Energy and Buildings 55 (2012) 273284

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An analysis on the energy efciency of air-cooled chillers with water mist system
Jia Yang
a,b,
, K.T. Chan
a
, Xiangsheng Wu
b
, F.W. Yu
c
, Xiaofeng Yang
b
a
Department of Building Services Engineering, The Hong Kong Polytechnic University, Hong Kong, China
b
Department of Real Estate Management and Environmental Engineering, Logistical Engineering University, Chongqing, China
c
Hong Kong Community College, The Hong Kong Polytechnic University, Hong Kong, China
a r t i c l e i n f o
Article history:
Received 23 February 2012
Received in revised form
18 September 2012
Accepted 20 September 2012
Keywords:
Air-cooled chiller
Water mist
Coefcient of performance
Energy saving
a b s t r a c t
This paper presents the effect of operating water mist system to enhance the energy efciency of air-
cooled chillers under various operating conditions. A thermodynamic model for an air-cooled chiller with
twin refrigeration circuits coupled with a water mist system was developed and validated by measured
operating data. The validated model was used to investigate how the thermal properties of the entering
condenser air and the performance of the air-cooled chiller varied under different operating schemes with
water mist pre-cooling. Under the conventional head pressure control (HPC) with a designed water mist
generation rate, the coefcient of performance (COP) increased by up to 21.3%. The chiller performance
could be improved further under variable condensing temperature control (CTC). Under CTC, chiller COP
was increased up to 51.5% with optimal water mist generation rate. The potential energy savings of these
chillers serving a representative ofce building in subtropical climate was evaluated, and CTC coupling
with optimal water mist generation rate would reduce the annual total electricity consumption for cooling
by 14.1%. The water consumption of the water mist system was comparatively small, comparing with
the total water losses for an open-loop cooling tower system with equivalent heat rejection capacity.
2012 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.
1. Introduction
Air-cooled chiller systems are commonly used in commer-
cial buildings due to their exibility. The operation of chillers
usually takes up the highest proportion of the total electricity con-
sumption of buildings [1,2]. Comparing to water-cooled chillers,
air-cooled chillers are regarded as energy inefcient. The decient
performance of air-cooled chillers is mainly due to the traditional
operation under head pressure control (HPC), whereby condenser
fans are staged but minimized to let the condensing temperature
oat around a high set point of 50

C. The condenser fan power

under HPC can be minimized, but the compressor power remains
high, which causes a considerable decrease in COP when the chiller
operates under part load conditions.
As HPC is regarded as energy inefcient, variable condensing
temperature control (CTC) has been proposed as an alternative to
HPC to lower the condensing temperature for air-cooled chillers
[2,3]. Under CTC, the condenser fans are staged as many as needed
to enhance the heat rejection airow for lowering the condensing
temperature. CTCenables the condensing temperature to approach
its lower boundaryandminimize the sumof compressor power and

Corresponding author at: Department of Building Services Engineering, The

Hong Kong Polytechnic University, Hong Kong, China. Tel.: +852 3400 3882;
fax: +852 2765 7198.
E-mail address: jia.yang@connect.polyu.hk (J. Yang).
condenser fan power for all operating conditions, hence improving
the chiller COP. The extent of the condensing temperature drop is,
however, constrained by the dry bulb temperature (DBT) of out-
door air. Evaporative cooling can decrease the temperature of the
ambient air, and is effective for pre-cooling the entering condenser
air so as to improve the performance of the air-cooled chillers. This
concept is appealing at present in consideration of energy saving
and environmental protection.
Refrigeration systems with evaporative coolers have been
applied for years. For the evaporative coolers, ambient air is drawn
or blown through a porous surface wetted with a lm of water.
The air stream is cooled by the evaporation of water, and its DBT
drops to approach its wet bulb temperature (WBT), and evapora-
tive cooling is aneffective low-energy cooling technique [4,5]. With
a reduction of the temperature of the entering condenser air, the
condensing temperature will drop, which results in the decrease
of the compressor power of air-cooled chillers, and the COP of the
systemcouldimprove by anamount of 0.0340.067for eachdegree
Celsius of pre-cooling provided [6]. However, additional fan power
is required for overcoming the airowresistance of the evaporative
cooler, which trades off the reduction of compressor power partly.
Zhang et al. [7] reported that the application of evaporative pre-
coolers improved the COP of air-cooled chillers by 14.7% under the
climatic conditions of Tianjin. According to a reported simulation
study [8], a decrease of 1.414.4% in chiller power was achieved
when an air-cooled reciprocating chiller with an evaporative pre-
cooler operated under HPC. The energy signatures were used to
0378-7788/$ see front matter 2012 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.
http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.enbuild.2012.09.018
274 J. Yang et al. / Energy and Buildings 55 (2012) 273284
Nomenclature
AU
cd
overall heat transfer coefcient of the condenser,
kW/

C
AU
ev
overall heat transfer coefcient of the evaporator,
kW/

C
C
pa
specic heat capacity of air, kJ/kg

C
C
pw
specic heat capacity of water, kJ/kg

C
COP coefcient of performance of chiller
CR compression ratio
heat transfer effectiveness
E power input, kW
h specic enthalpy of the moist air, kJ/(kg dry air)
m
w
mass owrate of chilled water, kg/s
m
wm
water mist generation rate, l/s
N
cf
number of staged condenser fans
P pressure (Pa)
PLR chiller part load ratio
Q chiller cooling output, kW
T
db
ambient dry bulb temperature,

C
T
cdae
temperature of entering condenser air,

C
T
cdal
temperature of leaving condenser air,

C
T
cdsp
set point of condensing temperature,

C
T
chwr
temperature of return chilled water,

C
T
chws
temperature of supply chilled water,

C
T
cdsc
degree of condenser sub-cooling,

C
T
evsh
evaporator superheat,

C
V
a
airowprovided by the staged condenser fans, m
3
/s

a
air density, kg/m
3
W addition of humidity ratio, kg/(kg dry air)
relative humidity
degree of saturation
W air humidity ratio, kg/(kg dry air)

isen
isentropic efciency

cc
combined motor and transmission efciency of
compressors

v
volumetric efciency
Subscripts
cc compressor
cd condenser
cf condenser fan
ch chiller
ev evaporator
m measured value
p predicted value
pump high pressure pump
s saturation water vapor
w water vapor
1 circuit 1 of the chiller
2 circuit 2 of the chiller
11 rst section of evaporator of circuit 1
12 second section of evaporator of circuit 1
compare the energy performance of chillers with various operat-
ing strategies, including HPC, CTC or evaporative pre-cooler [9].
However, the evaporative pre-cooler technology has some adverse
effects including the risk of mineral deposits and corrosion of the
condenser coils, which will reduce the heat transfer effectiveness
with time. The applications of direct evaporative cooler by inject-
ing water on the media pad installed in front of the condenser
of window-air-conditioner andsplit-air-conditioner were reported
[10,11], and the COP could be improved around 50% in the regions
with very hot weather conditions (about 50

