Accepted Manuscript

Research Paper

Performance Evaluation of Energy Efficient Evaporatively Air-Cooled Chiller

A.E. Kabeel, Y.A.F. EL-Samadony, M.H. Khiera

PII: S1359-4311(17)30305-8
DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.applthermaleng.2017.04.103
Reference: ATE 10252

To appear in: Applied Thermal Engineering

Received Date: 15 January 2017

Revised Date: 19 March 2017
Accepted Date: 23 April 2017

Please cite this article as: A.E. Kabeel, Y.A.F. EL-Samadony, M.H. Khiera, Performance Evaluation of Energy
Efficient Evaporatively Air-Cooled Chiller, Applied Thermal Engineering (2017), doi: http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/
j.applthermaleng.2017.04.103

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 1 Performance Evaluation of Energy Efficient Evaporatively
2 Air-Cooled Chiller
1
3 A.E.kabeel , 2Y. A. F. EL-Samadony, and 3M. H. Khiera

1
4 Prof. Faculty of Eng., Tanta Univ., Egypt, E-mail: A.kabeel@hotmail.com
2
5 Coressponding author, Assoc. Prof, Faculty of Eng., Tanta University, Egypt, TeL: +201229597403 ,
6 Fax: +20403453860, E-mail: Y. A. F. EL-Samadony@F-eng.tanta.edu.eg
3
7 HVAC Engineer, Sharm El Sheikh Airport, Egypt, E-mail: engineer_mahmoud87@yahoo.com
8
9 ABSTRACT

10 In the present work, a novel evaporatively air cooled chiller using cold mist water has been
11 investigated experimentally. The cold mist water is injected before the inlet air stream of the chiller’s
12 condenser. The mist water is cooled by a small amount of the chiller’s chilled water through a heat
13 exchanger. The effects of ambient temperature, ambient relative humidity, mist water temperature,
14 modified air temperature and modified air relative humidity on the chiller’s coefficient of
15 performance (COP) are obtained. Unlike all conventional direct evaporative cooling system,
16 experimental results reveal that the proposed system was able to cool ambient air to a temperature
17 below its inlet wet bulb temperature. Also, experimental results showed that the proposed system is
18 an energy efficient system. It has considerable effect on the enhancement of the performance of the
19 cycle and hence reduces the electricity demand. The rate of this enhancement is increased as ambient
20 air temperature increases and ambient relative humidity and mist water temperature decreases,
21 therefore it is very promising for hot and dry regions. It was found that the proposed system,
22 evaporative condenser with cold mist water, had a higher coefficient of performance by up to 91%
23 than that for the conventional air cooled chiller. However, conventional evaporative air cooled
24 chiller had a higher coefficient of performance by up to 82% than that for the conventional air
25 cooled chiller. Finally, the relation between ambient conditions, mist water temperature and
26 coefficient of performance enhancement percentage, COPEP, is correlated with an acceptable error

27 Keywords: evaporative cooling, mist water chiller, energy saving.

28

29

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30 1-Introduction

31 Air conditioning systems consume a large amount of energy, especially in areas with very
32 hot weather. A well known approach for improving the performance of air cooled air conditioning
33 systems is to decrease the ambient inlet air temperature by using evaporative cooling. Evaporative
34 air cooled cooling technique is a reliable, simple and cheap way for lowering the ambient air
35 temperature, hence reduces energy consumed. There are two main conventional types of evaporative
36 cooling, indirect evaporative cooling [1-7] and the common one, direct evaporative cooling [8-21].
37 In the indirect evaporative cooling system, a secondary air stream is cooled by direct contact with
38 water. The cooled secondary air stream cools the primary air stream through indirect contact heat
39 exchanger, and therefore the primary air is not humidified in this type. In the direct evaporative
40 cooling system, the primary air is in direct contact with water, and therefore the primary air is
41 humidified as it is cooled.
42 The performance of heat and mass transfer processes for indirect evaporative cooling system
43 was studied theoretically [1- 3]. Xie and Jiang [4] compared between the performances of an indirect
44 evaporative cooling system when producing cold water and cooling air. They found that the system
45 coefficient of performance, COP, of the indirect evaporative cooling system to produce cold water
46 was higher than that for the indirect evaporative cooling system to produce cooling air. Goswami et
47 al. [5] investigated experimentally the performance of indirect evaporative cooling technique on an
48 existing 2.5 ton of refrigeration (TR) air conditioning unit by using media pad. They found that at
49 ambient air temperature of 34°C, electric power consumption was saved by 20% when indirect
50 evaporative cooling was used. Cui et al. [6] investigated the thermal performance of a novel dew-
51 point indirect evaporative air cooler model. Their model was able to cool the ambient air to a
52 temperature below its wet bulb and very close to its dew-point temperature. Cianfrini et al. [7]
53 studied numerically the performance of air conditioning energy-recovery system used an indirect
54 evaporative cooling equipment. They obtained empirical dimensionless correlation for the indirect
55 evaporative cooling effectiveness as a function of several independent variables.
56 Lui et al. [9] concluded that the direct evaporative air cooled condenser is an energy efficient
57 air conditioning equipment and environmentally friendly. They found that the cooling capacity and
58 coefficient of performance (COP) were increased significantly with the increasing of the air velocity
59 and the water spray rate. However, COP was decreased with the increasing ambient air dry-bulb
60 temperature and the compressor frequency. Zhang et al. [10] found that the heat transfer

