Applied Energy 97 (2012) 340–346

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Applied Energy
journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/apenergy

Experimental characterisation of an indirect evaporative cooling prototype

in two operating modes
Eloy Velasco Gómez ⇑, Ana Tejero González, Francisco Javier Rey Martínez
University of Valladolid, School of Engineering, Dept. of Energy and Fluidmechanics, Paseo del Cauce n. 59, 47011 Valladolid, Spain

a r t i c l e i n f o a b s t r a c t

Article history: The present paper aims to describe the experimental study developed to characterise an indirect evapo-
Received 11 July 2011 rative cooling system made of polycarbonate, designed and manufactured by the Thermal Engineering
Received in revised form 13 December 2011 Group of the University of Valladolid; as well as to introduce the main results obtained.
Accepted 14 December 2011
The prototype is characterised by a total heat exchange area of 6 m2, and is installed in a heat recovery
Available online 10 January 2012
cycle in the experimental setup constructed in the laboratory. This setup mainly consists of: an AHU that
enables the reproduction of the different climatic conditions to be tested; a climatic chamber where com-
Keywords:
fort conditions are to be achieved; a circuit to supply water during one of the operating modes; and the
Indirect evaporative cooling
Heat-recovery cycle
due ducts and measurement probes to properly connect the whole system and register the evolution of
Global transfer coefficient the interesting parameters.
Cooling capacity Two operating modes are performed. In the first one, exhaust air from the climate chamber, in comfort
Thermal effectiveness conditions, goes through one side of the heat exchanger, producing heat transfer from the outdoor air
stream through the plastic walls of the system. In the second case, an evaporative cooling mode is imple-
mented by supplying water to the exhaust airstream.
Results obtained show that heat transfer through the heat exchanger polycarbonate wall improves in
the evaporative cooling mode. Furthermore, both cooling capacity and thermal effectiveness of the sys-
tem also increase in the second case. Moreover, global heat transfer coefficient and cooling capacity are
improved by higher outdoor air volume flow rates. Finally, higher outdoor air temperatures imply better
cooling capacities and thermal effectiveness.
Ó 2011 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

1. Introduction dispositions introduced by the European Union focus on energy sav-

ing in the building sector [2]. Consequently, a number of alternatives
Nowadays, energy availability is essential for everyday life and are being proposed for cooling buildings with low energy consump-
welfare all over the world. Therefore, population and economic tion [3,4].
growth is expected to involve a faster increase in energy consump- Recovering of residual energy associated to the exhaust air-
tion, despite the rise in fossil fuel prices. Taking this into account, streams from conditioned spaces becomes then the first objective
many problems such as dependency on sources, increased cost or for energy saving. The importance of this target is even greater con-
the environmental impact of energy use and transformation are sidering the high ventilation rates required to ensure the current
to be faced. Thus, new legislation to ensure sustainable energy pro- acceptable levels of Indoor Air Quality. Heat recovery technologies
vision at an affordable price is needed [1]. for building applications existing in the market are various, and
Particularly, around 40% of the total European energy demand is can be integrated into more complex energy-efficient air-condition-
expected to be generated in the building sector, due to the high ing systems. Heat recovery systems allow preconditioning of the
energy demand required to meet the Indoor Air Quality and thermal supplied outdoor airstream to comply with the expected ventilation
comfort expected in conditioned spaces. Furthermore, in some rates, thus reducing the energy demand to be supported by the
limates electric energy consumption for cooling the air in summer HVAC systems installed to meet the required thermal comfort con-
is acquiring more weight each year, incurring in important energy ditions [5].
demand peaks. Considering that up to 20% of the energy involved Air to air heat recovery systems can operate either as simple
in this field could be saved, it seems obvious that most of the new sensible heat exchangers or permit total heat recovery. Despite
the role they play in energy saving, the main disadvantages are
⇑ Corresponding author. their large dimensions, which complicates their installation; and
E-mail address: eloy@eii.uva.es (E. Velasco Gómez). high price, which increases the needed initial investment, though

