EXPERIMENTAL INVESTIGATION OF INDIRECT EVAPORATIVE COOLER USING CLAY PIPE

Year 2017, Volume: 3 Issue: 2, 1163 - 1180, 01.04.2017

Ramakrishnan Ramkumar

https://doi.org/10.18186/thermal.298618

Cited By: 5

Abstract

The aim of the experimental study is to
investigate the performance of indirect evaporator cooler in hot and humid
regions. A novel approach is implemented in the cooler using clay pipe with
different orientation as aligned and staggered position for potential and
feasibility study. The clay pipe is the
ceramic material  where the water filled
inside the tube  and  due to the property of porosity,  the 
water comes outer surface of the tube and contact with the air
passing  over  the tube and air get cooled. A test
rig was designed and fabricated to collect experimental data. The clay pipes were arranged in aligned and
staggered position. In our study heat transfer was analyzed with various air
velocity of 1 m/s to 5 m/s. The air temperature, relative humidity, pressure
drop and water evaporation rate were measured and the performance of the
evaporative cooler was evaluated. The experimental results were compared with
mathematical values. The analysis of the data indicated that cooling effectiveness
improve with decrease of air velocity at staggered position. It was shown that
staggered position has the higher performance (53%) at 5 m/s air velocity in
comparison with aligned position. The experimental of heat and mass transfer
coefficients were compared with Colburn heat and mass transfer group. The test
results were within the limit of 20% of mathematical values.

Keywords

Evaporative cooler, Relative humidity, Porosity, Clay pipe, Effectiveness, Aligned, Staggered

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