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61 performance of the evaporative condenser was mainly depends on the used refrigerants and its
62 operating conditions. Yu and Chan [11] achieved a decrease of 1.4–14.4% in chiller’s power when
63 an air-cooled reciprocating chiller with a direct evaporative pre-cooler was used
64 Wang et al. [12] investigated experimentally the coefficient of performance’s (COP)’s
65 augmentation of an air conditioning system using a direct evaporative cooling condenser. The results
66 indicated that as the condenser inlet dry bulb temperature increases the COP decreases. Also, they
67 found that the percentage of increasing COP was from 6.1% to 18%.when the direct evaporative
68 cooling condenser was used. Hwang et al. [13] compared the performance of a direct evaporative
69 air- cooled condenser with that of a conventional air-cooled condenser for a split heat pump system.
70 The experimented unit was conventional heat pump with 9 kW cooling capacity. The air-cooled
71 condenser was replaced with a direct evaporative air-cooled condenser while the evaporator and
72 compressor were retained. The experimental results showed that the refrigeration capacity and COP
73 of the direct evaporative air-cooled system was increased by 1.8– 8.1% and 11.1–21.6%
74 respectively. Islam et al. [14] studied experimentally and numerically the performance of an air
75 conditioning unit with evaporatively air cooled condenser coil. They found that the coefficient of
76 performance of the evaporatively air cooled air-conditioning unit was increased by about 28%
77 compared to the conventional air cooled air-conditioning unit. Kovacevic and Sourbron [15]
78 numerically modelled heat and mass transfer processes in a metallic-compact direct evaporative
79 cooler. Their numerical model was able to calculate the final air outlet temperature after the
80 evaporative cooling, with a maximal error of 1.33% for different inlet temperature and humidity
81 values. Yu and Chen [16] investigated how the COP of an air cooled chiller serving a hotel in a sub-
82 tropical climate can be improved by using mist pre-cooling air. They simulated an air- cooled chiller
83 equipped with a direct evaporative cooler and showed up to 14.4% reduction in power consumption
84 and up to 4.6% increase in the refrigeration effect .Their results estimated also that around 18% of
85 the chiller’s annual electricity was decreased when mist pre cooling of air entering the air-cooled
86 condenser of the chiller was used. Martínez et al [17] improved experimentally the performance of
87 air cooled split air-conditioning system by using an evaporative cooling pad with variable thickness.
88 They found that the best energy efficiency improvement achieved by adding a cooling pad thickness
89 of about 100 mm. At that thickness, the compressor power consumption was reduced by 11.4% and
90 the cooling capacity and overall COP was increased by 1.8% and 10.6% respectively. Sohani et. al
91 [18] found that the best value for cellulose evaporative cooling pad thickness was 7 cm.

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92 Yang et al [19] studied the effect of using a water mist evaporative cooling condenser on the
93 performance of air-cooled chiller under various operating conditions. They found that applying
94 water mist evaporative cooling to air-cooled chiller improved its COP. The COP was increased by
95 up to 30%, especially when ambient relative humidity was low. In addition, the annual chiller power
96 consumption was reduced by 8.2% compared with the conventional chiller. Also, they found that
97 using water mist pre-cooling was enhanced the condenser effectiveness. To increase the
98 effectiveness of the evaporative cooling processes, a desiccant was used to decrease ambient relative
99 humidity before the evaporative cooling processes [20-23]. Youbi-Idrissi et al. [24] developed a
100 numerical model for a sprayed water evaporative cooling air-cooled condenser coupled to a
101 refrigeration system to study the effect of sprayed water flow rate on the energy performance of the
102 system. They found that compared to a dry air-cooled condenser, both the calorific capacity and
103 system COP was increased by 13% and 55% respectively. Hajidavalloo [25] investigated the effect
104 of evaporative cooling of a window unit air-conditioner by injecting water directly on the condenser.
105 His experimental results showed that the power consumption of the air-conditioner was reduced by
106 up to 20% and the system COP was improved by around 50%. Vrachopoulos et al [26] used a
107 system of drop cloud via water spraying to an air-cooled condenser. Their results showed that the
108 energy saving was up to 58%. Detailed model and numerical simulation of the heat transfer
109 characteristics for the evaporative-cooled condenser were carried out using finite element techniques
110 [27]. The results showed that the combined heat transfer coefficient obtained for the evaporative-
111 cooled condenser was very high for the different water film thicknesses on the condenser tube. To
112 improve the chiller’s efficiency, Yang et al. [28] conducted experiments on a chiller plant with water
113 mist evaporative cooling condenser in a subtropical climate. The experimental results showed that
114 the ambient dry bulb temperature of air after evaporative cooling (after mist water pre-cooling
115 system) was dropped by up to 9.4 °C. The chiller coefficient of performance (COP) was improved in
116 varying degrees by up to 18.6%. Finally, when the mist water system was used, the thermal
117 effectiveness of up to 0.91 was obtained.
118 Direct evaporative cooling process depends on the thermodynamic principle of adiabatic
119 humidification of air. Therefore, the ultimate cooled air temperature is limited by the wet bulb
120 temperature of the ambient air. Therefore, a new design paradigm is required to overcome this
121 limitation. In the present work, a novel experimental study of water mist evaporative cooling air-
122 cooled chiller is proposed to overcome this limitation by using cooled mist water. Unlike all

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123 previous studies, mist water temperature is cooled to be below ambient temperature. A small amount
124 of the chiller’s cooling capacity was used to cool the mist water through a heat exchanger. The
125 experiments were applied to a chiller plant located in a subtropical hot climate area, Sharm El
126 Sheikh Airport, Egypt, as a case study. The effect of mist water temperature, inlet air conditions, and
127 ambient condition on the performance of the present systems was studied. Several objectives are
128 formulated to address the overall goal of the present study; evaluation of the effect of design and
129 operating parameters on the coefficient of performance of evaporatively air cooled chiller. These
130 objectives are to:
131 1) Design and installation the proposed evaporatively air cooled chiller.
132 2) Study and discuss the operation of the proposed system and evaluate its COP.
133
134 2-System design and experimental set-up
135 The proposed system consists of an air cooled chiller, a small heat exchanger and mist water
136 components, as shown in Fig.1. The plant, at which this study is performed, is located in Sharm El
137 Sheikh Airport, Egypt. The used chiller is TRANE, model RTAB212. The chiller has dual
138 independent refrigeration circuits; one of them is switched off. Each circuit has one screw
139 compressor using refrigerant R22. The nominal refrigeration capacity of the chiller is 320.8 kW, at
140 ambient air temperature of 43℃. The inlet and outlet chilled water temperature are 6.7℃ and 12.2 ℃
141 respectively. The rated power of the studied chiller is 156.3 kW. The condensers comprise of 8
142 identical fans arranged with a total airflow rate of 40.5m 3s-1, four fans for each refrigeration circuit.
143 The fan speed is 1392 rpm, and each fan consumes 1.276kW. The small heat exchanger is used to
144 cool the mist water by using a small amount of chiller’s chilled water. The mist water temperature
145 was controlled by changing the used amount of chilled water mass flow rate. The mist water system
146 consists of a pressure pump, a filter unit, and atomizing spray nozzles. The mist water is pumped
147 through 14 spray nozzles (0.5mm diameter each) that create a fine mist water spray with average
148 mean diameter of 80 micron, as shown in Fig.2. The rated power of the pressure water pump is 1.79
149 kW. The maximum mist water volume flow rate is about 15.0 lmin -1, at pump revolution speed of
150 1400 rpm. The nozzles are uniformly distributed in front of the condenser face area and are located
151 at a 250 mm.
152
153

