Simulation and Performance Evaluation of Desiccant Cooling System Coupled to an Earth-to-Air Heat Exchanger

The present study aims to propose and evaluate a new hybrid system consisting of a desiccant cooling system and earth-to-air heat exchanger (EAHE). The thermal performance of the proposed system is compared with the usual desiccant cooling system and an evaporative cooler. The analogy method is used to model a desiccant wheel. To investigate the heat transfer in EAHE and soil around it, the EAHE and soil around it are divided into several equal parts. The heat transfer problem in the solution domain is solved using resistance-capacity models. The simulations are performed for Tehran city using outdoor realistic weather data. The results reveal that in the proposed hybrid cooling system, the average temperature of the entering air a room is 1.1 and 5.3 °C lower than that of the usual desiccant cooling system and the evaporative cooler, respectively. The EAHE parametric analysis shows that by increasing the pipe length from 30 m to 50 m, the average cooling capacity of the overall system increases by 3.44%. It was also found that increasing the pipe diameter does not affect the cooling capacity significantly. Increasing the volume flow rate value from 200 to 400 cfm increases the average cooling capacity by 94.58%.

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