Numerical investigation on the heat and mass transfer in a direct evaporative cooler

A simplified mathematical model is developed to describe the heat and moisture transfer between water and air in a direct evaporative cooler. The mass of evaporated water is treated as a mass source of air flow, and the related latent heat of water evaporation is taken as a heat source in the energy equation. The momentum caused by water evaporation is taken into account in the momentum equations. The effective air viscosity and diffusion coefficient are decided experimentally. The models and methods are validated by comparing the numerical results with those of experiment for the same evaporative cooler. The influences of the inlet frontal air velocity, pad thickness, inlet air dry-bulb and wet-bulb temperatures on the cooling efficiency of the evaporative cooler are calculated and analyzed.