A Novel Approach in the Formulation of a Direct Contact Heat Exchanger

Abstract

The paper is concerned with the development of a mathematical approach for a direct contact heat exchanger. An air washer has been considered for the analysis and a one dimensional model using mass and energy balance equation has been developed. The new solution presented for the model shows an excellent agreement with the literature available in the air conditioning. The effect on air temperature inside the air washer by the different parameters such as feeding water temperature, air flow rate and air humidity ratio have been investigated. It has been proved mathematically that as the cooling water temperature at the inlet of air washer and the flow rate of air is decreased the effect of air washer will be more prominent. The model can also be applied to a cooling tower with some modifications.

Keywords: Air cooling rate, heat exchanger, direct evaporative cooling