0306-2619/$ - see front matter Ó 2011 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
doi:10.1016/j.apenergy.2011.12.065
 E. Velasco Gómez et al. / Applied Energy 97 (2012) 340–346 341

Nomenclature

eT thermal effectiveness m_ dry air mass flow (kgda/s)

eWBT wet bulb thermal effectiveness ho1 outdoor air specific enthalpy at the inlet (kJ/kgda)
To1 outdoor air dry bulb temperature at the inlet (°C) ho2 outdoor air specific enthalpy at the outlet (kJ/kgda)
To2 outdoor air dry bulb temperature at the outlet (°C) Cpa air specific heat capacity (J/kg °C)
Te1 exhaust air dry bulb temperature at the inlet (°C) U global heat transfer coefficient (W/m2 K)
Te2 exhaust air dry bulb temperature at the outlet (°C) A heat exchange area (m2)
TWBe1 exhaust air wet bulb temperature at the inlet (°C) DTLM log mean temperature difference (K)
ECC cooling capacity (W) DT outdoor air temperature drop (K)

the power of the HVAC systems needed to operate in combination 2. Experimental setup
with them would be reduced [6,7].
The application of the evaporative cooling phenomenon as a 2.1. System description and construction
way to reduce energy demand and consumption in conditioned
spaces is widening nowadays due to its cooling potential [8], which A polycarbonate heat exchanger was tested in summer condi-
results of particular interest in some climates [9]. Moreover, it can tions, to study the possibilities of recovering residual energy po-
be applied to improve the heat recovery process of the exhaust air- tential from exhaust air leaving from a conditioned space. The
streams required in ventilation [10]. The key advantage of evapora- heat exchanger has 28 polycarbonate hollow panels of 4 mm have
tive cooling lies in the fact that it is a natural phenomenon which been arranged vertically and equally spaced. The polycarbonate
occurs every time non-saturated air and water come into contact; thickness is 0.1 mm. Figs. 1a and 1b show two views of the system
water then simply evaporates into the air, reducing its tempera- under construction at different stages, while Fig. 2 shows a detail of
ture. Thus, it is a heat and mass transfer process, based on the a hollow polycarbonate panel. The main geometric characteristics
transformation of sensible heat into latent heat. are compiled in Table 1.
Most evaporative systems work depends on the ideal process Like previous prototypes characterised by the authors [19–22],
of adiabatic saturation. Theoretically, in this ideal process water this system has been designed and manufactured by the Thermal
is recirculated, maintaining its temperature close to the inlet air Engineering Group of the University of Valladolid.
adiabatic saturation temperature. If this hypothesis is accepted, The system is installed in a heat recovery cycle into the whole
it can be assured that the whole transformation of sensible heat experimental setup constructed in the laboratory. During the nor-
into latent heat is used to cool down the air, not the water. How- mal operation of the system, outdoor air that is aimed to be pre-
ever, water can be expected to gain some heat loads while pass- conditioned flows through the cross section of the panels, while
ing through certain devices such as pumps or pipes. For that exhaust air from a conditioned space flows upwards inside the hol-
reason, the adiabatic saturation temperature is merely the theo- low panels, as shown in Fig. 3. In this case, heat transfer is pro-
retical limit up to which water could be ideally cooled, though duced from the outdoor airstream in summer conditions to the
it is possible to achieve temperatures below this limit with
certain configurations [11]. Furthermore, the possibilities of evap-
orative cooling are inversely proportional on the relative air
humidity.
Particularly, an indirect evaporative cooling process will be pro-
posed in this study. In this case, evaporative cooling is performed
through one side of a heat exchanger, thus avoiding humidification
of the airstream supplied to the conditioned space [12–14].
The objective of the study presented here is to characterise the
behaviour of a heat exchanger prototype, made of an unusual
material in such systems: polycarbonate, which is considered for
its low cost and weight, and to prevent corrosion. Despite being
unusual, plastic material for indirect evaporative coolers was firstly
considered time ago by Pescod [15], disregarding the apparently
inconvenient low thermal conductivity thanks to the small plate
thickness. Further studies on these materials for heat exchangers
have proved their feasibility [16]. Recent works have considered
this sort of devices in combination with other systems or to pre-
cool make-up air [17,18].
The characterisation is developed through an experimental
analysis, in which the system undergoes different conditions of
the airstream to be pre-conditioned, and operates through two dif-
ferent modes, seeking the determination of how implementing
evaporative cooling would improve the energy recovery perfor-
mance. This will permit to complement previous work on the field
by combining the idea of implementing the evaporative cooling
phenomenon to improve heat recovery in air-to-air systems, with
the use of plastic heat exchangers, interesting for their lightness,
cheapness and corrosion resistance. Fig. 1a. View of the prototype under construction.
342 E. Velasco Gómez et al. / Applied Energy 97 (2012) 340–346