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154 3. Principal of system operation
155 When ambient temperature increases, the temperature sensor gives a signal to the
156 programmed board, which sends a signal to the modulating two way valve to allow more chilled
157 water mass flow rate to the heat exchanger (chilled water to mist water heat exchanger). This causes
158 mist water temperature to be decreased and hence obtains a nearly constant air temperature at
159 condenser inlet. Also, air relative humidity after evaporative cooling may be controlled by changing
160 the mass flow rate of the mist water. This means that the high ambient temperature, the high chilled
161 water mass flow rate. Also, the lower the ambient humidity, the higher missed water mass flow rate.
162
163 4. Measuring instruments and accuracy
164 The dry bulb temperature and relative humidity of the air were measured by a digital thermo-
165 hygrometer with an uncertainty of ±1 ℃ for a range of (-10℃ to +50℃) for air temperature and ±5%
166 for 25 to 75% relative humidity, RH. Resistance type temperature sensors were used to measure the
167 temperature of water (chilled water supply, chilled water return, and water mist temperature) with an
168 uncertainty of ±0.5℃. A Clamp power meter was used to measure the electrical current consumption
169 of the compressor, condenser fans, and pressure pump with an accuracy of ±1.0 for a range of
170 (0~399.9 A).

171 To estimate the uncertainty in the experimental results, the method by Holman [29] is used. It
172 assumes that a set of measurement is made in order to measure “n” number of experimental
173 variables”X”. These measurements are then used to calculate some desired result of the experiment
174 (R). Thus,
175 R= R(X1, X2, X3.................., Xn) (1)
176 Let WR be the uncertainty in the result and W1, W2, W3, ..., ...., Wn be the uncertainties in the
177 independent variables. The uncertainty in result is calculated according to the equation proposed by
178 Holman [29] as follows:
1/ 2

179 éæ ¶ R 2
ö æ ¶R ö
2
æ ¶R ö ù
2
……….(2)
W R = ê çç ÷ ç
W1 ÷ + ç ÷ ç
W 2 ÷ + .......... ....... + ç Wn ÷ ú
÷
êè ¶X 1 ø è ¶X 2 ø è ¶X n ø úû
ë
180 If the relation between the measured parameters and the result is known and the uncertainties
181 of the measurement of each quantity is further known, then the error or uncertainty in the result W R
182 is calculated according to Eq. (2).

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183 Accordingly, the uncertainty analysis of the used variables (∆T , P, Q, and COP) are calculated and
184 summarized in Table (1).
185
186 5. Theoretical background
187 It is known that chiller’s COP is not directly measured, but it is calculated from the measured
188 dependent variables. Chiller’s coefficient of performance, COP, is a ratio of chiller’s refrigeration
189 capacity (Q) to chiller’s power consumption (P), represented as follows:

190 COP = (3)

191
192 Where P is the chiller’s power consumption (kW), which consists of compressor and fans of
193 condenser power, and is given by:
194 P = P + P = √3 V I cos ∅ + √3 V I cos ∅ (4)
195 Where V is the volt, I is the electrical current and cos ∅ is the power factor (estimated to be 0.8).

196
197 In case of water mist evaporative cooling, mist water pump power is added to the power
198 consumption. Therefore, the total power may be given by:

199 = P + P + P = √3 V I cos ∅ + √3 V I cos ∅ + √3 V I cos ∅ (5)

200

201 The Chiller’s refrigeration capacity (Q) may be calculated as follows:

202 Q = m Cp ( T −T ) kW (6)
203 Where mw is the chilled water mass flow rate, kgs -1. T and T are chilled water return
204 temperature and chilled water supply temperature respectively, (°C)

205
206 The proposed system used a small amount of the chilled water to cool the mist water.
207 Therefore, the proposed system coefficient of performance (COPwm) after subtracting the load of
208 mist's heat exchanger may be calculated as follows:

209 COPwm = (7)

210

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211 Where Q is the cooling load of mist's heat exchanger. In this heat exchanger mist water is
212 cooled from T w (at public city water temperature) to T wm (designed mist water temperature) by using
213 chiller chilled water. This cooling load can be calculated as follows:
214 Q =m Cp ( T − T ) (8)

215 Where m is the mist water mass flow (kgs-1) rate and it can be calculated as follows:
216 m = m ( ω −ω ) (9)

217
218 Coefficient of performance enhancement percentage, COPEP, due to using pre-cooled
219 missed water is calculated by:

220 COPEP = × 100 (10)

221 In the conventional direct evaporative cooling, the ultimate cooled air temperature is limited
222 by the wet bulb temperature of the ambient air. To see if the proposed system can overcome this
223 limitation, wet bulb and dew point evaporative cooling effectiveness of the proposed system are
224 calculated as follows:

225 ε = (11)

226 ε = (12)

227 6. Results and discussion

228 Experimental data were recorded after the steady state condition was established in the
229 system and the properties of refrigerant and air remained constant (takes about 10 min). Many
230 experimental measurements, about 96 experiments, at different modified air relative humidity
231 (ultimate air relative humidity after the mist water evaporative cooling), mist water temperature,
232 ambient air temperature and relative humidity are recorded. The experimental work is obtained at
233 eight different ambient temperatures (nearly from 35 to 42℃) and at three different modified air
234 relative humidity (nearly about 61%, 77%, and 98%). Sample of measured data are summarized in
235 Table (2).

