In this paper,experimental and numerical studies of heat and mass transfer in a falling film absorber are presented. The investigated absorber is a plate heat exchanger used ina falling film configuration. The ammonia-water solution flows in a falling film mode along the plates. The vapour flows co-current with the falling film and the coolant fluid is in a countercurrent flow with the falling film. A prototype of ammonia-water absorption chiller isused to experimentally study the absorber behaviour in real operating conditions. Amacro study of the absorber and a local analysis deduced from local temperatures measurements along the falling film are presented. A numerical model and a simulation tool aredeveloped in order to complete the experimental investigations.The associatednumerical parametric studyaims to separatethe coolant mass flow rate impact.The model is validated with experimental dataand a maximal relative error of 15 % is observedbetween experimental and numerical results. The results of this study suggest that during the absorption process,mass transfers are controlled by the falling film mass transfer resistance and that the liquid-side heat transfer resistance is negligible.
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