A numerical investigation for the heat and mass transfer between parallel flow of air and desiccant falling film in a fin-tube arrangement

A numerical investigation was conducted to study the heat and mass transfer between a falling film of calcium chloride desiccant solution and a parall el flow of air in a rectangular fin-tube arrangement. A control volume fini te difference method was used to solve the governing equations for the air and the liquid desiccant solution subjected to the appropriate boundary con ditions. A model was used to predict temperature distribution on the fin su rface. In this model, two approaches were employed to determine the tempera ture distribution of the fin surface. The first approach utilized the analy tical expression for the temperature distribution of a circular fin having the same area as the rectangular fin. The second approach used a finite dif ference algorithm to directly predict the temperature distribution of the r ectangular fin surface. Both approaches were used to study the performance of the fin-tube arrangement for dehumidification of air at various operatin g conditions. The effects on the air dehumidification process, due to chang ing the inlet conditions of air and desiccant film; their mass flow rates; and the fin height were predicted. The results were used to developed corre lations to predict the heat and mass transfer coeffiecients (on the airside ) between the air and the liquid desiccant. These correlations can accurate ly be used to predict the outlet air and liquid desiccant conditions from t he fin-tube arrangement. Correlations were developed to predict the rate of heat and mass transfer between the air and the desiccant film. Several num erical experiments showed agreement with the available data in literature.