Experimental Study of Moisture-Wicking Fabric as Cooling Pad for Novel Rotary Direct Evaporative Cooler

Abstract

This study proposes a novel rotary direct evaporative cooler and investigates the potential of a moisture-wicking fabric as a cooling pad for the proposed evaporative cooler. The rotary direct evaporative cooler rotates the cooling pad to reduce the water and energy consumption of the pump compared to those of existing direct evaporative coolers. A moisture-wicking fabric is considered as the material of the cooling pad, because of its high moisture-wicking property, enhancing water evaporation. Experiments are performed under various inlet air conditions while measuring the air temperature, relative humidity, air velocity, and differential pressure. The evaporative cooling efficiency and impacts of the inlet air temperature and air velocity on the cooling performance are also evaluated. The results demonstrate the potential of the moisture-wicking fabric as cooling pad of direct evaporative cooler.