Mathematical model of the evaporative condenser for on-site condition simulation

Abstract

Evaporative condensers (ECs) have been widely adopted in the fields of refrigeration, petrochemicals, etc. owing to the advantages of low water and energy consumption. However, due to the lack of a reliable mathematical model, the energy-saving potential of ECs remains unexplored. To realize thermodynamic performance predictions under on-site conditions, a generic model with 4 characteristic parameters, that could be identified specifically for different ECs, is innovatively proposed in this paper. Taking the refrigeration system of a food factory as a case study, a well-organized data processing method including filtering, screening, and supplementation is established. The processed real-operating data is used for characteristic parameters identification and model validation. Simulations indicate satisfactory transferability and a good agreement between the test and simulated results, with average relative errors of 2.10 % and 2.87 % for the training and test sets, respectively. Based on the proposed model, the overall performance and the working fluids’ thermodynamic state of the EC during operation are investigated carefully. It could be concluded that the air–water mass transfer is the dominating factor in enhancing EC's thermodynamic performance, and air flow shows greater significance than water in improving heat exchange capacity. The heat exchange intensity of the superheating and two-phase zones is similar, while that of the subcooling zone is the lowest, averaging only 37.9 %.