Publication: Study of pressure drop of dehumidifier under high relative humidity condition
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Date
2023-07-01
Authors
Samuel John Pitchay
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Abstract
Air conditioning systems dehumidify air using a lot of electrical energy and cost. An alternative method of removing humidity is to use desiccant dehumidifiers to remove moisture. An inherent problem with desiccant dehumidifiers is pressure drop due to the flow restriction. The objective of this study is to examine how much pressure is dropped based on the porosity of desiccant wheel and the desiccant material at high relative humidity. This experiment required the use of a wind tunnel experimental rig at the Heat Transfer Laboratory in the School of Mechanical Engineering, USM. The desiccant wheel was placed in the wind tunnel and the pressure drop was recorded. The outlet air velocity is key in understanding how the Reynolds number affects pressure drop. The correlation between Re and pressure can be seen by comparing them. For instance, desiccant clay with porosity, Φ = 0.9523 has a pressure drop of 55 Pa at Re = 21600. At Re = 28400, the pressure drop is 70 Pa. Meanwhile, for understanding how porosity affects pressure drop, the pressure drop can be seen for all porosities within a range of Re. For desiccant clay, with Re range of 21600 to 21700, the pressure drop at porosity, Φ = 0.9523 has a pressure drop of 55 Pa and for porosity, Φ = 0.6181, the pressure drop is 74 Pa. To summarize, as Re increases, the pressure drop increases and as porosity decreases, the pressure drop also increases.