Performance enhancement of regenerative evaporative cooler by surface alterations and using ternary hybrid nanofluids

Abstract

The rising demand for electricity (energy) to cool the conditioning space leads to the searching for alternate, emission-free and sustainable technologies. The regenerative (dew-point) evaporating coolers are proved to be energy-efficient and eco-friendly devices for a wide range of climatic conditions. The better performance of these devices leads to a significant cutback of power consumption, which can be achieved by modifying the cooling plate surface and coolant properties. This work investigates the performance of the cooling device with the application of the water-based various ternary hybrid nanofluids and separating plate profile modifications. Simulation is done for ternary hybrid nanofluids by suspending six different combinations of nanoparticles and four different surface profiles of the core unit. The energetic, exegetic, sustainability, economic and environmental analyses of the device are performed by varying the important operating parameters. It is found that the only use of nanofluid in the devices not much fruitful, while surface profile alteration gives a significant contribution to performance enhancement. The device with capsule embossed plate surface yields the highest coefficient of performance, exergy efficiency and sustainability index; however, surface modification leads to higher running cost and equivalent CO2 emission. © 2021 Elsevier Ltd