Modelling of Indirect Evaporative Air Coolers

In this paper, indirect evaporative cooling in an air cooler has been modeled. This model has been obtained from the governing equations of heat and mass transfer in primaryand secondary air and water flows. Factors affectingon evaporative cooling performance such as mass flow rates, geometry and flow configuration has been investigated. Results show that cooling efficiency considerablydepends on mass flow rates ratios of primary and secondary air flows and spacing between plates of wet and dry passages. The performance of this cooling system for typical conditions of some Iranian cities has been investigated. Using a first stage indirect evaporative cooling prior to conventional direct evaporative cooling systems in most regions of Iran will provide cooling comfort conditions as a low energy consumer alternative.