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236 Figure (3) shows the experimental results of the effect of modified air temperature (after mist
237 water evaporative cooling) on system total power consumption at ambient temperature of 35℃. To
238 compare between the proposed and conventional system, the total power consumption for the
239 conventional system (without evaporative cooling) is drawn in the same figure. It could be seen from
240 this figure that as modified air temperature decreases, system power consumption decreases. This is
241 because as the modified air temperature decreases, chiller’s condensing unit temperature and
242 condensing pressure will decrease accordingly, as shown in Figure 4. The refrigeration cycle of the
243 chiller system with the water mist system is changed from the cycle 1-2-3-4-1 to 1-2a-3a-4a-1. This
244 causes the work of the compressor to decrease and chiller refrigeration capacity to increase, as
245 shown in Fig. (4). Therefore, system cooling capacity after subtracting the load of mist's heat
246 exchanger, will be increased as modified air temperature decreases, Fig. (5). Figure (6) sum up
247 figure (3) and (5), and illustrates the effect of modified air temperature on the system coefficient of
248 performance (COP). As modified air temperature decreases, chiller’s coefficient of performance
249 increases. It could be noted from Figs.(3), (5) and (6) that as the modified air temperature was
250 decreased from 35 ℃ to 20 ℃, the chiller’s cooling capacity (after subtracting the load of mist's heat
251 exchanger) and chiller’s coefficient of performance is increased by 10.1% and 36.52 % respectively.
252 However, system power consumption is decreased by 29.7 %. In the other hand, modified air
253 temperature may decrease only from 35 ℃ to 23.9 ℃ (wet bulb temperature) for conventional
254 evaporative cooling system, which increase COP by about 29.6 %.
255 It could be noted also from figures (3 to 5) that in the proposed system, ambient air
256 temperature could be decreased from 35 to 21.7 ℃ i.e. by about 13℃. This is because besides mist
257 water evaporation cooling effect (transformation of sensible heat into latent heat to evaporate the
258 water at air web bulb temperature), the low mist water surface temperature has a great effect to cool
259 the modified air temperature sensibly [30]. Figure 7 (a, b and c) shows the value of wet bulb and
260 dew point evaporative cooling effectiveness against ambient air temperature for 15, 20 and 25 ℃
261 mist water temperature. It could be noted from these figures that the value of wet bulb
262 evaporative cooling effectiveness for all working conditions are greater the one. This means the
263 values of modified air temperature are less than the ambient wet bulb temperatures for all working
264 conditions, which is not occurred before in direct evaporative cooling system. In addition, it could be
265 noted also that the value of dew point evaporative cooling effectiveness for all measuring conditions
266 are less than one (from 0.59 to 0.85).

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267
268 6.1. Experimental correlations
269 Practically, in the proposed work, it is very difficult to study the effect of changing a certain
270 parameter, while the other parameters are kept constant (especially ambient air relative humidity).
271 Therefore, creating an experimental correlation is necessary. The experimental results (Table (2)
272 shows sample of these measurements) are used to obtain an experimental mathematical correlation
273 for the modified air temperature as a function of ambient air temperature, mist water temperature and
274 ambient air relative humidity for three modified air humilities 98%, 77% and 61%., represented by
275 Equation (13 to 15). Hopefully, the average error between the actual value (experimental) and the
276 mathematical correlation value is about 0.007 to 0.029, therefore these correlations are strong
277 correlations type. The average mean error is calculated by calculating the absolute error between the
278 actual experimental value and the value that may obtained from the correlation for each data point.
279 The average mean error is the average mean value of all absolute errors of each data point. The
280 accuracy of the estimated experimental correlations is tested by calculating the RMSE (Root Mean
281 square Error), coefficient of multiple determinations (R-squared, R 2) and t-statistic for the each
282 correlation.

283 Correlations working range are: 35°C ≤ Ta ≤42°C, 15°C ≤ Twm ≤30°C, 10%≤ φa ≤40%,

284 a)- Modified air temperature

285 I- For φma = 98% ,

286 Average mean error =0.029, RMSE=0.041652, t-statistic= 0.002143 and R 2=0.868292
. .
287 = − . × + + . × + . , °C (13)

288

289 II- For φma = 77% ,

290 Average mean error =0.0076, RMSE=0.021398, t-statistic= 0.061354 and R 2=0.933715
. .
291 = . × + + . × + . , °C (14)

292

293 III- For φma = 61% ,

294 Average mean error =0.0146, RMSE=0.041652, t-statistic= 0.002143 and R 2=0.868292

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 . .
295 = − . × + + . × + . , °C

296 (15)
297
298 Chiller’s power consumption and refrigeration capacity are correlated as a function of modified air
299 temperature as follows

300 b)- Chiller’s refrigeration capacity

301 Average mean error = 1.662886, RMSE= 1.00549, t-statistic= 0.476165 and R 2=0. 0.9622

302 Q= A× . (16≤ Tma ≤27) (16)

303 Where A = refrigeration correlation constant = 577.06 W ℃-1
304

305 c)- Chiller’s power consumption

306 Average mean error =0.00665, RMSE= 0.309062, t-statistic= 0.476473 and R 2=0. 0.976404
.
307 Pt = B × (16≤ Tma ≤27) (17)
308 Where B = Power correlation constant = 26.391 W ℃-1

309 The previous experimental correlations are used to study the effect of changing a certain working
310 parameters on the system performance, while the other parameters are kept constant. A detailed
311 analysis is reported in the following sections to study the effect of mist water pre-cooling
312 temperature, and ambient condition on the performance of the air-cooled chillers. The following
313 characteristics are used unless stated otherwise: ambient air temperature = 40℃, modified air relative
314 humidity (after mist water evaporative cooling) = 98%, mist water temperature = 15 ℃ and ambient
315 relative humidity 10%.

