Indirect evaporative coolers with enhanced heat transfer

Title: Indirect evaporative coolers with enhanced heat transfer

A separator plate assembly for use in an indirect evaporative cooler (IEC) with an air-to-air heat exchanger. The assembly includes a separator plate with a first surface defining a dry channel and a second surface defining a wet channel. The assembly includes heat transfer enhancements provided on the first surface for increasing heat transfer rates. The heat transfer enhancements may include slit fins with bodies extending outward from the first surface of separator plate or may take other forms including vortex generators, offset strip fins, and wavy fins. In slit fin implementations, the separator plate has holes proximate to each of the slit fins, and the separator plate assembly may include a sealing layer applied to the second surface of the separator plate to block air flow through the holes. The sealing layer can be a thickness of adhesive, and a layer of wicking material is applied to the adhesive.

Inventors:: Kozubal, Eric; Woods, Jason; Judkoff, Ron

Issue Date:: 2015-09-22

OSTI Identifier:: 1215829

Assignee:: Alliance For Sustainable Energy, LLC (Golden, CO) NREL

Patent Number(s):: 9,140,471

Application Number:: 13/801,395

Contract Number:: AC36-08GO28308

Resource Relation:: Patent File Date: 2013 Mar 13

Research Org:: National Renewable Energy Lab. (NREL), Golden, CO (United States)

Sponsoring Org:: USDOE

Country of Publication:: United States

Language:: English

Subject:: 32 ENERGY CONSERVATION, CONSUMPTION, AND UTILIZATION

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Works referenced in this record:

A desiccant-enhanced evaporative air conditioner: Numerical model and experiments
journal, January 2013

Woods, Jason; Kozubal, Eric
Energy Conversion and Management, Vol. 65, p. 208-220
DOI: 10.1016/j.enconman.2012.08.007

Desiccant Enhanced Evaporative Air-Conditioning (DEVap): Evaluation of a New Concept in Ultra Efficient Air Conditioning
report, January 2011

Kozubal, E.; Woods, J.; Burch, J.
NREL/TP-5500-49722
DOI: 10.2172/1004010

Development and Analysis of Desiccant Enhanced Evaporative Air Conditioner Prototype
report, April 2012

Kozubal, E.; Woods, J.; Judkoff, R.
NREL/TP-5500-54755
DOI: 10.2172/1043778

Liquid desiccant based two-stage evaporative cooling system using reverse osmosis (RO) process for regeneration
journal, October 2007

Al-Sulaiman, Faleh A.; Gandhidasan, P.; Zubair, Syed M.
Applied Thermal Engineering, Vol. 27, Issue 14-15, p. 2449-2454
DOI: 10.1016/j.applthermaleng.2007.02.010

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