C).
Circuit 1
T
c
h
w
r
2
5
6
5
6
Water supply
air
air
1
2
3
4
4
3
C
h
i
l
l
e
d

w
a
t
e
r

Circuit 2
T
c
h
w
s
1. Evaporator 2. Compressor 3. Condenser
4. Expansion valve 5. High pressure pump 6. Nozzles
Fig. 1. Schematic of the chiller and water mist system.
An alternative for evaporative cooler is to install a water mist
systemto pre-cool the air before entering the condenser. The water
mist pre-cooling systemis not a newconcept, and has been applied
successfully in the industries [1214]. However, the application of
water mist pre-cooling associated with a chiller systemis uncom-
mon. It is distinguished fromthe evaporative coolers, and there is
no additional air pressure loss through the wetted media. No addi-
tional fan power incurs, and a small amount of power to drive the
high pressure pumps is the only additional power to be considered.
It is convenient to install a water mist system for any air-cooled
chiller system, which is advantageous in retrotting for the huge
stock of existing air-cooled chillers. Yu and Chan [15] studied the
applicationof water mist by simulation, whichindicatedthat water
mist could improve chiller efciency noticeably. However, these
models were developed based on chillers with one refrigeration
circuit using regression models. There is a lack of research on the
chillers with multiple compressors and optimal water mist gener-
ation under CTC, the characteristics of DBT and relative humidity
(RH) of the entering condenser air, which are the key parameters to
assess the thermal effectiveness of the water mist system. In addi-
tion, there is a lack of detailed analysis on the water consumption
by water mist system.
This paper aims to investigate how the energy performance of
air-cooled chillers with twin refrigeration circuits can be improved
by the water mist pre-cooling under HPC and CTC. A detailed
numerical model of anair-cooledchiller withtwinrefrigerationcir-
cuits and water mist systemis proposed, and applied to analyze the
energy performance under different control strategies. The poten-
tial energy savings resulting fromthe enhanced condenser features
and water consumption by the water mist systemare evaluated for
a representative ofce building in a sub-tropical climate.
2. Chiller and water mist system
The water mist system shown in Fig. 1 comprises a high pres-
sure pump, a lter unit, atomization nozzles, high pressure and low
pressure tubing. The high pressure pump can operate to deliver
water at a high pressure of around 70bar, and the water is forced
through micro nozzles to create a mist of 10m droplets. When
the tiny water droplets are sprayed into the atmosphere, they
J. Yang et al. / Energy and Buildings 55 (2012) 273284 275
quickly absorb the heat in the environment and evaporate, and
the air temperature decreases due to evaporative cooling effect.
When the water mist system is coupled to an air-cooled chiller,
the temperature of the air at the condenser inlet will drop, which
results inlowering the condensing temperature and pressure. With
the decrease of the condensing pressure, the compressor power is
reduced. The chiller efciency will be improved, but the degree of
effectiveness is dependent on the climatic conditions, chiller load
ratios and operational control strategies.
In this study, a chiller plant installed in an institutional com-
plexwas investigated, whichcomprisedveidentical screwchillers
connected in parallel. Each chiller had two refrigeration circuits,
namely circuits 1 and 2, using refrigerant R134a. Each refrigeration
circuit was equipped with two compressors. The nominal cooling
capacity of the studied chiller was 1116kW, rated under the oper-
ating conditions of the entering condenser air temperature at 35

C
and entering/leaving chilled water temperatures at 12

C/7

C. The
rated power of the studied chiller was 398kW. The air-cooled con-
densers contained 16 identical condenser fans to deliver a total
airow rate of 85.5m
3
/s by eight groups, and each refrigeration
circuit had four fan groups. The fan speed was 15.8r/s, and each fan
consumed a power of 2.4kW.
The air-cooled screwchiller plant was installed to provide space
cooling several years ago. In order to improve the energy perfor-
mance, each chiller was equipped with a water mist pre-cooling
systemwith two identical water mist circuits to better control the
water mist generation, as shown in Fig. 1. Each water mist circuit
was equipped with a high pressure pump at rating of 0.75kW, and
the mist system was designed to provide a total mist generation
rate of 0.067l/s. The nozzles were evenly distributed in front of
the entire condenser, and a distance of 750mm was maintained
between the nozzles and the condenser surface to ensure full evap-
oration and perfect cooling effect.
3. Experiment setup
The studied air-cooled screw chiller was operated under head
pressure control. Experiments were conducted to investigate the
performance of the air-cooled chiller with and without water
mist systemover a representative range of ambient dry-bulb tem-
perature (T
db
: 24.333.5

C), ambient wet-bulb temperature (T

wb
:
17.728.3

C) and part load ratio (PLR: 0.31.0) in the local climate.

The operating data were monitored and logged at 15-min inter-
vals over the experimental period, which were used to validate the
chiller model.
Resistance type temperature sensors were used to measure the
temperature of supply andreturnchilledwater withanuncertainty
of 0.1

C. The chilled water ow rate was measured by an ultra-

sonic ow meter with an uncertainty of 0.5% of the measured
value. Compressor power, condenser fan power and high pressure
pumppower weremeteredbypower analyzers withanuncertainty
of 0.1kW. The DBT and RH of ambient air were monitored by a
transmitter with an uncertainty of 0.1

C for air temperature and

2% for RH from10% to 90%, which were used to control the oper-
ation of the water mist systems. There were 3 weatherproof data
loggers to measure the DBT and RH of the entering condenser air,
which were installed at the upper left corner, middle and the lower
right corner of the inlet of the condenser. The measurement range
for RH was from 0 to 100%. The uncertainty of these sensors was
0.2

C for air DBT and 3% for RH when RH was not high, and the
RHaccuracy was 4%incondensing environments. One data logger
was installed at the discharge of the condenser to measure the DBT
and RH of the air leaving the condenser, whose uncertainty was
0.3

C for air DBT and 2.5% for RH from10% to 90%.

