Computer simulation of evaporative cooling storage system performance

Abstract

Evaporative cooling occurs when warm and unsaturated air is blown across a wet surface. This study reviews the development of simulation software as a research tool for designing evaporative cooling systems. The simulation incorporates information concerning the effect of the cooling pad length, cooling pad height, cooling pad thickness, air velocity, water flow rate, water temperature, water to air mass flow rate, and number of cooling pad segments in terms of the performance efficiency of the cooling system. The software rapidly produced model data, which was subjected to further analysis for verification and validation during the testing stage. The modelled and experimental data of the saturation efficiency were compared using 4 of the most important statistical parameters, based on a paired sample t-test of an equal variance assumption. The results indicated that there was no significant difference between the software generated data and the experimental data of the Saturation Efficiency on Pad Thickness – mm (p = 0.635), Air Velocity - m/s (p = 0.140), Water Flow Rate - L/min (p = 0.341) and Water Temperature °C (p = 0.567) at α = 0.05 significance level and 95 % confidence interval.