Experimental investigation of desiccant wheel dehumidification control method for changes in regeneration heat input

This study discusses the effects of changes in the regeneration heat input on the dehumidification performance of a desiccant wheel to confirm its effective operation mode. The quantity of heat input to the regeneration air is assumed to change from 100% to 42%, assuming that the inlet regeneration air at 26 degrees C can be heated to the maximum regeneration temperature of 75 degrees C with a regeneration airflow velocity of 2 m/s. For this reason, the constant regeneration airflow velocity mode and the constant regeneration air temperature mode were studied experimentally. The results show that the constant regeneration temperature operation mode produced a smaller drop in dehumidification performance when the regeneration heat input was reduced. Furthermore, the transient responses of the dehumidification performance to long and short changes in the heat input were analyzed in both operating modes. The results confirmed that the constant regeneration temperature mode with proportional control of the rotor rotation speed was effective in stemming the decline in dehumidification performance when the heat input change was relatively long. However, the rotation speed control effect disappeared during short changes in the heat input because the buffer effect of the adsorption capacity of the rotor became much larger. (C) 2020 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.