Table 1
Experimental results of two systems at specic working conditions.
Parameter AC WM AC WM
Ambient dry bulb temperature (

C) 32.7 32.9 28.0 28.0

Ambient relative humidity (%) 60.1 63.0 78.1 75.3
Chiller load (kW) 1056.3 1103.1 613.8 669.6
Temperature of entering condenser
air (

C)
32.7 31.4 28.0 24.8
Relative humidity of entering
condenser air (%)
60.1 75.3 78.1 97.6
Condensing temperature (

C) 51.2 47.6 49.5 45.6

Evaporating temperature (

C) 3.4 3.3 3.7 3.5

Condenser air exit temperature (

C) 48.5 45.5 46.9 44.3

Chiller power
1
(kW) 377.6 349.8 360.1 336.8
High pressure pump power
2
(kW) 1.5 1.5
Total power
(1+2)
(kW) 377.6 351.3 360.1 338.3
COP 2.8 3.1 1.7 2.0
Note: ACis theconventional air-cooledcondenser; WMis thewater mist pre-cooling.
In order to characterize the performance of the chiller, COP
was calculated by dividing the chiller cooling output with the total
power input. The total power input includes the compressor power,
condenser fan power and high pressure pump power. A higher
value of COP represents a higher efciency of the system.
Q = m
w
C
pw
(T
chwr
T
chws
) (1)
COP =
Q
E
cc
+E
cf
+E
pump
(2)
During the experimental period, the studied chiller operated
with and without water mist pre-cooling for some days, respec-
tively. The water mist system operated in manual mode, and
water mist system was interlocked with the operating chiller in
a wide range of working conditions. Many experimental results
were monitoredat different ambient temperatures. Identical work-
ing conditions for the studied chiller operating with and without
water mist pre-coolingwerenot available. Theexperimental results
of two systems at some similar working conditions are shown in
Table 1. The condensing temperature dropped signicantly due to
the effect of water mist pre-cooling, and hence the chiller power
decreased and the chiller performance was improved noticeably.
Due tothe accuracy of measuredvariables, the uncertainty asso-
ciated with COP was determined by the single sample analysis [16],
using the following equation:
COP
(rms)
=

_
n

i=1
_
x
i

COP
x
i
_
2
(3)
InEq. (3), x
i
is the ithindependent variable, x
i
is the uncertainty
of the variable x
i
, and n is the number of measurements related
to COP. The root sum square error of chiller COP (COP
(rms)
) due
to all the uncertainties of the individual variables was evaluated
to be 0.09 in a COP value of 2.8 at the design condition, and the
uncertainty of COP was 3.2%.
4. Modeling of chiller and water mist system
4.1. Chiller model
The studied air-cooled chiller comprised two refrigeration cir-
cuits as shown in Fig. 2. The chiller model was developed using
the simulation programTRNSYS based on mass and energy conser-
vation laws. Classical heat exchanger efciency method was used
to model the evaporator and condenser. The general equations for
energybalance andthe assumptions made inthe chiller model have
been reported [2].
276 J. Yang et al. / Energy and Buildings 55 (2012) 273284
T
chws
T
chwr
T
chws1
T
chwr1
Circuit 2 Circuit 1
Expansion
valve
Condenser
Compressor
Compressor
Condenser
Expansion
valve
Evaporator
Fig. 2. Schematic of the air-cooled chiller.
The evaporator tubes were designed as a two-pass arrangement
for chilled water ow. The heat transfer between the refrigerant
and the chilled water was modeled by three heat exchange sec-
tions in series, having two sections for refrigerant circuit 1 and
one section for refrigerant circuit 2. The heat transfer effectiveness
of the evaporator (
ev
) was used to simulate the heat and mass
transfer processes in the evaporator as in Eqs. (4)(6). The overall
heat transfer coefcients (AU
ev
) of the three heat exchange sec-
tions of the evaporator were represented by mechanistic relation
in Eq. (7), respectively [17], where the coefcients c
1
, c
2
and c
3
were characteristic parameters and had to be evaluated based on
the performance data of the specic chiller to be modeled.
Q
11
=
_
1 exp
_
AU
ev11
m
w
C
pw
__
m
w
C
pw
(T
chwr
T
ev1
) (4)
Q
12
=
_
1 exp
_
AU
ev12
m
w
C
pw
__
m
w
C
pw
(T
chws1
T
ev1
) (5)
Q
2
=
_
1 exp
_
AU
ev2
m
w
C
pw
__
m
w
C
pw
(T
chwr1
T
ev2
) (6)
where
AU
ev
=
1
c
1
m
w
0.8
+c
2
Q
0.745
+c
3
(7)
Chiller performance is greatly inuenced by the condensing
temperature (T
cd
), which can be controlled by adjusting the heat
rejection airow (V
a
). To control the condensing temperature, the
set point of condensing temperature (T
cdsp
) was introduced to
determine the number of staged condenser fans to modulate the
heat rejection airow. Cycling on or off the condenser fans was
determined by comparing the condensing temperature with the
high and lowtemperature settings, which were 52

C and 42

C for
the base case under HPC [2,18], respectively. In each time step, the
number of condenser fans would be checked to ascertain whether
the staged condenser fans were sufcient to keep the condensing
temperature betweenthe highandlowboundary. If the stagedcon-
denser fans were not sufcient to deliver the airow required to
keep the condensing temperature within the dead band, more or
fewer condenser fans would be staged. Other fundamental equa-
tions applicable to each refrigeration circuit of the dual circuit
chiller have been reported [2].
4.2. Water mist model
To improve the chiller performance, a water mist systemis cou-
pled to the air-cooled condensers. When water mist is sprayed into
the air streamenteringthe condenser, the air temperature will drop
due to the evaporative cooling effect, and the RH and the humidity
ratio of the air will increase, approaching saturation. At a given DBT
andRHof the ambient air, the additionof moisture inthe air stream
due to water mist spray and the humidity ratio of air at the inlet of
condenser (W

) is computed by Eq. (8).