316 6.2. Effect of mist water temperature

317 Figure (8) illustrates the effect of mist water temperature on chiller’s power consumption and
318 refrigeration capacity at different ambient air temperature. It could be seen from this figure that as
319 mist water temperature and/or ambient air temperature increases, chiller’s power consumption
320 increases. This is because as mist water temperature increases, the modified air temperature (air after
321 mist water evaporative cooling) increases and consequently chiller’s condensing pressure and

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322 temperature increases. This causes the chiller’s power consumption to increase and the chiller
323 cooling capacity to decrease as shown as well in figure (8). Figure (9) illustrates the effect of mist
324 water temperature on chiller’s coefficient of performance enhancement percentage, COPEP, at
325 different ambient air temperature. As the mist water temperature and/or ambient air temperature
326 decreases, chiller’s coefficient of performance enhancement percentage, COPEP, increases. It could
327 be noted from this figure that the maximum COPEP is 91.27%, which is occurring at a mist water
328 temperature of 15 ℃ and ambient air temperature 42 ℃. However, The minimum COPEP is 56.18%,
329 which is occurring at a mist water temperature of 25 ℃ (i.e. without cooling or conventional
330 evaporative cooling) and ambient air temperature 35℃. It could be observed also from Figures (8)
331 and (9) that when mist water temperature is decreased from 25 to 15℃, chiller’s cooling capacity
332 and chiller’s coefficient of performance are increased by 4.90% and 11.56% respectively. However,
333 chiller’s power consumption is decreased by 2.99%.

334 Figure (10) shows the relation between mist water temperature and mist water heat
335 exchanger cooling load capacity for different ambient air temperature. It could be noticed from this
336 figure that as mist water temperature decreases or ambient air temperature increases, cooling load
337 capacity of mist water heat exchanger increases. The maximum mist water heat exchanger cooling
338 load capacity of mist water temperature of 15 ℃ and ambient air temperature of 42 ℃ is 12.73 kW,
339 which represent only 4.9% of the chiller’s refrigeration capacity.

340 6.3. Effect of modified air relative humidity.

341 Figure (11) demonstrates the relation between mist water temperature and COPEP for
342 different modified air relative humidity (air relative after mist water evaporative cooling). It could be
343 observed that COPEP increases as modified air relative humidity increases. This is because as
344 required modified air relative humidity increases, the required amount of evaporated water vapour to
345 achieve this relative humidity increases. Therefore, the amount of transformed sensible heat into
346 latent heat to evaporate the water increases. This leads to decreasing the modified air temperature
347 and accordingly increasing in COPEP. The value of COPEP for 98% modified air relative humidity
348 is greater than that for 77% modified air relative humidity by about 20%. Also, it could be noticed
349 that COPEP nearly constant for modified air relative humidity of 61%.

350

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351 6.4. Effect of the ambient condition of the air.

352 Ambient condition has a great effect on evaporatively air cooled chiller’s performance. The
353 effect of ambient air temperature is studied in Figs. 8 to 10. Figure (12) reveals the effect of ambient
354 air temperature and coefficient of performance enhancement percentage, COPEP, for different
355 ambient air relative humidity. It could be seen from this figure that as ambient air temperature
356 increases, COPEP increases. Therefore, the evaporatively air cooled chiller is more effective at high
357 ambient air temperature. Also, it could be noted that as ambient air relative humidity decreases,
358 COPEP increases. This is because as the ambient air relative humidity decreases, the used amount of
359 mist water to reach to the designed modified relative humidity increases. Consequently, the amount
360 of transformed sensible heat into latent heat to evaporate the water increases. Therefore, the
361 modified air temperature is decreased and hence COPEP is increased. At 35 ℃ ambient air
362 temperatures, COPEP is increased by 64.75% when ambient air relative humidity decreased from
363 40% to 10% (this relative humidity range is not common in all regions). Finally, it is known that as
364 ambient air relative humidity increases, ambient air dew point temperature increases. It is found that
365 at ambient air relative humidity of 40%, 15 ℃ mist water temperature below ambient air dew point
366 temperature. Therefore, the process will be cooling and dehumidification i.e. modified air has less
367 moisture content than ambient air.

368 7. Conclusion
369 The application of water mist evaporative cooling in air cooed refrigeration system was
370 emphasized for regions of hot weather condition. A novel design for employing evaporative cooling
371 system in air cooled chiller with an additional heat exchanger to cool the mist water was introduced
372 and considered. From the experimental and experimental correlations results it could be concluded
373 the following proof of concepts:
374 · Evaporatively air cooled chiller by using pre-cooled mist water is an energy efficient system.
375 On hot days, using pre-cooled mist water evaporative cooling in air cooed refrigeration
376 system could increase the total system COP of the present case study by about 56% to 91%
377 and hence reduce the electricity demand.
378 · COP for proposed system is higher than that for the conventional evaporatively air cooled
379 chiller. (By about 11% in the present case study).

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380 · Unlike all conventional direct evaporative cooling system, the proposed system was able to
381 cool ambient air to a temperature below its inlet wet bulb temperature i.e. the limit for
382 conventional evaporative cooling. Moreover, proposed system has fair dew point evaporative
383 cooling effectiveness (from 0.59 to 0.85).
384 · In spite of the proposed system consume about 4.9% of its refrigeration capacity to cool the
385 mist water, the overall chiller’s cooling capacity (after subtracting the load of mist's heat
386 exchanger) and its COP are increased.
387 · Evaporatively air cooled chiller is very promising for hot and dry regions.
388 · As mist water temperature decreases, system COP increases.
389 · Acceptable correlations between modified air temperature and relative humidity, ambient
390 temperature and relative humidity, and mist water temperature with a good agreement are
391 obtained
392
393 NOMENCLATURE

394 COPwm Coefficient of performance with mist water, dimensionless

395 Cpw Specific heat of water, (kJkg-1.K-1)
396 I current, (A)
397 ma Air mass flow rate, (ls -1)
398 mw Chilled water mass flow rate, (kgs -1)
399 mwm Mist water flow rate, (kgs -1)
400 P Power consumption, kW
401 Q Chiller’s refrigeration capacity, (kW)
402 Qwm Cooling load of water mist's heat exchanger, (kW)
403 Ta Ambient temperature, (°C)
404 Tchws Chilled water supply temperature, (°C)
405 Tchwr Chilled water return temperature, (°C)
406 Tdp Dew point temperature, (°C)
407 Tma Modified air temperature, (°C)
408 Tw Water temperature, (°C)
409 Twb Air wet bulb temperature, (°C)

