Experimental Study on the Thermal Performances of a Tube-Type Indirect Evaporative Cooler

Abstract

The so-called indirect evaporative cooling technology is widely used in air conditioning applications. The thermal characterization of tube-type indirect evaporative coolers, however, still presents challenges which need to be addressed to make this technology more reliable and easy to implement. This experimental study deals with the performances of a tube-type indirect evaporative cooler based on an aluminum tube with a 10 mm diameter. In particular, the required tests were carried out considering a range of dry-bulb temperatures between 16°C and 18°C and a temperature difference between the wet-bulb and dry-bulb temperature of 2°C~4°C. The integrated convective heat transfer coefficient inside the tube in the drenching condition has been found to lie in the range between 36.10 and 437.4 (W/(m2·K)).