W

=
0.622P
w
P P
w
+
m
mist
V
a

a
(8)
where P is the total barometric pressure of the moist air in Pa, and
P
w
is the partial pressure of water vapor in Pa.
As the evaporation of water mist into the air is adiabatic, the
specic enthalpy of the moist air is constant, and the temperature
of the entering condenser air (T
cdae
) can be calculated as follow:
T
cdae
=
h 2501W

1.006 +1.86W

(9)
4.3. Integrated chiller model
Referring to Eq. (8), the increase of the air humidity ratio and the
resulting air temperature T
cdae
at the condenser inlet are related to
the airowrate passing through the condenser coil. To evaluate the
chiller performance, the equations for the water mist model were
incorporated into the chiller model and solved through an itera-
tive procedure as illustrated in Fig. 3. The programstarted with the
model initialization using the input data. For the air-cooled chiller
with twin refrigeration circuits, the cooling load could be shared
between the refrigeration circuits randomly. The scheme for load
sharing between the refrigeration circuits was specied rst, and
then one refrigeration circuit or both refrigeration circuits would
be staged according to the total cooling load. Once the model had
determined the evaporating temperature and pressure of circuits
1 and 2, it evaluated the other operating variables of each refriger-
ation circuit. As the condensing temperature interacted between
the compressor and condenser components, an iterative proce-
dure was implemented to solve the operating variables of the two
components simultaneously. To control the condensing tempera-
ture, there was another iterative loop for computing the number
of staged condensing fans. The number of staged condenser fans
and the corresponding airow were determined according to the
set point of condensing temperature.
To implement CTC in the simulation, a logical argument was
included in the algorithm of controlling condenser fans to deter-
mine the optimal set point of condensing temperature (T
cdsp,op
). For
anygivenchiller load, it was possibletoidentifyanoptimal set point
of condensing temperature for maximumCOP by checking the vari-
ation in chiller COP throughout the range of set point of condensing
temperature (T
cdsp
). For each operating condition, this argument
checked the difference in chiller COP when T
cdsp
increased in steps
of 0.05

C fromits lower level of 20

C or (T
db
+5)

C, whichever was
higher. These steps were small enough to trace the change of COP,
J. Yang et al. / Energy and Buildings 55 (2012) 273284 277
Start
Q T
cdae
T
chws
m
w
T
evsh
T
cdsc
T
cdsp
Q
1
Q
2
T
cd10
=50
T
ev1,
P
ev1
h
11,
v
1r,
h
11',
v
11'
q
rf1,
m
r1
P
cd1,
h
13
CR
1,
w
in1,

v1,

isen1
m
r1,
N
cc1,

cc1,
E
cc1,
h
12
Q
cd1
Abs(T
cd10
-T
cd1
)<0.01
T
cd20
=50
Circuit loading strategy
T
ev2,
P
ev2
h
21,
v
2r,
h
21',
v
21'
q
rf2,
m
r2
CR
2,
w
in2,

v2,

isen2
m
r2,
N
cc2,

cc2,
E
cc2,
h
22
Q
cd2
P
cd2,
h
23
Q
11
Q
12
AU
ev11
,
ev11,
AU
ev12
,
ev12
T
chwr1
T
chws1
Q
11'
Abs((Q11-Q11')/Q11)<0.01
Q
11
=Q
11'
PLR
1
T
chwr
AU
cd1,
LMTD
cd1
T
cdal1
T
cdal1
>T
cd,max
T
cd1
T
cd10
=T
cd1
T
cd1
>T
cdsp
E
cf1
E
ch1
COP
1
N
cf1
N
cf1
<N
cfr1
N
cf1
=N
cfr1
N
cf1
=N
cf1
+2
V
a1
N
Y
Y
Y
N
Ech
N
cf1
N
Abs(T
cd20
-T
cd2
)<0.01
AU
cd2 ,
LMTD
cd2
T
cdal2
T
cdal2
>T
cd,max
T
cd2
T
cd20
=T
cd2
T
cd2
>T
cdsp
E
cf2
E
ch2
COP
2
N
cf2
N
cf2
<N
cfr2
N
cf2
=N
cfr2
N
cf2
=N
cf2
+2
V
a2
N
Y
Y
Y
N
N
cf2
N
END
COP
Y
N
Y
N
Y
N
T
ev1
AU
ev2
,
ev2
T
chwr1
PLR
2
Compressor load sequencing
Compressor load sequencing
Q
2
>0
N
Y
E
ch2
=0, COP2=0
E
ch1
<E
ch1,op
Y
E
ch1
=500
T
cdsp1
=20
E
ch2
=500
T
cdsp2
=20
E
ch2
<E
ch2,op
Y
E
ch1,op
=E
ch1
T
cdsp1
=T
cdsp1
+0.05
E
ch2,op
=E
ch2
T
cdsp2
=T
cdsp2
+0.05
Water mist model
Water mist model
N
N
Fig. 3. Flowchart of the chiller model under CTC.
278 J. Yang et al. / Energy and Buildings 55 (2012) 273284
T
cdal
V
a
N
cf
W
,
P
ws
W
dbp
H
db
T
cdae,
RH
RH>1
N
N
Y
Y
m
wm
=m
wm
-0.001
Q
cd
T
cdae
=T
wb
m
wm
RH<1
m
wm
=m
wm
+0.001
Fig. 4. Procedure for evaluating optimal water mist generation rate.
and the optimal T
cdsp
could be identied along with the maximum
chiller COP, as illustrated in Fig. 3.
To evaluate the optimal mist generation rate under HPC or CTC,
the model rst examined the RH of the entering condenser air
pre-cooled by the designed water mist rate. If it was greater than
one, the water mist generation rate was reduced step by step to
avoid any surplus water mist. If it was less than one, the water
mist generation rate was increased step by step to allow the dry
bulb temperature of the after-mist air streamto approach the wet
bulb temperature. Fig. 4 illustrates the procedure for evaluating the
optimal mist generation rate.
The iterative procedures to estimate the operating variables in
bothrefrigerant circuits of thechiller weresimilar. Theconvergence
criterion for computing the evaporating and condensing tempera-
ture in this model was 0.01

C. When a converged solution was

obtained, all the variables of the model would be computed with
the required accuracy.
+10%
-10%
0.0
0.5
1.0
1.5
2.0
2.5
3.0
3.5
4.0
0.0 0.5 1.0 1.5 2.0 2.5 3.0 3.5 4.0
Measured COP
M
o
d
e
l
l
e
d

