• 한국신재생에너지학회:학술대회논문집
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• 2008.05a
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• pp.154-156
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• 2008

A prototype of the desiccant cooling system with a regenerative evaporative cooler was built and tested for the performance evaluation. The regenerative evaporative cooler is to cool a stream of air using evaporative cooling effect without an inc6rease in the humidity ratio. It is comprised of multiple pairs of dry and wet channels and the evaporation water is supplied only to the wet channels. By redirecting a portion of the air flown out of the dry channel into the wet channel, the air can be cooled down to a temperature lower than its inlet wet-bulb temperature at the outlet end of the dry channels. Incorporating a regenerative evaporative cooler eliminates the need for deep dehumidification in the desiccant rotor that is necessary to achieve low air temperature in the system with a direct evaporative cooler. Subsequently, the regenerative evaporative cooler enables the use of low temperature heat source to regenerate the dehumidifier permitting the desiccant cooling system more beneficial compared with other thermal driven air conditioners. At the ARI condition with the regeneration temperature of $60^{\circ}C$, the prototype showed the cooling capacity of 4.4 kW and COP of 0.75.

• 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 $23.7^{\circ}C$.

• 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.

• Korean Journal of Air-Conditioning and Refrigeration Engineering
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• v.19 no.10
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• pp.687-694
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• 2007

Cycle simulation is peformed for two types of the desiccant cooling system incorporating a regenerative evaporative cooler. The cooling capacity and COP are evaluated at various effectiveness values of the regenerative evaporative cooler, the desiccant rotor and the sensible heat exchanger. As either of the effectiveness of the regenerative evaporative cooler or the humidity effectiveness of the desiccant rotor increases, both the cooling capacity and COP increase, but the enthalpy leak ratio gives the opposite effect on the system performance. It is found that COP of cycle A mainly depends on the humidity effectiveness of the desiccant rotor, while for cycle B enthalpy leak ratio of desiccant rotor has the major impact on COP. The effect of the sensible heat exchanger on the cooling capacity is small about 1/10 compared with those of other components.

• Korean Journal of Air-Conditioning and Refrigeration Engineering
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• v.27 no.9
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• pp.475-483
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• 2015

In Korea, a typically hot and humid summer means that air-conditioners consume a large quantity of electricity; accordingly, the simultaneous usage of an indirect evaporative cooler may reduce the sensible-heat level and save the amount of electricity that is consumed. In this study, the heat-transfer and pressure-drop characteristics of an indirect evaporative cooler made of paper/plastic film were investigated under both dry and wet conditions; for the purpose of comparison, an indirect evaporative cooler made of plastic film was also tested. Our results show that the indirect evaporative efficiencies under a wet condition are greater than those under a dry condition, and the efficiencies of the paper/plastic sample (109% to 138%) are greater than those (67% to 89%) of the plastic sample; in addition, the wet-surface, indirect evaporative efficiencies of the paper/plastic sample are 32% to 36% greater than those of the plastic sample. Further, the wet-surface pressure drops of the paper/plastic sample are 13% to 23% larger than those of the plastic sample, and this might have been caused by the surface roughness of the samples. A rigorous heat-transfer analysis revealed that, for the plastic sample, 30% to 37% of the wet channels remained dry, whereas all of the channels were wet for the paper/plastic sample.

• Korean Journal of Air-Conditioning and Refrigeration Engineering
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• v.16 no.2
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• pp.121-127
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• 2004

This paper describes conceptual development and idea-verification of a sub-miniature portable cooler which dose not necessitate any pre-cooling nor any external energy supply. The basic principle of the cooling mechanism is the vaporization of water and sub-sequent cooling due to the evaporative latent heat loss. In this work, the vaporization of the water is stimulated by desiccant material to improve the cooling effect. The evaporative cooling caused by the desiccant is modeled and analyzed considering the sorption characteristics of the desiccant. In addition, the portable cooler is fabricated in the shape of a thin pad, and its cooling characteristics are tested and compared with the analytic results.

• Proceedings of the SAREK Conference
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• 2005.11a
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• pp.359-364
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• 2005

In dehumidification evaporation cooling system. the regeneratie evaporative cooler(REC) makes an important role to reduce the sensible cooling load in the system through evaporative cooling, By this reason, many studies about increasing the cooling capacity of the REC were undertook. In this paper, we analyzed the cooling characteristics of the REC due to the structures of the REC and determined the best structure for the REC's effectiveness and cooling capacity. From the study. we could obtain some important results: at first. corrugated type has the benefit to expand the channel width of the REC, But because the type has some weak points about the size and weight. there is almost no benefit to improve the performance of the REC. Through these reasons. we decided that finned type is the best structure to improve the performance of the REC.

• Journal of the Korea Academia-Industrial cooperation Society
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• v.17 no.11
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• pp.732-739
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• 2016

In Korea, the summer is hot and humid, and much electricity is consumed for air conditioning. Thus, the simultaneous usage of an indirect evaporative cooler and a common air conditioner could reduce the sensible heat and save electricity. This study developed a U-type cross-counter flow indirect evaporative cooler (IEC) made of plastic and paper. The efficiencies were compared with those of a cross-flow IEC. The specimen was $500mm{\times}500mm{\times}1000mm$. the results show that the indirect evaporation efficiencies of the cross-counter flow sample were 6-21% higher than those of the cross-flow sample. The pressure drops of the cross-counter sample were 51-66% higher. Thermal analysis based on the -NTU method predicted the experimental data within 10%. The electrical energy saved by the use of the cross-counter flow IEC was larger than that of the counter flow IEC, and the difference increases with the velocity. However, the the cross-counter IEC is two times larger than the cross-flow IEC, which may increase the material cost and water usage.

• 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.28 no.8
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• pp.316-324
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• 2016

This study investigated a compact regenerative evaporative cooler (REC). To achieve practical applications of an REC, it is very important to consider the compactness as well as the cooling performance. Therefore, a prototype of the REC was designed and fabricated to improve the compactness by reducing the length through the insertion of fins in both the dry and wet channels. The REC prototype was tested in terms of performance evaluation under various operating conditions. An analytical model was also developed to analyze the effects of the axial conduction through the solid body of the REC, the wetness of the surface in the wet channel, and the thermal capacity of the evaporation water flow. The model was validated by comparing the results of a simulation with experimental data. The numerical simulation was based on the model to analyze the performance of the REC and to suggest methods to improve the cooling performance of the REC. Finally, the performance of the present REC was compared to that obtained in previous experimental studies. The results showed that the REC prototype in the present study is the most compact and achieves the highest cooling performance.