Enhancing the performance of evaporative spray cooling in air cycle refrigeration and air conditioning technology

摘要

The phase out of CFC refrigerants and the concern over their proposed replacements, HFC, has led to a reassessment of many natural refrigeration technologies including air cycle. It is recognised that to fulfil the full potential of air cycle technology, improvements in system energy consumption must be made. One area where it is believed that significant energy savings can be made is the use of evaporative spray cooling. This paper reports preliminary results of a project aimed at investigating and enhancing the performance of evaporative spray cooling. Initially, the performance of five different types of atomiser was examined under varying operating conditions. From these tests it was possible to identify the most appropriate atomiser for the application and carry out further tests to determine the effect of other parameters such as water temperature and atomiser location. A system model has been used to interpret the findings of these tests to see how the energy performance of an actual air cycle system is affected by evaporative spray cooling. Further tests must be carried out before a definitive understanding of evaporative spray cooling is reached. These are expounded in this paper.