Numerical method and analysis of a tube indirect evaporative cooler

Abstract

The tube indirect evaporative cooler is energy-saving and environmentally friendly, and its heat transfer mechanism still needs to be fully indicated, for which the numerical method is more suitable than the experiment. Because many numerical researches focusing on the tube indirect evaporative cooler are usually based on the simplified models, such as single tube model, single side model, one-dimensional and two-dimensional model, the further improvement is still needed. Meanwhile, the tube indirect evaporative cooler is always expected to supply more cooling air with lower temperature at lower cost of energy, but many present studies are focusing on the improvement of heat transfer only and ignoring the energy cost. This paper proposed a three-dimensional full-scale numerical model and method verified by the experimental data, by which, the energy output (primary air-cooling capacity) and quality (temperature of primary air outlet) at the resistance loss(resistance) of the tube indirect evaporative cooler are analyzed with the help of Fluent software.

Numerical Analysis on Performance Improvement of a Vertical Plate Indirect Evaporative Cooler with Baffles

“…The existing 3-D simulation calculations tend to be complex and time-consuming [8]. The Euler multiphase flow model [31,32] requires a high-quality grid, which results in a significant amount of computing resources being occupied. The discrete phase model (DPM) [33] enables the simulation of droplet movement and evaporation processes instead of water film.…”