Exhaust air

Outdoor air

t W

Fig. 3. Scheme of the system operation in the first mode.

Fig. 1b. Assembly of the system.

Climate
chamber

AHU
Heat Pump

Polycarbonate
heat exchanger Water distributor
Fig. 2. Detail of a hollow polycarbonate panel.
Water tank

Table 1 Fig. 4. Experimental setup.

Geometric characteristics.

Wall thickness 0.1 mm

Panel thickness ‘‘t’’ 0.4 mm consisted of performing the evaporative cooling inside one of the
Height ‘‘H’’ 0.62 m sides of the system. This second possibility was preferred because
Width ‘‘W’’ 0.18 m
it could be expected better heat transfer through the polycarbonate
Length ‘‘L’’ 0.23 m
Number of plates 28 walls due to the presence of water on the surface of one side of the
Geometry Flat plates heat exchanger.
Heat exchange area 6 m2 To implement this last option, water is supplied from an upper
water distributor, flowing downwards and counterflow in direct
contact with the exhaust airstream. Thus, the system operates as
exhaust airstream, which is in comfort conditions, through the an indirect evaporative cooler.
plastic walls of the system. The whole experimental setup, as shown in Fig. 4, consists of:
A second operation mode is tested to study how the exploita-
tion of the exhaust air energy potential is improved enabling evap- – An Air Handling Unit (AHU) that provides the outdoor airstream
orative cooling. For this purpose, two alternatives were considered volume flow needed for ventilation, in the studied summer
initially. One possibility was to perform an adiabatic cooling of the conditions.
exhaust airstream before passing through the system, by spraying – A climate chamber, whose dimensions are 4  4  3 m3, where
water. However, this option, which is the one proposed in the the environmental comfort conditions have been created with
Spanish norm [23], was rejected in favour of a second one, which the aid of a heat pump.
 E. Velasco Gómez et al. / Applied Energy 97 (2012) 340–346 343

