A NUMERICAL-SOLUTION FOR COOLING AND DEHUMIDIFICATION OF AIR BY A FALLING DESICCANT FILM IN PARALLEL

The heat and mass transfer process between falling liquid desiccant fi lm and air in parallel flow heat exchanger is investigated numerically . The governing equations with appropriate boundary and interfacial co nditions describing the physical problem are derived. The control volu me approach is used to predict the outlet conditions for both the air and the desiccant solution. The effect of inlet conditions, mass flow rates and channel geometry on the air cooling and dehumidification pro cesses is also predicted. The average Nusselt and Sherwood numbers for air flow are correlated in terms of Prandtl number, Schmidt number an d channel geometry. Typical numerical experiments showed good agreemen t of the present results with the available data in literature. Moreov er, a parametric study is conducted to illustrate the general effects of various variables on heat and mass transfer processes in cooling an d dehumidification of air. (C) 1998 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights r eserved.