Experimental analysis on drying performance of a condensing clothes dryer with two new plate-fin heat exchangers

Abstract

In this paper, an off-set fin heat exchanger (OSFHE) and a flying-wing fin heat exchanger (FWFHE) were developed for the condenser of a condensing clothes dryer. They were used to replace the slit fin heat exchanger (SFHE), which is the prototype condenser. Performance parameters, like condensation rate, IEC energy efficiency index (EEI) and specific moisture extraction rate (SMER), were used to assess the dehumidification performance of the heat exchangers and the drying performance of the dryer. Though the fin areas of OSFHE and FWFHE are 20% and 34.2% less than that of SFHE, the experiment results indicated that OSFHE and FWFHE had a faster condensation rate than SFHE during the main drying stage. And the heat exchanger with a faster condensation rate also led to less power consumption of the dryer in most tests. Compared with using SFHE, using OSFHE could decrease the EEI of the dryer by 0.43%. Using FWFHE could reduce the EEI of the dryer by 1.19% and improve the EU energy efficiency class of the dryer from Class C to Class B. Both OSFHE and FWFHE are able to replace SFHE and become a new generation of condensers for clothes dryers.