Computational Performance Analysis of an Indirect Evaporative Cooler (IDEC) Unit
Abstract
Nowadays the usage of conventional air conditioners is becoming a problem for environmental aspects point of view due to the release of chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs) and ozone depletion. To overcome this problem, it is proposed to go with Indirect Evaporative Cooler (IDEC) because in this the refrigerant is replaced with water. This work deals with the simulation and performance of an Indirect Evaporative Cooler (IDEC) of flat plate size of 40 mm x 60 mm is analyzed by placing a countercurrent sensible plate heat exchanger. Computational techniques of CFD analysis have been carried out on IDEC flat plate heat exchanger. The effect of parameters such as the velocity of primary air stream and inlet water temperature is investigated on the performance of IDEC. Thermal effectiveness, Cooling Capacity and Thermal Conductance are the output parameters are analyzed and compared the results both from simulation and theoretical aspects of view. For the better performance of IDEC, some of experiments is also executed with different volume flow rates and with different inlet temperatures of air at 40, 35, 30, and 250C. After evaluation of the results, it has shown the output parameters of thermal effectiveness, cooling capacity, and thermal conductance have shown better values at a 175 m3/hr volume flow rate of air.
