SENSITIVITY ANALYSIS AND COMPONENT MODELING OF A PACKED-TYPE LIQUID DESICCANT SYSTEM AT PARTIAL LOAD OPERATING-CONDITIONS

Prediction of annual energy consumption requires the partial load perf ormance evaluation of each component in an air conditioning system. A packed-type or a coil-type liquid desiccant apparatus is an essential component of a hybrid liquid desiccant system. Therefore, predicting t he hour by hour performance of a packed-type hybrid liquid desiccant s ystem to estimate its annual energy consumption requires that the perf ormance of a packed-type system be known at partial load conditions. F or this purpose a detailed sensitivity analysis of heat and mass trans fer performance of a packed-type liquid desiccant system is carried ou t to identify important performance parameters. Two output parameters - enthalpy effectiveness and humidity effectiveness - are defined to p resent the results. Based on the conclusions drawn from the detailed s ensitivity analysis, a simple model is developed to predict the perfor mance of an absorber and a regenerator at partial load operating condi tions. Performance predictions using the simple model are compared wit h the predictions from the detailed analysis along with another existi ng model which is available in the literature. The simple model is in excellent agreement with the predictions of other two models.