Investigation of water droplet carryover phenomena in industrial evaporative air-conditioning systems

Water droplet carryover phenomena and pressure drop characteristics in drip-type direct evaporative coolers have been experimentally investigated. Ten different evaporative cooling pads were tested for different air frontal velocities, and the onset of carryover has been determined. The onset of water carryover has been found to be at air velocities between 3.5 and 4.2 m/s. Also, the effect of flute height and pad thickness on pressure drop characteristics of cooling pads has been examined. In addition, it has been determined that for the steady-state operation of drip-type direct evaporative coolers, water temperature in the reservoir approaches the wet bulb temperature and can be taken as constant for long term steady-state operations in practice.