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Conductive Thermal Interaction in Evaporative Cooling Process
Abstract
It has long been recognized that evaporative cooling is an effective and
logical substitute for mechanical cooling
in hot-arid climates. This paper explores
the application of evaporative coolers to
the hot-humid climates using a controlled
temperature of the incoming water. With
exploitation of the effect of the thermal
conduction between cool underground water
and entering air, the performance of an
evaporative cooler can be enhanced and its
use in hot and moderately humid climates
should also be considered. Usually the
dry-bulb depression performed by an
evaporative cooler depends solely on the
ambient wet-bulb temperature. The cool
underground water in an evaporative cooler
can cause not only adiabatic evaporation
but also sensible heat transfer between
water and entering air for thermal comfort.
This hybrid system outperforms the
two-stage evaporative cooler without
employing a complicated heat exchanger
(indirect system), if the temperature of
underground water is lower than the ambient
wet-bulb temperature. Several areas in the
southern hot-humid parts of the U.S. meet
this condition.
Citation
Kim, B. S.; Degelman, L. O. (1990). Conductive Thermal Interaction in Evaporative Cooling Process. Energy Systems Laboratory (http://esl.tamu.edu); Texas A&M University (http://www.tamu.edu). Available electronically from https : / /hdl .handle .net /1969 .1 /6604.