C
O
P
Fig. 5. Comparison between the modeled and measured chiller COP.
Table 2
Statistics of error calculation for the model.
Parameter NMBE (%) CVRMSE (%)
COP 0.6 7.9
T
cdae
3.0 5.1
RH
cdae
5.3 8.1
5. Validation of the integrated chiller model
To verify the effectiveness of the model developed, the per-
formance of the model was evaluated by comparing the modeled
results with the measured operating data of the chiller system. The
measured data came fromthe chiller operating under HPC. Accord-
ing to the scheme of load sharing between the two refrigeration
circuits, the simulation results were compared with the corre-
sponding experimental data. Fig. 5 shows a comparison between
the modeled and the measured chiller COP. There were two lines in
the gure giving the boundary of 10% deviation from the ideal
case. For over 86% of the data, the uncertainty (the difference
between the modeled value and the experimental value) of chiller
COP was less than 10%. With regard to the DBT of the entering con-
denser air, more than 85% of the data had less than 5% uncertainty
as shown in Fig. 6(a), and all the data had less than 10% uncertainty.
For the RHof the entering condenser air, more than 93% of the data
lied within an error band of 10% as shown in Fig. 6(b).
In addition to the relative error, alternate forms of error calcula-
tion for calibrated simulations are the normalized mean bias error
(NMBE) and the coefcient of variation of the root mean squared
error (CVRMSE), which are given by Eqs. (10) and (11). The results
were summarized in Table 2. The absolute values of NMBE and
CVRMSE for the three predicted parameters were all less than 10%,
+5%
-5%
15
20
25
30
35
15 20 25 30 35
Measured temperature (
o
C)
M
o
d
e
l
l
e
d

t
e
m
p
e
r
a
t
u
r
e

(

C
)
+10%
-10%
30
40
50
60
70
80
90
100
30 40 50 60 70 80 90 100
Measured RH (%)
M
o
d
e
l
l
e
d

R
H

(
%
)
(a) DBT (b) RH
Fig. 6. Comparison between the modeled and measured DBT and RH of entering condenser air.
J. Yang et al. / Energy and Buildings 55 (2012) 273284 279
which indicated lowvariance and hence high quality. The accuracy
of the model, therefore, was considered to be satisfactory.
NMBE =

N
i=1
(X
p,i
X
m,i
)

N
i=1
X
m,i
100% (10)
CVRMSE =
_
1/N

N
i=1
(X
p,i
X
m,i
)
2
_
1/N

N
i=1
X
m,i
_ 100% (11)
6. Results and discussion
6.1. Chiller COP without water mist pre-cooling
The validated chiller model was used to investigate how the
individual andmixedcondenser features of CTCandwater mist pre-
cooling inuencedthe chiller performance under various operating
conditions. The operating conditions referred to a combination of
chiller part load ratios (PLR: from 0.125 to 1 at 0.0625 intervals),
dry bulb temperatures (T
db
: from15 to 35

C at 5

C intervals) and
relative humidity levels (RH: from 50% to 80% at 10% intervals)
of ambient air. To highlight the effect of water mist, the conven-
tional refrigeration circuit sequence control was implemented in
this paper, under which only circuit 1 was staged when the chiller
load was less than half of the rated chiller capacity, and two cir-
cuits operated evenly when the chiller load was great than half of
the rated chiller capacity.
Six operating schemes (S1S6) were considered. S1 referred
to the conventional HPC without water mist pre-cooling, which
served as the baseline. S2S6 referred to different strategies for the
air-cooledchiller: S2 was HPCwithdesignedwater mist generation
rate; S3 was HPC with optimal water mist generation rate; S4 was
CTC without water mist; S5 was CTC with designed water mist gen-
eration rate; S6 was CTC with optimal water mist generation rate.
To realize the optimal water mist generation rate in a wide range of
working conditions, the constant speed high pressure pumps have
to be replaced by variable speed pumps. A straightforward strat-
egy to operate the water mist system was applied by interlocking
the operation of the high pressure water pumps and the chillers
for schemes S2, S3, S5 and S6. The pre-cooling effect produced by
the water mist systemis largest when the DBT of the entering con-
denser air approaches WBT due to evaporation of water. Therefore,
the optimal generation rate of water mist should vary in response
to the working conditions to bring the DBT down to the WBT and
no surplus water mist is generated.
Fig. 7 illustrates the part load performance curves for the chiller
without water mist pre-coolingfor operatingschemeS1. Thecurves
1.0
1.5
2.0
2.5
3.0
3.5
4.0
0.0 0.1 0.2 0.3 0.4 0.5 0.6 0.7 0.8 0.9 1.0
PLR
C
O
P
15 20 25 30 35 Outdoor DBT
Fig. 7. Chiller performance curves for scheme S1.
showhowthechiller COPvaries withdifferent PLRs at outdoor tem-
perature ranging from15 to 35

C. Under HPC with constant speed

condenser fans, the chiller COP uctuatedconsiderably because the
heat rejection airow varied by staging groups of condenser fans
step by step. Following the sequencing of the two refrigerant cir-
cuits and the compressors in each refrigeration circuit, the chiller
COP dropped considerably when one more compressor or refriger-
ation circuit was staged due to the poor compressor efciency at
low part load ratios. It also revealed that the outdoor temperature
greatly affected the chiller performance, and the chiller COP tended
to be higher with lower outdoor temperature, which reinforced the
need of water mist pre-cooling.
6.2. Enhanced chiller performance with mist pre-cooling
6.2.1. Thermal properties of air entering the condenser
The temperature change of the entering condenser air due to
water mist evaporative cooling for schemes S2 and S5 is shown
in Fig. 8, which could drop by up to 6.5

C when outdoor air RH

was 50%. For operating scheme S5 shown in Fig. 8(b), the average
temperature dropproducedby water mist evaporationwas smaller
than that under scheme S2 with same designed water mist gener-
ation rate. This was because more condenser fans were staged to
increase the heat rejection airowunder CTC in order to lower the
condensing temperature.
When the condenser airow rate was low and the wet bulb
depression (WBD) of ambient air was less than 6.5

