• Korean Journal of Air-Conditioning and Refrigeration Engineering
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• v.18 no.9
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• pp.714-721
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• 2006

In evaporative cooling applications, the evaporation water is supplied usually sufficiently larger than the amount evaporated to enlarge contact surface between the water and the air. Especially in indirect evaporative coolers, however, if the evaporation water flow rate is excessively large, the evaporative cooling effect is not used for heat absorption from the hot fluid but spent to the sensible cooling of the evaporation water itself. This would result in a decrease in the cooling performance of the indirect evaporative cooler. In this study, the effects of the evaporation water flow rate on the cooling performance are investigated theoretically. The cooling process in an indirect evaporative cooler is modeled into a set of linear differential equations and solved to obtain the exact solutions to the temperatures of the hot fluid, the moist air, and the evaporation water. Based on the exact solutions, it is analyzed how much the cooling performance is affected by the evaporation water flow rate. The results show that the decrease in the cooling effectiveness is substantial even for a small flow rate of the evaporation water and the relative decrease is more serious for a high-performance evaporative cooler.

• Proceedings of the SAREK Conference
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• 2006.06a
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• pp.743-748
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• 2006

Ren et al. analyzed the performance of the indirect evaporative cooler according to the direction of the flow considering evaporation water flow and wetness. However the effect of NTU of each channel on the performance of the indirect evaporative cooler according to the direction of the flow was not analyzed exactly. In this study the effect of the direction of the flow on the Indirect evaporative cooling performance changing NTU of each channel are investigated theoretically. The cooling process of the indirect evaporative cooler by flow direction is modeled into a set of linear differential equations and solved to obtain the exact solutions to the temperatures of the hot fluid, the moist air, and evaporation water. Based on the exact solution in the case of different NTU of each channel, we study the change of the distribution of the temperature according to each flow direction and at the same time analyze the effect of the flow direction on the cooling performance.

• Journal of the Korea Academia-Industrial cooperation Society
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• v.17 no.1
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• pp.88-98
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• 2016

The Korean summer is hot and humid, and air-conditioners consume considerable amounts of electricity. In such cases, the simultaneous use of indirect evaporative coolers may help reduce the sensible heat and save electricity. In this study, heat transfer and pressure drop characteristics of indirect or regenerative evaporative coolers made from plastic/paper are investigated. The results showed that heat and mass transfer model based on the ${\epsilon}-NTU$ method predicted the indirect evaporation efficiencies, cooling capacities and pressure drops adequately. Both for indirect or regenerative evaporative cooler, the indirect evaporation efficiency increased with increasing dry channel inlet temperature or relative humidity. The indirect evaporation efficiency of the regenerative evaporative cooler was larger than that of the indirect evaporative cooler.

• Transactions of the Korean Society of Mechanical Engineers B
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• v.39 no.9
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• pp.743-749
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• 2015

The purpose of this study is to predict the performance of an indirect evaporative cooling system, and to evaluate its energy saving effect when applied to the exhaust heat recovery system of an air-handling unit. We derive the performance correlation of the indirect evaporative cooling system using a plastic heat exchanger based on experimental data obtained in various conditions. We predict the variations in the performance of the system for various return and outdoor air conditioning systems using the obtained correlation. We also analyze the energy saving of the system realized by the exhaust heat recovery using the typical meteorological data for several cities in Korea. The average utilization rate of the sensible cooling system for the exhaust heat recovery is 44.3% during summer, while that of the evaporative cooling system is 96.7%. The energy saving of the evaporative cooling system is much higher compared to the sensible cooling system, and was about 3.89 times the value obtained in Seoul.

• Korean Journal of Air-Conditioning and Refrigeration Engineering
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• v.23 no.1
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• pp.8-15
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• 2011

Cooling load reduction was analysed of a ventilation system adopting a regenerative evaporative cooler. The regenerative evaporative cooler is a kind of indirect evaporative cooler which cools the air down to its inlet dewpoint temperature in principle without change in the humidity ratio. The regenerative evaporative cooler was found able to cool the ventilation air to $18{\sim}21^{\circ}C$ when the outdoor condition ranges $25{\sim}35^{\circ}C$ and 0.01~0.02 kg/kg. When the outdoor humidity ratio is lower than 0.018 kg/kg, the regenerative evaporative cooler was found to provide cooling performance enough to compensate the ventilation load completely and to supply additional cooling as well. Energy simulation during the summer was carried out for a typical office building with the ventilation system using the regenerative evaporative cooler. The results showed that the seasonal cooling load can be reduced by about 40% by applying the regenerative evaporative cooler as a ventilation conditioner. The reduction was found to increase as the outdoor temperature increases and the outdoor humidity ratio decreases.

