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Article

A Parametric Study of an Indirect Evaporative Cooler Using a Spray Dryer Model

AAU Energy, Aalborg University, DK-9220 Aalborg, Denmark
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Author to whom correspondence should be addressed.
Energies 2025, 18(16), 4345; https://doi.org/10.3390/en18164345
Submission received: 1 July 2025 / Revised: 5 August 2025 / Accepted: 13 August 2025 / Published: 14 August 2025

Abstract

Indirect evaporative coolers (IECs) are becoming a viable alternative to the more energy-intensive traditional HVAC systems for space cooling, especially in arid regions. In this work, a recently developed computational model of an IEC was used to conduct a parametric study. The model employs a spray dryer model to track the flow path and evaporation rate of droplets. The key parameters investigated were the temperature of the droplets, a bypass effect where the amount of exhaust air and water was reduced to as low as 10%, and the length of the heat exchanger. The results suggest that the wet bulb efficiency could be increased from the previously observed 35% to 72.5% if the water temperature is decreased to 16 °C. In order to drastically increase the performance, the heat exchanger length should be increased from 50 cm to 100 cm, which could still end up in a more compact design overall as fewer plates are required. The bypass study resulted in peak performance when 40% of the secondary air flow was used as working air in conjunction with a proportional reduction in water usage. Overall, the computational model has been employed in an attempt to reduce the bulkiness, increase the efficiency and reduce the water consumption of such a system.
Keywords: internal evaporative cooler (IEC); droplet evaporation; wet bulb efficiency; computational modelling; spray dryer model; CFX-4 internal evaporative cooler (IEC); droplet evaporation; wet bulb efficiency; computational modelling; spray dryer model; CFX-4

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MDPI and ACS Style

Berning, T.; Gu, T.; Yin, C. A Parametric Study of an Indirect Evaporative Cooler Using a Spray Dryer Model. Energies 2025, 18, 4345. https://doi.org/10.3390/en18164345

AMA Style

Berning T, Gu T, Yin C. A Parametric Study of an Indirect Evaporative Cooler Using a Spray Dryer Model. Energies. 2025; 18(16):4345. https://doi.org/10.3390/en18164345

Chicago/Turabian Style

Berning, Torsten, Tianbao Gu, and Chungen Yin. 2025. "A Parametric Study of an Indirect Evaporative Cooler Using a Spray Dryer Model" Energies 18, no. 16: 4345. https://doi.org/10.3390/en18164345

APA Style

Berning, T., Gu, T., & Yin, C. (2025). A Parametric Study of an Indirect Evaporative Cooler Using a Spray Dryer Model. Energies, 18(16), 4345. https://doi.org/10.3390/en18164345

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