C, the tempera-
ture drop of the entering condenser air was linear with the WBD for
scheme S2. It should be noted that the temperature change of air
entering the condenser was not only dependent on the WBD, but
-7
-6
-5
-4
-3
-2
-1
0
2 0 6 4 10 8 12
Wet bulb depression(
o
C)
T
a
e
(
o
C
)
2 4 16
Number of operating condenser fans
-7
-6
-5
-4
-3
-2
-1
0
2 0 6 4 10 8 12
Wet bulb depression(
o
C)
T

a
e
(
o
C
)
2 4 16
Number of operating condenser fans
(a) scheme S2 (b) scheme S5
Fig. 8. Temperature change Tae of entering condenser air (RH=50%).
280 J. Yang et al. / Energy and Buildings 55 (2012) 273284
-10
-5
0
5
10
15
0.0 0.1 0.2 0.3 0.4 0.5 0.6 0.7 0.8 0.9 1.0
PLR

T
c
(
o
C
)
15 20 25 30 35 Outdoor DBT
-5
0
5
10
15
0.0 0.1 0.2 0.3 0.4 0.5 0.6 0.7 0.8 0.9 1.0
P LR

T
c
(
o
C
)
15 20 25 30 35 O u t d o o r
(a) RH=50% (b) RH=80%
Fig. 9. Condensing temperature change (Tc) for scheme S2.
also on the condenser airow rate, DBT and the water mist gener-
ation rate. As shown in Fig. 8, the temperature drop of the entering
condenser air tendedtobe smaller whenmore condenser fans were
staged. Under such conditions, the airow rate was larger, but the
designed water mist generation rate was insufcient to bring the
DBT of the entering condenser air to approach the WBT.
With optimal water mist generation rate for scheme S3, the
DBT of the entering condenser air approached to the WBT under
all working conditions, taking maximum advantage of the WBD.
For scheme S3, the temperature drop of entering condenser air
varied from 5.3 to 8.8

C when ambient RH was 50% and ambi-

ent temperature varied from 15 to 35

C. When ambient RH was

80%, the temperature drop of entering condenser air varied from
1.7 to 3.2

C. For the scheme S6, the temperature of entering

condenser air also approached to wet bulb temperature with
optimal water mist generation rate, which was same as that in
scheme S3.
6.2.2. Condensing temperature
For a given cooling capacity, the condensing temperature
depends on the chiller part load ratio, heat rejection airow and
ambient air temperature. Owing to the evaporative cooling effect
of the water mist, the temperature of entering condenser air
drops, and the condensing temperature changes accordingly. Fig. 9
demonstrates the change of the condensing temperature under
scheme S2 compared with that under scheme S1, where posi-
tive numbers represent a condensing temperature increase and
negative numbers represent a condensing temperature drop. The
condensing temperature dropped by up to 7.8

C when RHwas 50%

under scheme S2. However, the condensing temperature would
casually increase for certain conditions up to 9.7

C caused by the
HPC with constant speed condenser fans, which would be cycled
on and off with reference to a high and a lowcondensing tempera-
ture settings. Whenthe condensing temperature exceededthe high
condensing temperature setting, one more group of condenser fans
would be switched on to increase heat rejection airow, which
enabled the condensing temperature to fall below the high set-
ting. Because water mist pre-cooling reduced the temperature of
the entering condenser air, the condensing temperature would fall
belowthe high setting even if the number of staged condenser fans
remained unchanged.
For certain conditions, when the condensing temperature
exceededthe highsetting, bothstagingonmore condenser fans and
operating water mist caused the condensing temperature to drop
belowthe highsetting, but the extent towhichthe condensingtem-
perature could drop depended on the working conditions. In the
case without water mist, when one more group of constant speed
condenser fans were cycled on, the heat rejection airow might
exceed the airow required to maintain the set point of condens-
ing temperature, and the reduction of the condensing temperature
was more signicant thanthat due to the evaporative cooling effect
of water mist when the number of staged condenser fans remained
unchanged. Hence, under HPC, the condensing temperature of the
chiller with water mist could sometimes be higher than that with-
out water mist.
When the chiller operated under CTC, the condensing tempera-
turedroppedfor all theworkingconditions. WhenCTCwithoptimal
water mist generation rate was implemented, the condensing tem-
perature would drop, as shown in Fig. 10, by varying degrees up to
21.6

C. At lower relative humidity, the temperature of entering

condenser air dropped more, hence the condensing temperature
dropped noticeably.
-25
-20
-15
-10
-5
0
0.0 0.1 0.2 0.3 0.4 0.5 0.6 0.7 0.8 0.9 1.0
PLR

T
c
(
o
C
)
15 20 25 30 35 Outdoor DBT
-20
-15
-10
-5
0
0.0 0.1 0.2 0.3 0.4 0.5 0.6 0.7 0.8 0.9 1.0
PLR

T
c
(

C
)
15 20 25 30 35 Outdoor
(a) RH=50% (b) RH=80%
Fig. 10. Condensing temperature change (Tc) for scheme S6.
J. Yang et al. / Energy and Buildings 55 (2012) 273284 281
-30
-20
-10
0
10
20
30
0.0 0.1 0.2 0.3 0.4 0.5 0.6 0.7 0.8 0.9 1.0
PLR
C
O
P

c
h
a
n
g
e
(
%
)
15 20 25 30 35
Outdoor DBT
- 2 0
- 1 5
- 1 0
-5
0
5
10
15
0.0 0.1 0.2 0.3 0.4 0.5 0.6 0.7 0.8 0.9 1.0
PLR
C
O
P

