Variable operating conditions characteristics of circulating wheel dehumidification air conditioning system

Abstract

For its efficient application of low-grade energy, the circulating wheel dehumidification air conditioning system has received a lot of attention and research in response to the shared challenges of environmental protection, energy conservation, and low carbon. Desiccant wheel dehumidification air conditioning systems can recycle waste heat as a desiccant wheel regeneration heat source and improve air quality, which is expected to achieve low energy consumption and high-efficiency dehumidification. The desiccant wheel dehumidification air conditioning system is divided into a treatment air channel and a regenerative air channel. Treated air is directly sent to the air conditioning room after dehumidification and cooling, and regenerative air is directly discharged to the outdoors after the completion of regeneration. Therefore, a new type of recirculated desiccant wheel dehumidification air conditioning system is established. In this paper, the experimental study of the circulating regeneration wheel dehumidification air conditioning system is carried out. Dehumidification characteristics under variable working conditions are quantified and studied. Compared with the water cooling unit, the dehumidification rate of the new circulating wheel air conditioning system is improved effectively. The effects of different treated air temperatures (28 °C–40 °C) and treated air relative humidity (50%–85%) are obtained. The experiment shows that the proposed air conditioning system can effectively improve the dehumidification rate compared with the conventional direct condensation of seawater. Under the same circulating shunt coefficient, the system dehumidification rate increases gradually with the increase of the temperature and humidity of the treated air and the temperature of the reclaimed air. The dehumidification rate has an optimal value, and the corresponding optimal circulation shunt coefficient is 50%–75%, which decreases with the increase of the temperature and humidity of treated air and increases with the increase of the temperature of regenerated air.