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410 Twm Water mist temperature, (°C)
411 v Volt, (V)
412 Greek letters
413 εdp Dew point evaporative cooling effectiveness
414 εwb Wet bulb evaporative cooling effectiveness
415 ?? a Air humidity ratio, kg/kg
416 ?? ma Modified air humidity ratio, kg/kg
417 cos ∅ Power factor
418 φa Ambient relative humidity
419 φma Modified air relative humidity
420 Subscripts
421 C Compressor
422 F Fan
423 P Pump
424 t Total
425
426
427 Abbreviations
428 COP Coefficient of performance, dimensionless
429 COPEP Coefficient of performance enhancement percentage, %
430 RH Relative humidity (%)
431 rpm Revolution per minute
432 TR Tons of refrigeration
433
434 REFERENCES

435 [1] X. Cui, K.J. Chua, M.R. Islam, K.C. Ng, Performance evaluation of an indirect pre-cooling
436 evaporative heat exchanger operating in hot and humid climate, Energy Conversion and
437 Management, (2015), Vol. 102, PP. 140-150.
438 [2] Demis Pandelidis, Sergey Anisimov, William M. Worek, Performance study of counter-flow
439 indirect evaporative air coolers, Energy and Buildings, (2015), Vol. 109, PP. 53-64.

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440 [3] Sergey Anisimov, Demis Pandelidis, Theoretical study of the basic cycles for indirect
441 evaporative air cooling, International Journal of Heat and Mass Transfer, (2015), Vol. 84, PP.
442 974-989.
443 [4] Xiaoyun Xie, Yi Jiang, Comparison of Two Kinds of Indirect Evaporative Cooling System: To
444 Produce Cold Water and To Produce Cooling Air, Procedia Engineering, (2015), Vol. 121, PP.
445 881-890.
446 [5] D.Y. Goswami, G.D. Mathur, S.M. Kulkarni, Experimental investigation of performance of a
447 residential air conditioning system with an evaporatively cooled condenser, Journal of Solar
448 Energy Engineering115 (1993) 206–211
449 [6] X. Cui, K.J. Chua, W.M. Yang, K.C. Ng, K. Thu, V.T. Nguyen, Studying the performance of
450 an improved dew-point evaporative design for cooling application, Applied Thermal
451 Engineering, (2014), Vol. 63, Issue 2, PP. 624-633
452 [7] Claudio Cianfrini, Massimo Corcione, Emanuele Habib, Alessandro Quintino, Energy
453 performance of air-conditioning systems using an indirect evaporative cooling combined with a
454 cooling/reheating, Energy and Buildings, (2014), Vol. 69, PP. 490-497.
455 [8] K. Harby, Doaa R. Gebaly, Nader S. Koura, Mohamed S. Hassan, Performance improvement of
456 vapor compression cooling systems using evaporative condenser: An overview, Renewable and
457 Sustainable Energy Reviews, 58(2016) PP. 347–360
458 [9] Huanwei Liu, Qiushu Zhou, Yuling Liu, Peifeng Wang, Defa Wang, Experimental study on
459 cooling performance of air conditioning system with dual independent evaporative condenser,
460 International Journal of Refrigeration, Volume 55, July 2015, Pages 85-92
461 [10] Li-xin Zhang, Chao Zhang, Jing-nan Liu, Zong-hu Lin, Jun Ye, Ming Gao, Yan Shen,
462 Nominal condensing capacity and performance evaluation of evaporative condenser, Applied
463 Thermal Engineering, Volume 107, 25 August 2016, Pages 79-85
464 [11] F.W. Yu, K.T. Chan, Application of direct evaporative coolers for improving the energy
465 efficiency of air-cooled chillers, Journal of Solar Energy Engineering-Transactions of the
466 ASME 127 (2005) 430–433
467 [12] Tianwei Wang, Chenguang Sheng, A.G. Agwu Nnanna, Experimental investigation of air
468 conditioning system using evaporative cooling condenser, Energy and Buildings, (2014), Vol.
469 81, PP. 435-443
470 [13] Hwang Y, Radermacher R, Kopko W. An experimental evaluation of a residential-sized
471 evaporatively cooled condenser. Int J Refrig (2001);24:238–49.
472 [14] M.R. Islam, K.A. Jahangeer, K.J. Chua, Experimental and numerical study of an evaporatively-
473 cooled condenser of air-conditioning systems, Energy, (2015), Vol. 87, PP. 390-399
474 [15] Igor Kovacevic, Maarten Sourbron, The numerical model for direct evaporative cooler, Applied
475 Thermal Engineering 113 (2017) 8–19
476 [16] Yu FW, Chan KT. Improved energy performance of air-cooled chiller system with mist pre-
477 cooling mist improvement on air-cooled chiller. Applied Thermal Engineering (2011);31:537–
478 44