c
h
a
n
g
e

15 20 25 30 35 Outdoor
(a) RH=50% (b) RH=80%
Fig. 11. Chiller COP change for scheme S2.
6.2.3. Chiller COP
Water mist pre-cooling enabled a reduction of temperature of
the entering condenser air, and improved the chiller performance
differently under various operating schemes. The potential benets
of various operating schemes were identied by a comparison on
how the system COP varied in relation to the baseline, where a
positive percentage meant a chiller COP increase and a negative
percentage meant a drop.
For the operating scheme S2 with designed water mist genera-
tion rate and HPC, the percentage change of COP fromthe baseline
is illustrated in Fig. 11. It was observed that water mist pre-cooling
had both positive and negative impacts on the chiller COP, which
would increase in varying degrees by up to 21.3% and 9.8% when
the RHwas 50% and 80%, respectively. In such conditions, the addi-
tional power of high pressure pump generating water mist was
more than offset by the reduction in compressor power due to the
dropof the entering condenser air temperature. As showninFig. 11,
the increase in the chiller COP was higher when the RH of outdoor
air was lower.
Incontrarytothegeneral trendof improvedefciencyinscheme
S2, there were casual occurrences of decreased chiller COP due to
unfavorable fan staging under HPC and extra pump power con-
sumed for generating water mist. The studied chiller was equipped
with 8 pairs of constant speed fans which were staged by pair with
reference to a high and a low condensing temperature settings
under HPC. For certain operating conditions without water mist,
more groups of condenser fans would be staged to drive the con-
densing temperature below the high setting than that operating
with water mist. With more condenser fans, the reduction of the
condensing temperature could be more signicant than that due
to the evaporative cooling effect of water mist but less staged fans.
Under such conditions, the compressor power without mist pre-
cooling was less than that with water mist pre-cooling, and hence
the chiller COP without water mist could be higher than that with
water mist pre-cooling. This indicated that HPC was energy inef-
cient, and it was undesirable to operate the chiller with water mist
under HPC.
To take full advantage of the water mist, HPC should be replaced
by CTC. When the chiller operated with CTC and optimal water
mist generation rate, the chiller COP was improved signicantly as
shown in Fig. 12. Under CTC, the chiller COP was improved for all
operating conditions up to 51.5%. The heat rejection airow rate
was high under CTC, and it enabled the optimally sprayed water
mist to fully vaporize. This, in turn, brought a further decrease in
the temperature of the entering condenser air, hence reducing the
compressor power.
The impact of the ambient air RHon the improvement of chiller
COP was revealed in Figs. 11 and 12, indicating that the water mist
system worked more effectively at lower levels of RH. The chiller
COP increased more noticeably at higher outdoor temperature and
lower RH, as the water mist evaporated effectively to bring the DBT
of the entering condenser air to approach the WBT. This, in turn,
lowered the compressor power considerably. This indicates that
water mist pre-coolingis especiallysuitable for dryandhot regions.
6.3. Effect of RH sensor error on chiller COP
Accuracy is an important parameter for humidity sensors. In
this experiment, manufacturer stated accuracy for the RH sen-
sors tested is 3% RH, and the RH accuracy level is sufcient for
most heating, ventilating, and air-conditioning (HVAC) applica-
tions. However, the manufacturer stated accuracy of a humidity
0
10
20
30
40
50
60
0.0 0.1 0.2 0.3 0.4 0.5 0.6 0.7 0.8 0.9 1.0
PLR
C
O
P

c
h
a
n
g
e
(
%
)
15 20 25 30 35 Outdoor DBT
0
10
20
30
40
50
0.0 0.1 0.2 0.3 0.4 0.5 0.6 0.7 0.8 0.9 1.0
PLR
C
O
P

c
h
a
n
g
e

15 20 25 30 35
Outdoor
(a) RH=50% (b) RH=80%
Fig. 12. Chiller COP change for scheme S6.
282 J. Yang et al. / Energy and Buildings 55 (2012) 273284
-4.5
-4.0
-3.5
-3.0
-2.5
-2.0
-1.5
-1.0
-0.5
0.0
0 0.1 0.2 0.3 0.4 0.5 0.6 0.7 0.8 0.9 1
PLR
C
O
P

c
h
a
n
g
e
(
%
)
3% 5% 10% RH sensor error
-7
-6
-5
-4
-3
-2
-1
0
0 0.1 0.2 0.3 0.4 0.5 0.6 0.7 0.8 0.9 1
PLR
C
O
P

c
h
a
n
g
e
3% 5% 10% RH sensor
(a) T
db
=20C, RH=80% (scheme S2) (b) T
db
=30C, RH=50% (scheme S3)
-3.0
-2.5
-2.0
-1.5
-1.0
-0.5
0.0
0 0.1 0.2 0.3 0.4 0.5 0.6 0.7 0.8 0.9 1
PLR
C
O
P

c
h
a
n
g
e
(
%
)
3% 5% 10%
RH sensor error
- 4.0
- 3.5
- 3.0
- 2.5
- 2.0
- 1.5
- 1.0
- 0.5
0.0
0 0.1 0.2 0.3 0.4 0.5 0.6 0.7 0.8 0.9 1
PLR
C
O
P

c
h
a
n
g
e
3% 5% 10%
RH sensor
(c) T
db
=20C, RH=50% (scheme S6) (d) T
db
=30C, RH=80% (scheme S6)
Fig. 13. Chiller COP change with the deviation of the measured RH fromthe actual RH.
sensor provides only a partial view of sensor performance, which
is just for a rated conditionand oftendoes not reect the conditions
the sensor is likely to be subjected to in the eld. The measurement
of the RHsensor, therefore, may gobeyondthe manufacturer stated
accuracy [19].
Considering that humidity sensors are important components
in the water mist control systemand their performance can affect
chiller energy use, an analysis of the chiller efciency in relation to
the RHsensor error was conducted. Fig. 13 demonstrates the chiller
COP change for schemes S2, S3 and S6 when the deviations of the
measured RH from the actual RH are 3%, 5% and 10%. The base-
line is the case of perfect RH sensors with no measurement error.
For the operating scheme S2 with designed water mist generation
rate and HPC, at chiller part load ratios of 0.1251 under outdoor
condition of 20

C DBT and 80% RH, the chiller COP decreased by

0.81.3% when the RHdeviation was 3%; and the chiller COP would
decrease by an amount up to 4.1% when the RH deviation was 10%.
For the operating scheme S3 with optimal water mist generation
rate and HPC, the chiller COP would decrease in varying degrees
up to 6.5% when the DBT of outdoor air was 30

C and the RH was

50%. When CTC with optimal water mist generation rate (scheme
S6) was investigated with RHsensor error of 310%, the chiller COP
decreased by 0.62.4% at outdoor condition of 20

C DBT and 50%

RH; and the COP decreased by 1.03.8% at outdoor condition of
30

C DBT and 80% RH.