Table 2 T o1  T o2
Design of experiments. eWBT ¼ ð2Þ
T o1  T WBe1
Operation modes Outdoor air volume Outdoor air dry bulb
flow, V (m3/h) temperature, T (°C)
– The cooling capacity will permit determining the amount of
energy involved in the process, and thus quantifying the cooling
M1 – dry (basic) V1 – 125 T1 – 25
V2 – 200 T2 – 30
achieved in the outdoor airstream used for ventilation and that
is aimed to be pre-conditioned.
M2 – indirect V3 – 300 T3 – 35 _  ðho1  ho2 Þ
ECC ¼ m ð3Þ
evaporative V4 – 400 T4 – 40
cooling However, as the outdoor airstream does not have its humidity
rate modified, this parameter can be calculated as follows:
_  Cpa  ðT o1  T o2 Þ
ECC ¼ m ð4Þ
– The air pipes connect the different elements of the air circuit
– The global heat transfer coefficient determines the heat transfer
mentioned above with the system. They allow directing the out-
performance of the system as a heat exchanger, and is defined
door airstream from the AHU and the exhaust air from the cli-
as:
mate chamber to the system, as well as supplying the pre-
ECC
conditioned air from the system to the conditioned space. They U¼ ð5Þ
A  DT LM
also allow the exhaust air to be discharged to the environment
at the outlet of the system. where
– A water circuit including a lower water tank, a water distributor
ðT o1  T e2 Þ  ðT o2  T e1 Þ
and a pump, that supplies water required in the second opera- DT LM ¼   ð6Þ
ðT o1 T e2 Þ
tion mode tested. ln ðT o2 T e1 Þ
– Measurement equipment: to measure dry bulb temperature
and relative humidity, Pt100 temperature probes and capacitive The product of the global heat transfer coefficient and the ex-
hygrometers are arranged in the outdoor and exhaust air- change area will be called thermal conductance.
streams, at the inlet and outlet of the system. Besides, hardware
and software are required to register these parameters. A previ- 3.1. Thermal effectiveness
ously calibrated orifice plate is used to measure pressure drop
and air volume flow. As can be seen from results represented in Figs. 5a and 5b, out-
door air temperature drop achieved in the system improves for
higher values of this temperature at the inlet. This is caused by
2.2. Design of experiments
the higher temperature difference in relation to the exhaust air-
stream maintained at the comfort conditions established inside
To perform the experimental characterisation of the prototype
the climate chamber, thus increasing the heat transfer.
made of polycarbonate in the two operation modes introduced,
Moreover, the temperature drop is higher with lower air vol-
two parameters have been varied and controlled, both related to
ume flows, because the residence time is longer and so it is the
the outdoor airstream used for ventilation: air volume flow and
dry bulb temperature. Four levels of air volume flow and four fur-
ther levels of dry bulb temperature are considered for both opera-
tion modes, as shown in Table 2. Thus, a total of 32 tests have been
performed. For the second mode of operation, water mass flow
supplied by the distributor has been maintained constant at
approximately 0.11 kg/s during all tests.
Dry bulb temperature and relative humidity have been mea-
sured for both outdoor and exhaust airstreams at the inlet and out-
let of the system, once stationary operating conditions have been
reached. From the registered measures, three parameters have
been defined to study the operation performance of the system
when both operating modes and the different outdoor airstream
conditions are tested: cooling capacity, thermal effectiveness, and
Fig. 5a. Temperature drop of outdoor air, dry operation mode.
the global heat transfer coefficient.

3. Results and discussion

The following parameters have been defined:

– Thermal effectiveness [24]:

The dry bulb thermal effectiveness can be defined as follows:

T o1  T o2
eT ¼ ð1Þ
T o1  T e1
However, for the second operation mode, in which the system
works as an indirect evaporative cooler, it appears more interesting
to study the wet bulb thermal effectiveness, because the minimum
temperature up to which the air could be ideally cooled is the wet Fig. 5b. Temperature drop of outdoor air, indirect evaporative cooling operation
bulb temperature of exhaust air. Thus, it can be expressed as [24]: mode.
344 E. Velasco Gómez et al. / Applied Energy 97 (2012) 340–346

Fig. 6a. Thermal effectiveness, dry operation mode.

Fig. 8a. Cooling capacity, dry operation mode.

Fig. 6b. Thermal effectiveness, indirect evaporative cooling operation mode.

Fig. 8b. Cooling capacity, indirect evaporative cooling operation mode.

Fig. 9a. Thermal conductance, dry operation mode.

Fig. 7. Wet bulb thermal effectiveness, indirect evaporative cooling operation
mode.

