Experimental Investigation of Thermal Performance of Aluminum Foil Coated with Polyester in a Direct Evaporative Cooling System

Abstract

An experimental study was carried out for an evaporative cooling system in order to investigate the effect of using an aluminum pad coated with fabric polyester. In the present work, it was considered to use a new different type of cooling medium and test its performance during the change in the wet-bulb temperature and dry-bulb temperature of the supply air outside of the pad, the relative humidity of the supply air, the amount of air supplied (300-600) CFM and also the change of the amount of circulated water (1.75, 2.5, 4.5) liter per minute. A decrease in the WBT of the air was obtained, whereas the WBT of the air entering the pad was 26.5℃. In contrast, the WBT of the outside air had reached 23℃ even though evaporative cooling is an adiabatic process which makes the WBT of the air that comes out of the pad is equal to the entering air WBT. The decrease in DBT is by changing the amount of air and water passing through the aluminum pad, whereas the DBT of the air entering the pad was 45℃, while the DBT of the outside air had reached 29℃. Also, an essential thing was obtained as this rise in the relative humidity of the air is very small 57%RH compared to the conventional pads, and this gives a positive impression as the air supplied from this pad has less moisture and its ability to carry moisture is much higher than that of air supplied from other pads. This gives a positive impression because the air supplied from this pad has lower humidity and its ability to hold moisture much higher than the air supplied from other traditional pads.