The analysis above ascertained that the RH measurement error
would give rise to an uncertainty in the amount of chiller COP
improvement depending on the magnitude of the RH error, bring-
ing a detrimental effect on the potential energy saving. Comparing
with the results shown in Fig. 11, the amount of uncertainty rela-
tive to the potential chiller COP improvement is signicant when
the mist-assisted chiller systemwas operated under HPC with RH
error greater than5%. However, whenthe chiller systemis operated
under CTC, the adverse effect due to RH error is not signicant rel-
ative to the potential COP improvement shown in Fig. 12, and the
control systemis feasible for implementation.
6.4. Potential benets of water mist pre-cooling
In order to assess the energy efciency for air-cooled chillers
withmultiplerefrigerationcircuits andwater mist system, thecool-
ing energy saving potential for a representative ofce building in
HongKongwas evaluatedwithdifferent operatingschemes. Hourly
cooling loads for the representative ofce building were calculated
using EnergyPlus and an example weather year which represented
the prevailing weather conditions in Hong Kong.
To meet the peak cooling load of 7338kWof the representative
ofce building, the chiller plant was designed with seven equally
sizedair-cooledscrewchillers, eachof whichhada nominal cooling
capacity of 1116kW. The size of these chillers was comparable to
that of the investigated chiller. Conventional chiller sequencing of
a multiple-chiller systemwas considered in this study, which was
to operate the minimumnumber of evenly loaded chillers to meet
the required cooling load.
Using the validated chiller model, an assessment was made on
the potential energysavings bywater mist pre-coolingbasedonthe
cooling load prole of the representative ofce building. Table 3
summarizes the electricity consumption by the chillers and the
high pressure pumps generating water mist for the six operating
schemes. The annual electricity consumption of the chillers was
3.5210
6
kWh for the base case (scheme S1). For the scheme S2
with designed water mist generation rate under HPC, the total of
chiller and high pressure pump power consumption was saved
by 0.6% compared with that of scheme S1. Optimizing the gen-
eration rate of water mist in the scheme S3 enabled the annual
total power consumption drop by 3.3%. When the chillers operated
J. Yang et al. / Energy and Buildings 55 (2012) 273284 283
Table 3
Energy performance of chillers and water consumption under different operating schemes.
Cases S1 S2 S3 S4 S5 S6
Chiller power consumption (kWh) 3.5210
6
3.4810
6
3.3910
6
3.2610
6
3.1410
6
3.0110
6
High pressure pump consumption (kWh) 0 1.5710
4
1.5710
4
1.5710
4
1.5710
4
Total power consumption (kWh) 3.5210
6
3.5010
6
3.4010
6
3.2610
6
3.1610
6
3.0210
6
Saving of total power consumption (%) 0.6 3.3 7.3 10.2 14.1
Water consumption (m
3
) 0 2.5210
3
3.6010
3
0 2.5210
3
5.5710
3
under CTC, the electricity consumption would be saved further.
The total power consumption was saved by 10.2% and 14.1% for
the operating schemes S5 and S6, respectively, relative to the base
case. It is, therefore, desirabletooperatethewater mist systemwith
optimal control of water mist generationrate. The power consump-
tion of high pressure water pump is small compared to the chiller
power. Energy saving by water mist pre-cooling is expected to be
more signicant if the chillers operate in a hot and arid climate.
Water is oftenmistakento be a readily available resource. To the
contrary, water resource is very limited and precious, especially for
crowded cities. It was desirable to assess the water consumption
by the water mist system in the different operating schemes, and
the results are shown in Table 3. For water-cooled chillers, the total
water losses from cooling tower are the sum of drift losses, evap-
oration losses and blowdown losses. According to AHRI Standard
551/591 [20], the total water loss can be calculated based on an
assumption that the water loss accounts for 1.5% of the condenser
water owrate, whichis designedat 0.054l/s per kWcoolingcapac-
ity. For a water-cooled chiller with same cooling capacity as the
studied air-cooled chiller, whose capacity is 1116kW, the water
loss is 0.91l/s. If water-cooled chillers are used in the represen-
tative ofce building, the annual total water losses from cooling
towers is 3.4310
4
m
3
. Comparatively, the water consumption of
the water mist system is small, which is about 7.3%, 10.5% and
16.2% for schemes S2, S3 and S6, respectively, of the total water
losses if open-loop cooling towers are used. The amount of water
consumption for scheme S5 was same as scheme S2.
7. Conclusion
As water mist evaporation is capable of pre-cooling the ambient
air before entering air-cooled condensers, it is a potential means
to improve the chiller efciency. This paper presents the effect
of operating water mist system to enhance the performance of
air-cooled chillers under various operating conditions. Thermo-
dynamic models for an air-cooled chiller with twin refrigeration
circuits coupling water mist systemwere developed and validated
by the operating data. The validated models were used to investi-
gate howthe thermal properties of the entering condenser air and
the year-round performance of the air-cooled chiller varied under
different operating schemes. Under HPC, with designed water mist
generation rate, water mist pre-cooling enabled the condensing
temperature drop by up to 7.8

C and the chiller COP increased in

various degrees up to 21.3%. With the optimal water mist gener-
ation rate under HPC, the temperature of the entering condenser
air dropped by up to 8.8

C, and the chiller COP increased by up

to 25.8%. The conventional HPC for chiller operation resulted in
reduced chiller efciency due to undesirable fan staging and higher
condensing temperature. The chiller COP would be improved for all
operatingconditions under CTCbyvarious degrees upto51.5%with
optimal water mist generationrate. Basedontheresults, water mist
pre-cooling is effective for application to air-cooled chillers in sub-
tropical climate, andis expectedto be more effective inhot andarid
regions. HPC is energy inefcient, and should be replaced by CTC.
RH measurement error will cause an uncertainty in the amount
of chiller COP improvement, which is signicant when the chiller
systemis operated under HPC but not when operated under CTC.
On assessing the energy efciency for air-cooled chillers with
twin refrigeration circuits and water mist system, the cooling
energy saving potential for a representative ofce building in Hong
Kong was investigated with six operating schemes. Comparing to
the base case of conventional HPC, the total electricityconsumption
was reducedby0.6%, 3.3%, 7.3%, 10.2%and14.1%for schemes S2S6,
respectively. The amount of water consumption by the water mist
systemwas small, which accounted for only 7.3%, 10.5% and 16.2%
of the total water losses for open-loop cooling towers serving
water-cooled chillers for schemes S2, S3 and S6, respectively. This
study demonstrates that the water mist system coupled to air-
cooled chillers is an energy-efcient and environmentally green
technique when water resource is too precious for water-cooled
chillers, and HPC should be replaced by CTC to make maximum
advantage of the water mist pre-cooling method.
Acknowledgement
The work described in this paper was supported by the Central
Research Grant of The Hong Kong Polytechnic University, Project
Codes: RP1R and G-YK51.
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