Three Dimensional Modeling of the Bed in Silica Gel/Water Adsorption Chiller: The Effect of Heating Fluid Temperature

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Abstract

The application of heat sources as an alternative to the electric energy has been an important issue in the refrigeration technology. Adsorption chillers are capable of employing heat sources in wide-range temperature and recovering low-grade waste energy. The adsorption cycle is working on the basis of adsorption and desorption processes of a refrigerant in porous media. In this study, a numerical model is developed to investigate the effect of heating water temperature on the performance of silica gel/water adsorption chiller. The simulation consists of solving heat transfer equations for fins, metal tube and thermal fluid along with the heat and mass transfer equations for an adsorbent bed simultaneously. The numerical results show that the cycle time reduces with the increase in heating water temperature. Coefficient of performance increases sharply with the increase in heating water temperature at temperature of 50-70 ºC and reach to 0.74 for temperature of 100 ºC while the specific cooling power increases almost linearly with the increase in heating water temperature.

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