the superior performance of ADT. Thus, the application of ADT can alleviate the heat island effect in local areas and reduce the ambient temperature by 1 °C, at heights of up to three stories in residential areas. Outdoor ambient temperature reduction helps to reduce the burden on air conditioners and mitigates the vicious cycle between heat release from the air conditioner and increase in outdoor temperature. This study provides new ideas for mitigating the urban heat island effect.