A review of experimental studies on contaminant transfer in energy exchangers (rp-1780)

Abstract

This article presents a literature review on experimental studies for measuring gaseous contaminant transfer in different energy exchangers. The experimental methods, measured contaminant transfer rates and uncertainties (where available) for different gases are summarized, although most studies do not include any uncertainty analysis. The measured transfer rates vary between 0% and 75%, with uncertainties between 1% and 30%. The literature review shows that mechanisms for gaseous contaminant transfer in energy exchangers are air leakage, carryover, and phase change mechanisms such as: adsorption/desorption, condensation/evaporation, and absorption/evaporation. There is an established test methodology to quantify the gaseous contaminant transfer in energy exchangers due to air leakage and carryover; however, there is no method in the literature to quantify gaseous contaminant transfer due to the phase change mechanisms. Thus, a method to determine the contaminant transfer due to the phase change mechanisms is proposed and applied to the available literature data.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the American Society of Heating, Refrigerating and Air-Conditioning Engineers.