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479 [17] P. Martínez, J. Ruiz, C.G. Cutillas, P.J. Martínez, A.S. Kaiser, M. Lucas, Experimental study
480 on energy performance of a split air-conditioner by using variable thickness evaporative
481 cooling pads coupled to the condenser. Applied Thermal Engineering, 105 (2016)1041–1050
482 [18] Ali Sohani, Mitra Zabihigivi, Mohammad Hossein Moradi, Hoseyn Sayyaadi, Hamidreza
483 Hasani Balyani, A comprehensive performance investigation of cellulose evaporative cooling
484 pad systems using predictive approaches, Applied Thermal Engineering, Volume 110, 5
485 January 2017, Pages 1589-1608
486 [19] Jia Yang, K.T. Chan, and Xiangsheng Wu, application of water mist pre-cooling on the air
487 cooled chillers, Eleventh international IBPSA conference, Glasgow, Scotland, July 27-30,
488 2009.
489 [20] Ali Alahmer, Thermal analysis of a direct evaporative cooling system enhancement with
490 desiccant dehumidification for vehicular air conditioning, Applied Thermal Engineering,
491 Volume 98, 5 April 2016, Pages 1273-1285.
492 [21] Hui-Jeong Kim, Sung-Joon Lee, Sang-Hyeon Cho, Jae-Weon Jeong, Energy benefit of a
493 dedicated outdoor air system over a desiccant-enhanced evaporative air conditioner, Applied
494 Thermal Engineering, Volume 108, 5 September 2016, Pages 804-815
495 [22] Ali Sohani, Hoseyn Sayyaadi, Hamidreza Hasani Balyani, Sina Hoseinpoori, A novel approach
496 using predictive models for performance analysis of desiccant enhanced evaporative cooling
497 systems, Applied Thermal Engineering, Volume 107, 25 August 2016, Pages 227-252.
498 [23] W.Z. Gao, Y.P. Cheng, A.G. Jiang, T. Liu, Keith Anderson, Experimental investigation on
499 integrated liquid desiccant – Indirect evaporative air cooling system utilizing the Maisotesenko
500 – Cycle, Applied Thermal Engineering, Volume 88, 5 September 2015, Pages 288-296
501 [24] Youbi-Idrissi M, Macchi-Tejeda H, Fournaison L, Guilpart J. Numerical model of sprayed air
502 cooled condenser coupled to refrigeration system. Energy Convers Manage 2007;48:1943–51.
503 [25] Hajidavalloo E, Eghtedari H. Performance improvement of air-cooled refrigeration system by
504 using evaporatively cooled air condenser. Int J Refrig (2010);33:982–8.
505 [26] Vrachopoulos M, Filios AE, Kotsiovelos GT, Kravvaritis ED. Incorporated evaporative
506 condenser. Applied Thermal Engineering (2007); 27:823–8.
507 [27] Jahangeer KA, Tay AAO, Islam MDR. Numerical investigation of transfer coefficient of an
508 evaporatively-cooled condenser. Applied Thermal Engineering (2011);31:1655–63.
509 [28] Yang , Jia Yang , K.T. Chan , Xiangsheng Wu, Xiaofeng Yang, Hongyu Zhang , Performance
510 enhancement of air-cooled chillers with water mist: Experimentaland analytical investigation.
511 Applied Thermal Engineering (2012); 31:537–44.
512 [29] Holman, J.P., Experimental Methods for Engineers, McGraw-Hill, Sixth Edition, 1994
513 [30] C. P. Arora” Refrigeration and air conditioning”, Tata McGraw Hill, third editions, 2009,
514 771Pages
515
516
517

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518
519 Table (1) Error percentage for uncertainty analysis
520 Table (2) Sample of measured data at ambient temperature 40, 41, and 42°C
521

522 Fig. 1. Schematic of the chiller and water mist system

523 Fig. 2. Photograph of the chiller with water mist system

524 Figure 3 experimental results of the effect of modified air temperature on system power
525 consumption, (t a = 35℃ , φa = 40% and φma = 98%)

526 Figure 4 . Ph chart for conventional and evaporative cooling cycle

527 Figure 5 experimental results of the effect of modified air temperature on chiller’s
528 cooling capacity, (ta = 35℃ , φa = 40% and φma = 98%)

529 Figure 6 experimental results of the effect of modified air temperature on chiller’s COP, (t a =
530 35℃ , φa = 40% and φma = 98%)

531 Figure 7 wet bulb and dew point evaporative cooling effectiveness against ambient air temperature
532 for mist water temperature of (a) 15℃, (b) 20℃ and (c) 25 ℃
533 (φ ma = 98% and ambient air relative is not constant for all measuring points)
534 Fig. 8 Effect of mist water temperature on chiller’s power consumption and cooling capacity for
535 different ambient air temperature, (φ ma = 98%)

536 Fig. 9. Effect of mist water temperature on COPEP for different ambient air temperature, (φ ma=98%)

537 Fig. 10 . Effect of mist water temperature on mist water heat exchanger cooling load for different
538 ambient air temperature, (φ ma=98%)
539 Fig. 11. Effect of mist water temperature on COPEP for different modified air relative humidity,
540 (ta=40 °C)
541 Fig. 12 Effect of ambient air temperature on COPEP for different ambient air relative humidity
542 (Mist water temperature =15°C)
543

544
545
546
547
548
549

- 18 -
550
Table (1) Error percentage for uncertainty analysis 551
∆T P Q COP
Variable
(°C) (kW) (kW) (---)
Error percentage 8.8% 6.8% 14.4% 0.13%
552

553

554

555

556

557

558

559

560

561

562

563

564

565

566

567

- 19 -
 Table (2) Sample of measured data at ambient temperature 40, 41, and 42°C 568
conventional With water mist
No ta φa Ic
twm φma tma
Ic
1 40 10 15.0 11.7 116 15 61 22.0 0.126 14.4 10.4 81.5
2 40 10 17.2 13.9 115 20 61 22.8 0.135 16.6 12.6 83.4
3 40 10 13.7 10.5 115 25 61 23.2 0.142 13.2 9.3 84.4
4 40 10 16.5 13.2 115 30 61 23.7 0.151 16 12.1 84.9
5 40 10 12.5 9.3 116 15 77 19.0 0.133 10.6 6.3 78.0
6 40 10 15.0 11.7 116 20 77 19.7 0.146 13.1 8.9 79.0
7 40 10 24.4 21.2 115 25 77 20.5 0.160 22.6 18.4 79.9
8 40 10 16.1 12.8 115 30 77 21.1 0.171 14.4 10.2 80.4
9 40 10 15.2 12 116 15 98 16.1 0.153 13 8.6 74.9
10 40 10 16.3 13.1 116 20 98 16.8 0.160 14.2 9.8 75.3
11 40 10 14.1 10.8 115 25 98 17.2 0.173 12 7.7 75.9
12 40 10 17.1 13.8 115 30 98 18.5 0.196 15.1 10.8 77.5
13 41 20 17.9 14.7 116 15 61 26.7 0.083 17.1 13.3 90.0
14 41 20 19.5 16.3 115 20 61 27.1 0.097 18.8 15.0 92.6
15 41 20 16.0 12.9 115 25 61 27.9 0.106 15.4 11.7 94.0
16 41 20 16.0 12.9 115 30 61 28.3 0.117 15.5 11.8 94.8
17 41 20 19.9 16.8 116 15 77 23.2 0.097 17.8 13.8 84.4
18 41 20 20.7 17.5 115 20 77 24.6 0.124 18.6 14.7 86.4
19 41 20 15.8 12.7 116 25 77 25.0 0.133 13.8 10 87.5
20 41 20 20.3 17.1 115 30 77 25.5 0.142 18.3 14.5 88.6
21 41 20 19.3 16.1 116 15 98 21.1 0.133 16.9 12.7 80.4
22 41 20 18.1 14.9 116 20 98 21.5 0.135 15.8 11.7 80.6
23 41 20 16.5 13.3 116 25 98 22.0 0.153 14.2 10.2 81.5
24 41 20 16.8 13.6 116 30 98 22.9 0.164 14.6 10.6 83.5
25 42 25 16.3 13.2 116 15 61 28.3 0.050 15.6 11.8 94.8
26 42 25 15.1 12 116 20 61 29.4 0.066 14.4 10.7 96.7
27 42 25 18.8 15.7 116 25 61 30.5 0.092 18.2 14.5 98.5
28 42 25 15.9 12.8 115 30 61 30.9 0.104 15.4 11.7 99.0
29 42 25 17.0 13.9 116 15 77 25.2 0.072 14.8 11.0 87.8
30 42 25 19.1 16.1 115 20 77 26.7 0.101 17.1 13.3 90.0
31 42 25 18.8 15.7 115 25 77 27.6 0.128 16.7 13.0 93.8
32 42 25 19.9 16.8 116 30 77 28.0 0.131 18 14.2 94.5
33 42 25 22.2 19.1 116 15 98 23.0 0.108 19.7 15.7 83.9
34 42 25 21.5 18.5 116 20 98 23.6 0.124 19.1 15.2 84.8
35 42 25 19.3 16.2 116 25 98 24.2 0.137 17 13.1 85.1
36 42 25 18.7 15.7 116 30 98 25.0 0.160 16.5 12.7 87.5
569

