Abstract
The traditional vapor compression cooling system (VCS) has been criticized for its heavy reliance on electricity consumption and limited control ability of humidity. Compared with the VCS, the liquid desiccant cooling system (LDCS) is more efficient by handling the sensible and latent load separately. The present study investigated the regeneration and corrosion characteristics of an anodized aluminum plate regenerator for the first time. Comparative tests were conducted to present the regeneration and corrosion characteristics of the normal and anodized regenerator. The influence of internal heating on the regeneration performance was also identified. The results showed that the corrosion rate was reduced from 0.0005218 mm/year for normal aluminum to 0.000011 m/year for anodized one under the same operating conditions. However, pitting corrosion was observed at operating conditions with high solution temperature, as the anodized layer of anodized aluminum was damaged due to the high temperature. Compared with the normal aluminum regenerator, the anodized one had an average enhancement of 24% and 23.7% in terms of regeneration rate and effectiveness, respectively. It was attributed to the increment of surface energy from 26.4 mN/m for normal aluminum to 47.6 mN/m for anodized plate. Besides, it was found that, compared with adiabatic one, the internally-heated regenerator improved the regeneration rate by 6.0%~38% and the regeneration effectiveness by 6.3%~32% depending on the operating conditions. The advantage of present study is that it can guide the design of anodized aluminum regenerator for LDCS.
Highlights
The liquid desiccant cooling system (LDCS) has been considered as a promising alternative to the traditional vapor compression cooling system (VCS) due to its various advantages, such as being energy efficient and environmentally friendly [1,2]
Pitting corrosion was observed at operating conditions with high solution temperature, as the anodized layer of anodized aluminum was damaged due to the high temperature
Unlike the VCS, which is heavily dependent on electricity consumption, the LDCS can take advantage of low grade energy, such as solar energy, during the regeneration process of liquid desiccant
Summary
The liquid desiccant cooling system (LDCS) has been considered as a promising alternative to the traditional vapor compression cooling system (VCS) due to its various advantages, such as being energy efficient and environmentally friendly [1,2]. Unlike the VCS, which is heavily dependent on electricity consumption, the LDCS can take advantage of low grade energy, such as solar energy, during the regeneration process of liquid desiccant. It deals with the sensible and latent load separately to avoid reheating or overcooling, which commonly occurs in VCS. The LDCS can make use of renewable energy, and meet people’s increasing pursuit of indoor thermal comfort more efficiently. As a result, it draws increasing attention worldwide in recent years [1–4]. Even though these two components have similar working principle, many differences exist
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