Abstract
An indirect evaporative cooling system combining with thermoelectric cooling technology (i.e., TIEC system) is proposed, in which a counter-flow plate-fin indirect evaporative cooler is inserted with thermoelectric cooling (i.e., TEC) modules. In hot and humid climate, condensation may occur on the dry channel surface of the cooler. For the TIEC system, with the aid of TEC technology, the surface temperature of the dry channel can be much lower than that of a traditional indirect evaporative cooler, thus, the condensation from the primary air is more likely to take place. A numerical model of this novel TIEC system is developed with specifically taking condensation from primary air into account. Detailed performance analysis of the TIEC system is carried out. Analytical results found that the condensation from primary air reduces the dew point effectiveness by up to 45.0% by weakening the sensible heat transfer but increases the coefficient of performance by up to 62.2% by increasing the latent heat transfer, under given conditions. The effects of main operating conditions, such as the electrical current I and number n of TEC modules, inlet temperature Tp,i, humidity ratio RHp and velocity Vp of the primary air, and the mass flow rate ratio x of secondary to primary air, are investigated under non-condensation and condensation states. It is shown that condensate is more easily produced under higher I, n, Tp,i, RHp, x and lower Vp.
Highlights
Evaporative cooling technology, which uses latent heat of water evaporation as the cooling source, has aroused wide attention for the last few years in building energy conservation due to its unique advantages of energy saving, environmental friendliness, simple structural configuration and easy maintenance [1]
At the dry channel outlet, primary air is partially used as supply air, and the rest is redirected into the wet channel from bottom up as the secondary working air
Numerical investigations have been conducted to evaluate the performance of the novel TIEC system under different states
Summary
Evaporative cooling technology, which uses latent heat of water evaporation as the cooling source, has aroused wide attention for the last few years in building energy conservation due to its unique advantages of energy saving, environmental friendliness, simple structural configuration and easy maintenance [1]. Many researchers have proposed novel cooler configurations to further enhance the performance of IEC systems, and achieve sub-wet bulb temperature. Simulation models, which consider different factors such as heat conduction, evaporative water, variable Lewis factor and loss water temperature variation, have been proposed and used for parameter analysis, performance prediction and configuration optimization of indirect evaporative coolers or hybrid cooling systems with indirect evaporative coolers [10,11,12]. For TIEC system as mentioned above [9], the surface temperature of the product air channel would be much lower than that of the traditional indirect evaporative cooler due to the assistance of TEC modules, condensation from the primary air is more likely to occur. The impact of the condensate from the primary air on the TIEC system performance will be analyzed under various operating parameters, including the electrical current and number of TEC modules, inlet temperature, humidity ratio, and velocity of the primary air, and the mass flow rate ratio of secondary air to primary air
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