Experimental performance and parametric analysis of heat pipe heat exchanger for air conditioning application integrated with evaporative cooling

Abstract

The experimental performance of different heat pipe heat exchanger (HPHX) configurations using distilled water as the working fluid is reported in the present study. The three HPHX configurations in the present investigation include HPHX with single wick structure (HPHX 1), HPHX with composite wick structure (HPHX 2) and hybrid HPHX (HPHX 3) which is the combination of HPHX 1 and HPHX 2. The parameters considered for the parametric analysis of HPHX in all the three configurations are outdoor air dry bulb temperature entering the evaporator section of HPHX (OADBT), return air dry bulb temperature entering the condenser section of HPHX (RADBT), outdoor air velocity (Ve) and return air velocity (Vc). The OADBT is varied between 40 and 24 °C and the outdoor & return air velocities between 0.6 and 2.4 m/s. The parametric analysis of HPHX without evaporative cooling is studied for RADBT = 24 °C whereas RADBT is maintained at 20 °C for the parametric analysis of HPHX integrated with evaporative cooling. In comparison with HPHX without evaporative cooling, the performance of HPHX with evaporative cooling is enhanced by 17% for single wick structure (HPHX 1), 47% for composite wick structure (HPHX 2) and 59% for hybrid HPHX (HPHX 3) for OADBT = 40 °C and at Ve = Vc of 0.6 m/s. The results of the experimental analysis highlights the benefits of HPHX integrated with evaporative cooling for achieving significant energy savings in air conditioning application.