time while air is treated. It is also noticeable that the air volume
flow has little relevance for low outdoor air temperatures at the in-
let. Consequently, the effect of the temperature difference between
the airstreams involved in the process is the most determinant fac-
tor in this case.
Another interesting result is the improvement in the tempera-
ture drops obtained in the second operation mode. As can be seen,
the presence of water in the exhaust air side of the prototype al-
lows obtaining higher temperature drops. This can be explained
considering, firstly, the cold temperature of the water supplied,
existing an important heat exchange between this liquid and the Fig. 9b. Thermal conductance, indirect evaporative cooling operation mode.
outdoor airstream; and secondly because the exhaust airstream
temperature is also reduced by the effect of the evaporative cool-
ing, and thus the temperature difference between both airstreams expected showed deviations in the values registered for the ex-
is increased, achieving a higher heat exchange between them. The haust air volume flow, which is successfully maintained around
increase in film coefficients due to the presence of water would be 260 m3/h for the remaining tests. Actually, exhaust air volume
a less remarkable cause, as it has not been observed any improve- flows registered for tests M1-V1 at temperature levels T2, T3 and
ment in the global heat transfer coefficient (see Figs. 9a and 9b for T4; and tests M1–V2–T1, M1–V3–T2, scarcely reach 180 m3/h. In
thermal conductance). the case of the lowest tested supply air volume flow, this is
All these trends are more clearly shown by the results regarding unavoidable due to the higher exhaust air volume flow and conse-
the second operation mode. However, those tests performed in the quent depression in the climate chamber. Nonetheless this is a rare
dry operation mode that adjust less clearly to the tendency case in air conditioning, as usually conditioned spaces are required
 E. Velasco Gómez et al. / Applied Energy 97 (2012) 340–346 345

to be overpressurised. Deviation in the other three cases would be mean temperature differences. Thus, the results obtained in Figs.
due to variability in the experimental work. 9a and 9b, in which the thermal conductance maintains an approx-
Nonetheless, the thermal effectiveness, defined in relation to imately constant value, appear predictable.
exhaust air dry bulb temperature at the inlet, does not vary signif- During the design of the prototype, the main advantage that
icantly with the entering outdoor air dry bulb temperature, but it justified performing the evaporative cooling inside the system in-
really does with different air volume flows (Figs. 6a and 6b). Nev- stead of upstream, was the fact that the presence of liquid im-
ertheless, for the first operation mode in the same particular cases proves the film convection coefficient in the heat exchange.
indicated before, deviations when the exhaust air volume flow var- However, results do not clearly prove this, as can be seen in Figs.
ied from the level established can also be appreciated, though less 9a and 9b, where only for the lowest tested air volume flow the
clearly. Thermal effectiveness appears to be improved by lower air thermal conductance presents a significant increase for the second
volume flows, which can be explained as it was done for the tem- operation mode. This could be explained considering that, due to
perature drop. the narrow section of the polycarbonate panels used for the man-
Notice that, as happens in the case of the thermal conductance ufacturing, for high air volume flows, which could be obtained in
(Figs. 9a and 9b), results for an outdoor air temperature at the inlet the exhaust airstream due to an overpressure in the climate cham-
of 25 °C have not been considered in the figures below. This is be- ber generated by high supply airflows, the section would not be
cause results for low temperatures are not representative, due to wide enough to allow water flow through, and thus some paths
the scarce difference between this value and that of exhaust air- of the section would be filled by downstream water, operating
stream, which incurs in instabilities in the expression of the loga- the remaining paths like they did in the first mode.
rithmic mean temperature difference. It is remarkable, however, the fact that overall values improve
However, for the second operation mode the wet bulb thermal for the studied higher air volume flows. This could be expected be-
effectiveness was also defined, and considered a more interesting cause higher flows cause better convection film coefficients, and
parameter than the expression related to the exhaust air dry bulb thus heat transfer is improved.
temperature in this case, for the reasons already introduced. Actu- Notice that, as it was indicated in the case of the thermal effec-
ally, results at low outdoor air temperatures can be considered tiveness, results for the lowest outdoor air temperature at the inlet
now, as their difference from the value of exhaust air wet bulb are not representative. This is due to the same reason already pre-
temperature does not incur in instabilities of the parameter sented, as the defined expression of the global heat transfer coeffi-
expression in any case. cient becomes instable if this temperature approaches that of
It can be inferred from Fig. 7 that wet bulb thermal effectiveness exhaust air at the inlet.
shows a similar trend for lower air volume flows. A slightly Moreover, for the first operation mode, those tests that show
increasing tendency for higher outdoor air temperatures can, how- higher deviations from the expected constant tendency are the
ever, be appreciated in this case, though in any case turns to be ones for which also deviations were registered in the exhaust air
representative (see slopes given in Fig. 7). This could be due to a volume flow.
possible increase in the exhaust air dry bulb temperature, and con-
sequently in its wet bulb temperature.
3.4. Comparison with existing alternatives