570

571

- 20 -
572

573

574 Fig. 1. Schematic of the chiller and water mist system.

575

576

577

578

- 21 -
579

580

581

582

583

584 Fig. 2. Photograph of the chiller with water mist system

585

586

- 22 -
587

588
74

Power consumption at ambient temperature=73.3 kw

70
Power consumption (kW)

66

62

58

54
21 23 25 27 29 31
Modified air temperature℃
589

590 Figure 3 experimental results of the effect of modified air temperature on system
591 power consumption, (ta = 35℃ , φa = 40% and φma = 98%)

- 23 -
592
593 Figure 4 . Ph chart for conventional and evaporative cooling cycle
594

245

240
Chiller cooling Capacity (KW)

235

230

225

220

215

210
21 23 25 27 29 31
Modefied air temperature℃
595

596 Figure 5 experimental results of the effect of modified air temperature on

597 chiller’s cooling capacity, (t a = 35℃ , φa = 40% and φma = 98%)

- 24 -
 4.30

4.10

3.90

3.70
COP

3.50

3.30

3.10
COP at ambient temperature = 2.93
2.90 ℃
21 23 25 27 29 31
Modefied air temperature ℃
598

599 Figure 6 experimental results of the effect of modified air temperature on chiller’s
600 COP, (ta = 35℃ , φa = 40% and φma = 98%)

601

602

603

604

605

- 25 -
 1.4
Wet bulb Dew point
1.2
wet bulb/dew point
effectiveness 1
0.8
0.6
0.4
0.2
0
35 36 37 38 39 40 41 42
Ambient air temperature, ta.
606

607 (a)

1.4
1.2 Wet bulb Dew point
wet bulb/dew point

1
effectiveness

0.8
0.6
0.4
0.2
0
35 36 37 38 39 40 41 42
Ambient air temperature, ta.
608
609 (b)
1.4
1.2 Wet bulb Dew point
wet bulb/dew point

1
effectiveness

0.8
0.6
0.4
0.2
0
35 36 37 38 39 40 41 42
Ambient air temperature, ta.
610
611 (C)
612 Figure 7 wet bulb and dew point evaporative cooling effectiveness against ambient air temperature
613 for mist water temperature of (a) 15℃, (b) 20℃ and (c) 25 ℃
614 (φ ma = 98% and ambient air relative is not constant for all measuring points)

- 26 -
 Ta =35 C (Power) Ta = 38 C (Power)
55 260
Ta = 40 C (Power) Ta = 42 C (Power)
Ta=35 C (cooling) Ta=38 C (cooling)
Ta=40 C (cooling) Ta=42 C (cooling)
54.5
255

Chiller cooling capacity, kW

Power consumption, kW

54
250

53.5

245

53

240
52.5

52 235
14 19 24

Tmw (℃)
615
616 Fig. 8 Effect of mist water temperature on chiller’s power consumption and cooling capacity for
617 different ambient air temperature, (φ ma = 98%)

618
619
620
621

622
623
624
625
626

- 27 -
627

628

629

95
Ta =35 C Ta = 38 C
90 Ta = 40 C Ta = 42 C

85

80
COPEP, %

75

70

65

60

55
14 16 18 20 22 24 26

630
Twm (℃)
631
632 Fig. 9. Effect of mist water temperature on COPEP for different ambient air temperature, (φ ma=98%)

633
634
635
636
637
638
639
640

- 28 -
 14

Mist water heat exchanger cooling

13

12

11
load, kW

10

6 Ta =35 C Ta = 38 C
Ta = 40 C Ta = 42 C
5
14 16 18 20 22 24 26

Twm (℃)
641
642 Fig. 10 . Effect of mist water temperature on mist water’s heat exchanger cooling load for different
643 ambient air temperature, (φma=98%)
644
645
646
647
648

- 29 -
 100
φma=98% φma=77% φma=66%
95

90

85
COPEP, %

80

75

70

65

60

55
14 16 18 20 22 24 26

649
Twm (℃)
650 Fig. 11. Effect of mist water temperature on COPEP for different modified air relative humidity, ,
651 (ta=40 °C)
652
653

654

655

656

657

658

659

660

- 30 -
661

95
φa=10% φa=20%
φa=30% φa=40%
85

75
COPEP, %

65

55

45

35
34 36 38 40 42 44

662
Ta (℃)
663 Fig. 12. Effect of ambient air temperature on COPEP for different ambient air relative humidity
664 (Mist water temperature =15°C)
665 · COP of the proposed system is higher than that for the conventional evaporative cooling AC
666 system.
667 · The proposed system is able to cool ambient air to a temperature below its inlet wet bulb
668 temperature
669 · Evaporatively air cooled chiller by using pre-cooled mist water is an energy efficient system.
670

- 31 -