• Transactions of the Korean Society of Mechanical Engineers B
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• v.41 no.1
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• pp.21-28
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• 2017

Indirect evaporative cooling, which utilizes a cooling effect obtained by the evaporation of water, is energy-effective compared to the conventional vapor compression method. It is also eco-friendly, due to the non-usage of CFC refrigerant. In this study, three indirect evaporative cooler samples of the cross flow type(size: $300mm{\times}300mm{\times}300mm$, channel pitch: $5mm{\times}5mm$, $5mm{\times}7mm$, $7mm{\times}7mm$) were made using plastic/paper composites. Tests were conducted to measure indirect evaporative efficiencies and pressure drops. Results showed that the efficiency was the highest for the $5mm{\times}5mm$ sample, owing to the largest surface area. The saved electrical energy was also the greatest for that sample. The pressure drop of the wet channel was larger than that of the dry channel as expected. A theoretical model was proposed, which underestimated both the indirect evaporation efficiency and the pressure drop.

• Korean Journal of Air-Conditioning and Refrigeration Engineering
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• v.20 no.7
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• pp.462-469
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• 2008

A regenerative evaporative cooler has been fabricated and tested for the evaluation of cooling performance. The regenerative evaporative cooler is a kind of indirect evaporative cooler comprised of multiple pairs of dry and wet channels. The air flowing through the dry channels is cooled without any change in the humidity and at the outlet of the dry channel a part of air is redirected to the wet channel where the evaporative cooling takes place. The regenerative evaporative cooler fabricated in this study consists of the multiple pairs of finned channels in counterflow arrangement. The fins and heat transfer plates were made of aluminum and brazed for good thermal connection. Thin porous layer coating was applied to the internal surface of the wet channel to improve surface wettability. The regenerative evaporative cooler was placed in a climate chamber and tested at various operation condition. The cooling performance is found greatly influenced by the evaporation water flow rate. To improve the cooling performance, the evaporation water flow rate needs to be minimized as far as the even distribution of the evaporation water is secured. At the inlet condition of $32^{\circ}C$ and 50%RH, the outlet temperature was measured at $22^{\circ}C$ which is well below the inlet wet-bulb temperature of $23.7^{\circ}C$.

• Journal of the Korea Academia-Industrial cooperation Society
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• v.21 no.11
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• pp.892-897
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• 2020

Previous plastic heat exchangers are expensive because the mold must be newly manufactured depending on the air conditioning space. On the other hand, danpla is so thin that the heat exchange performance is excellent. Moreover, danpla can be used easily in ventilation systems in view of fabrication. This study proposes correlations for the cooling performance of an indirect evaporative cooling system. The experimental apparatus consisted of a heat exchanger, spray nozzle, fan, thermostat, pump, and measuring sensors for temperature, humidity, and airflow rate. The results showed that the effectiveness decreased gradually as the airflow rate increased. In addition, there was an optimal condition in terms of effectiveness. The performance prediction correlations were determined using the experimental data from various conditions. The proposed correlations showed performance accuracies within 4 % error.

• Transactions of the Korean hydrogen and new energy society
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• v.30 no.2
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• pp.136-146
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• 2019

A solid oxide fuel cell (SOFC) based hybrid desiccant cooling system model is developed to study the effect of fuel utilization rate of the SOFC on the reduction of energy consumption and $CO_2$ emission. The SOFC-based hybrid desiccant cooling system consists of an SOFC system and a Hybrid desiccant cooling system (HDCS). The SOFC system includes a stack and balance of plant (BOP), and HDCS. The HDCS consists of desiccant rotor, indirect evaporative cooler, electric heat pump (EHP), and heat exchangers. In this study, using energy load data of a commercial office building and SOFC-based HDCS model, the amount of ton of oil equivalent (TOE) and ton of $CO_2$ ($tCO_2$) are calculated and compared with the TOE and $tCO_2$ generation of the EHP using grid electricity.

• Transactions of the Korean hydrogen and new energy society
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• v.34 no.6
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• pp.773-784
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• 2023

In this study, a comparative analysis between an electric heat pump cooling system and a hybrid desiccant cooling system is conducted. Desiccant cooling is a thermal driven system with potentially lower electric power consumption than electric heat pump. Hybrid desiccant cooling system simulation includes components such as a desiccant rotor, direct and indirect evaporative coolers, heat exchangers, fans, and a heat pump system. Using dynamic simulations by climate conditions, house cooling temperatures and power consumption for both systems are analyzed for 16 days period in the summer season under climate scenarios for the year 2100 prediction. The results reveal that the hybrid desiccant cooling system exhibits a 5-18% reduction in electric consumption compared to the heat pump system.