Cold Energy Release Characteristics of Ice/Air Direct Contact Heat Exchanger

Abstract

This paper deals with cold energy release characteristics of an ice/air direct contact heat exchanger. Characteristics of the outlet temperature, humidity, time history of heat release are examined when the initial height of the ice-cube-packed bed in the heat exchanger is changed. The following results are obtained in these experiments : (1) Inlet air of 30°C is lowered to about 0°C when passed through the heat exchanger, and the absolute humidity of the outlet air is reduced to about a quarter of that of the inlet air. (2) There is an optimum height of the ice-cube-packed bed to maximize the amount of cold energy release. (3) This heat exchange method can supply about twice as much cold energy as is released by an ordinary fin-tube-type heat exchanger even if the air velocity in the heat exchanger is reduced to about 0.38 times that of the fin-tube-type heat exchanger. (4) An experimental equation for predicting the time taken for the ice-cube-packed bed to completely melt is derived.