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Theoretical modelling of silica gel desiccant wheels

journal contribution
posted on 2017-12-06, 00:00 authored by Ramadas NarayananRamadas Narayanan
Desiccant evaporative cooling system is a potential environment-friendly alternative toconventional vapour compression chillers. A desiccant wheel is the heart of this heat driven cooling system and it uses a solid desiccant for dehumidification with silica gel being most widely used. The desiccant material is coated, impregnated or formed in a place on the supporting rotor structure. The matrix consists of multiple channels in the direction of axis of rotation of the wheel. Proper design of the wheel is very important for the successful operation of the system and theoretical models are very useful tool in predicting the performance and design optimization. One of the major difficulties in numerical modelling of the desiccant wheel is the lack of knowledge of adsorption equilibrium of porous medium. In this paper, adsorption equilibria of the silica gel is studied and the different theories existing to characterize the adsorption process and different equations for prediction of adsorption equilibria are compared and used in a theoretical model predicting the wheel performance. The results of the different models are compared with experimental data and conclusions are drawn.

History

Volume

787

Start Page

311

End Page

317

Number of Pages

7

eISSN

1662-7482

ISSN

1660-9336

Location

Switzerland

Publisher

Scientific.Net

Language

en-aus

Peer Reviewed

  • Yes

Open Access

  • No

External Author Affiliations

School of Engineering and Technology (2013- ); TBA Research Institute;

Era Eligible

  • Yes

Journal

Applied mechanics and materials.