Theoretical and experimental analysis of direct evaporative cooler with fin structured pads

This paper presents a new concept of increasing efficiency of Direct Evaporative Cooler by modifying its wetted media system i.e. by attaching fin structured pads along with the existing wood wool pads. A mathematical correlation is derived for theoretical analysis of fin structured pads by energy balance and this correlation is validated with the experimental results. Comparative study of direct evaporative cooler with and without fin structured pads is carried out, in which the effect of humidity variation on efficiency and change in temperature drop and efficiency by varying pad width has been studied. An increment of 10% in efficiency of Direct Evaporative Cooler is found when operated with fin structured pads of width 80 mm. From the correlation, it has been found that efficiency further increases on increasing the pad width of fin structured pads. The comparison based on the cost has also been done. The cost of generally available direct evaporative cooler is 3850 INR while of modified DEC is 4150 INR.