Evaluation of Indirect Evaporative Cooling Performance Integrated with Finned Heat Pipe and Luffa Cylindrica Fiber as Cooling /Wet Media

Abstract

Evaporative cooling is an air conditioning system in great demand by the public due to its low operating costs and easy maintenance. In countries with high humidity, direct evaporative cooling does not meet comfort requirements because the air to be conditioned is flowed directly to the cooling media. A decrease in temperature causes an increase in humidity. This is not the case with the indirect evaporative because the conditioned air does not directly contact, so an increase in humidity does not accompany the temperature decrease. This paper presents an experiment of indirect evaporative cooling integrated with finned heat pipes and luffa cylindrica fibers as a cooling media (wet media). This experiment aims to determine indirect evaporation cooling performance by utilizing the luffa cylindrica fiber's good wettability as a cooling media and the heat pipe's high thermal conductivity as a heat transfer. The system's performance is shown by wet-bulb effectiveness, dew point effectiveness, and cooling capacity. In this research, the finned heat pipe is arranged in a staggered manner in a module consisting of six rows and two columns where the finned heat pipe is divided into two parts; dry channel and wet channel. The test is carried out at conditioned intake air temperatures at 30, 35, 40, and 45 with a relative humidity of 25-54%. From the test results, the highest difference temperature is 16.6 C, the highest cooling capacity is 277 watts, the dew point effectiveness is 71%, and the wet-bulb effectiveness is 99%.