Modeling the performance of two-bed, silica gel-water adsorption chillers

Abstract

This article presents a transient model for a two-bed, silica gel-water adsorption chiller. Compared with our previous cyclic-steady-state model, we found very good agreement between our model prediction and experimental data. We found that, regardless of the initial mass distribution, the chiller was able to achieve the same cyclic-steady-state within four cycles or 1800 s. We also demonstrated that the manufacturer had empirically evolved to select a fixed switching and cycle time such that the best peak evaporator temperature suppression, and near maximum cooling capacity can be achieved by a compact design.