Performance improvement in an adsorption chiller with stepwise-linear fin height for each module in series. (October 2021)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Park, Moon Yong; Koushaeian, Mahdi; Lee, Woo Soo; Lee, Seung Soo; Duong, Xuan Quang; Shah, Nehad Ali; Kwon, Oh Kyung; Chung, Jae Dong
• Is Part Of: Case studies in thermal engineering. Volume 27(2021)
• Publication Date: 2021-10
• Subjects: Adsorption chiller -- Module arrangement -- Numerical analysis; Heat engineering -- Case studies -- Periodicals; 621.40205
• DOI: 10.1016/j.csite.2021.101271
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 2214-157X

Abstract

Abstract: An adsorption chiller is a highly promising cooling technology, but it has not been widespread because there are many uncertainties to solve the complex thermal and mass transfer phenomena. An adsorption chiller is composed of multi-modules and the tube inlet temperature decreases (or increases) during the adsorption process (or desorption process) from module to module in serially connected modules. It has been reported that the optimal fin height depends on the tube inlet temperature, thus using a different fin height for each module should potentially enhance the overall system performance of the adsorption chiller. Till now, there have been few studies which evaluated adsorption chiller performance from a system viewpoint. Most only considered a single fin space. Thus, no study has considered improving total system performance by using different conditions for different modules in series. We conducted a numerical study of 5 modules in series, using different fin heights. The coefficient of performance (COP) and specific cooling power (SCP) of modules with stepwise-linearly decreasing fin height were compared with those of modules with constant fin height. An 8.5% increase in COP and a 9.56% increase in SCP were observed. This enhancement will be much larger if more than five modules are connected to match the cooling capacity. The decrease (or increase) in tube inlet temperature accumulated in the series of modules. The last module, the 5th showed the most significant enhancement in COP and SCP, of 27.9% and 38.4%, respectively. Highlights: The numerical study is done to improve the performance of an adsorption chiller. We conducted a numerical study of 5 modules in series, using different fin heights. The motivation is tube inlet temperature varies from module to module in series. Introducing the stepwise-linear fin height for each module drastically increases the performance. The COP and SCP increase 8.5% and 9.56%, respectively, compared to the case with equal fin height.