Experimental investigations of polymer hollow fibre integrated evaporative cooling system with the fibre bundles in a spindle shape

Due to the advantages of light weight, corrosion resistant and low cost, hollow fibres have been studied as the substitute for metallic materials. A novel hollow fibre integrated evaporative cooling system, in which the hollow fibre module constitutes as the humidifier and the evaporative cooler, is proposed. This novel hollow fibre integrated evaporative cooling system will provide a comfortable indoor environment for hot and dry area. Moreover, the water vapour can permeate through the hollow fibre effectively, and the liquid water droplets will be prevented from mixing with the processed air. In order to avoid the flow channelling or shielding of adjacent fibres, the fibres inside each bundle were made into a spindle shape to allow maximum contact between the air stream and the fibre. The cooling performances of the proposed novel polymer hollow fibre integrated evaporative cooling system were experimentally investigated under the incoming air temperature in the range of 26 °C to 32 °C and relative humidity of 25%-35%. The effects of air velocities on the cooling effectiveness, heat and mass transfer coefficients, specific water consumption and pressure drop across the polymer hollow fibre module were analysed. Two sets of experimentally derived non-dimensional heat and mass transfer correlations were summarized, which could be favourable for the future design of polymer hollow fibre integrated evaporative cooling system.