3.2. Cooling capacity

It has been argued that implementing the evaporative cooling
phenomenon in one side of the heat exchanger was preferred to
The most interesting parameter in terms of performance is,
performing both processes separately, being this last option the
however, the system cooling capacity (Figs. 8a and 8b). The cooling
one proposed in the Spanish Norm [23]. The proposed system usu-
capacity presents the same increasing trend as the thermal effec-
ally consists of a Rigid Media Pad Evaporative Cooler installed in
tiveness with the variation of the outdoor air temperature. How-
the exhaust airstream, then passing this airstream through a Ro-
ever, in this case the parameter value improves for higher
tary Heat-Recovery system to precondition the supply airstream.
volume flows. This is because the cooling capacity considers the
The alternative selected thus results to be interesting for its
air flow rate (though expressed in terms of air mass flow instead
greater compactness. Moreover, the use of plastic materials makes
of volume flow) treated by the system, which is not represented
the heat exchanger lighter and cheaper, and enables the imple-
by the thermal effectiveness. Consequently, although lower air vol-
mentation of the evaporative cooling phenomenon inside, avoiding
ume flows allow higher temperature drops due to the longer resi-
corrosion. This also avoids possible mixing between exhaust and
dence time, the amount of treated air is also lower, and thus the
supply airstreams.
amount of involved energy. The smaller slope obtained at lower
During the design, however, better convective film coefficients
outdoor air volume flows in the first operation mode could be
were expected in this alternative thanks to the existence of a water
due to the already proposed cause that also lower exhaust air vol-
film on the heat exchange walls, which have not been perceived in
ume flows were obtained.
the results for the operating conditions tested. Consequently, no
Comparing the cooling capacity between both operation modes
noticeable improvement in the performance could be highlighted,
introduced, it can be seen that this parameter also improves if the
in comparison to the separated-systems alternative. For this rea-
evaporative cooling phenomenon is involved in the process. In this
son, an improvement in the design is proposed by increasing the
case, better performance results can be explained abiding by the
polycarbonate panel thickness in order to permit higher water
same reasons exposed before concerning the thermal effectiveness.
flows and better water distribution inside the paths, and thus bet-
ter global heat transfer coefficients.
3.3. Global heat transfer coefficient and thermal conductance

The system is basically a heat exchanger, which can operate as 4. Conclusions

an indirect evaporative cooler if water is supplied through one of
its sides, being in direct contact with the exhaust airstream. The prototype made of polycarbonate panels works as a heat
Notice that the expression defined for the global heat transfer exchanger used for exploiting the cooling potential of exhaust air
coefficient is related to the achieved cooling capacity, but neutral- from a conditioned space, and thus recovering residual energy. It
ises the temperature drop value by introducing the logarithmic has been designed considering the possibility of an alternative
346 E. Velasco Gómez et al. / Applied Energy 97 (2012) 340–346

operation mode like an indirect evaporative cooler, and results Acknowledgements

have been studied to determine the improvement introduced in
the energy recovery performance. This work forms part of the research being carried out within
The global heat transfer coefficient has been defined to charac- the framework of the ‘‘Reduction of energy consumption and car-
terise the behaviour of the system as a heat exchanger. This param- bon dioxide emission in buildings combining evaporative cooling,
eter remains approximately constant with change of the outdoor free cooling and energy recovery in all-air systems’’, project sup-
air temperature, though increases for higher air volume flow rates. ported by the Ministry of Science and Technology through the call
However, it is not a representative parameter for low tempera- for scientific research and technological development research
tures. The introduction of an alternative parameter that could bet- projects. Reference number ENE2008-02274/CON.
ter represent the operation mode of the heat recovery systems by Ana Tejero wants to thank the Consejería de Educación of the
considering the relevant temperature differences involved in the Junta de Castilla y León for the support provided through the Re-
heat exchange, as for example between airstreams at the inlet, ap- gional Strategy of Scientific Research and Technological Develop-
pears necessary as future work to be developed. ment of the European Social Fund.
The presence of water in one side of the heat exchanger does
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