Experimental Investigation of the Potential of a New Fabric-Based Evaporative Cooling Pad

Direct evaporative coolers are energy-efficient, economic solutions to supplying cooling demand for space conditioning. Since their potential strongly depends on air hygrothermal conditions, they are traditionally used in dry and hot climates, though they can be used in many applications and climates. This work proposes a new direct evaporative cooling system with a fabric-based pad. Its design enables maximum wetted surface with minimum pressure drop. Its performance has been experimentally characterized in terms of saturation efficiency, air humidification, pressure drop, and level of particles, based on a full factorial Design of Experiments. Factors studied are air dry bulb temperature, specific humidity, and airflow. Saturation efficiencies obtained for a 25 cm pad are above the values achieved by other alternative evaporative cooling (EC) pads proposed in the literature, with lower pressure drops.