Experimental investigations for analyzing performance of a direct evaporative cooling system: A case study

ABSTRACT

This paper examines experimentally the performance of direct evaporative cooling system for the hot and dry climate of Vidarbha region (Wardha, Maharashtra, INDIA, 20.75° N, 78.60° E). The evaporative cooling system of larger capacity has been designed for effective cooling of classrooms and laboratory spaces of Bajaj Institute of Technology, an engineering institution located at Wardha District. The cooling structures existing in the literature might not be appropriate for this weather condition. Keeping in view this problem, an evaporative cooling section is fabricated using newly developed porous-cellulose material, structured in the form of a honeycomb, to meet the comfort necessities of hot and dry ambience. The evaporative cooling systems of capacity 6000 CFM have been commissioned in the cooler chambers associated with the amenities described above. Experiments have been conducted in the summer months to examine the saturation efficiency of the system, for various test situations in the amenities. In order to reduce the penetration of sound into the conditioning rooms, the effect of Nitrile rubber sheets was also examined. The direct evaporative cooling system exhibited a saturation efficiency ranging from 45.0% to 68.0% for the different test situations in amenities. The provision of Nitrile rubber inside the walls of cooler chamber could reduce the sound intensity by about 18.8%.

Graphical Abstract

KEYWORDS:

• Evaporative cooling
• saturation efficiency
• temperature
• relative humidity
• cooling capacity

Highlights

• Large scale evaporative cooler system is designed and fabricated

• It’s examined with ‘porous cellulose honeycomb’ cooling stuff

• Cooling performance is evaluated in terms of saturation efficiency

• The results compared with that of existing studies

• Examined material sounds good for large capacity cooling systems

Acknowledgments

The authors of this paper are grateful to the Management of Shiksha Mandal’s Bajaj Institute of Technology (BIT), Wardha for overall support and for permitting to carry out the experimental investigations. We are also thankful to M/s Gentech Engineering Services, Nagpur for fabrication and erection of Air Cooling Facility (ACF) at BIT campus.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Nomenclature

Table

Notes

1. The bracketed text (with three door positions) is to be kept at the end of headling title of Figure 15, on page no. 17 of the pdf proof.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Santosh Bopche

Suraj Vairagade is pursuing his Ph.D. degree from Dr. B. R. Ambedkar National Institute of Technology, Jalandhar. He is presently working as an Assistant Professor in the Department of Mechanical Engineering, Bajaj Institute of Technology Wardha, since 2017. His research contributions involve analyzing evaporative cooling aspects in the domain of Thermal Engineering.

Santosh Bopche received his PhD from one of the premier institutions, IIT Bombay in 2012, in the stream of Thermal and Fluids Engineering. He served National Institute of Technology Hamirpur since December 2015, as an Assistant Professor in the Department of Mechanical Engineering. He is presently working as Senior Assistant Professor in the Department of Mechanical Engineering of Bajaj Institute of Technology, Wardha. He is expert in the area of heat transfer, nuclear reactor thermo-hydraulics, and Solar Energy. Currently, he is working in the area of analyzing and developing energy efficient heat transfer appliances.

Narendra Kanhe received his PhD in Environmental Engineering from Visvesvaraya National Institute of Technology, Nagpur in 2004. He is a Professor of Environmental Engineering since 2010 and presently Principal of Bajaj Institute of Technology, Wardha. His expert area is in Industrial Waste Treatment and currently he is working on air and noise pollution, energy auditing and integrated environmental impact assessment.