THE NUMERICAL SIMULATION OF THE EFFECT OF ROTATIONAL SPEED ON THE PERFORMANCE OF DESICCANT WHEELS USING CVFEM IN A TWO DIMENSIONAL SIMULATION

Desiccant wheels are used when latent load in calculation of cooling load of a system is high. In a rotary absorber, air is dehumidified by passing through a wheel that is rotating between process and regeneration air streams. The drying of air is simulated using a control volume based on finite element method. Desiccant mesh is two- dimensional finite element mesh. Solving of air stream equation in wheel channels is also by two – dimensional rectangular mesh and by the SIMPLE method. Solving coupled of conservation of mass and energy in desiccant and passing air explicitly yields to operational diagrams of these wheels in different operating conditions and ability of optimizing output condition by changing input variables.

Keywords:

dehumidifying , desiccant wheel , mathematical modeling , CVFEM