Abstract
A conventional adsorption chiller with silica gel as adsorbent and water as adsorbate has been analyzed numerically. In the present study, a non-dimensional simulation model has been presented and a set of non-dimensional parameters for conventional adsorption chiller has been derived. The results obtained by simulation method are confirmed by the experimental results. Simulation results show that switching speed is most influential parameter and there is an optimum switching speed for cooling capacity and COP. Results also show that system performance (cooling capacity and COP) is strongly affected by the number of transfer unit of adsorber/desorber, NTUa due to severe sensible heating/cooling requirements. The model is somewhat sensitive to the number of transfer unit of evaporator, NTUe. The number of transfer unit of condenser, NTUc is the least sensitive parameter. Finally, an investigation is made parametrically to obtain the optimum value of switching speed and the number of transfer unit, NTU of different component. The present model can be employed to analyze and to optimize the adsorption cooling/heat pump system.
