Porous ceramic evaporators are considered viable alternatives for cooling buildings. Performance of ceramic panels, placed in a duct within a climate chamber, was assessed under controlled dry bulb temperature, relative humidity, supply water pressure, and layout in the duct. Results showed higher porosity ceramic and higher water pressure delivered greatest cooling. Dry bulb temperature drops of 6-8 Kelvin were achieved parallel with a 30 % rise in relative humidity. Maximum cooling, 224 W/m2 of ceramic surface, was recorded for a high porosity ceramic in a single row stack and water supplied at 1.0m head. Ceramic surface temperatures were around 2.5 K to 4.0 K above wet bulb, indicating potential improvement through better heat/mass transfer. Empirical formulae relate mean cooling performance to [es-e], ambient to saturated vapour pressure difference. Direct evaporative cooling, using porous ceramic evaporators, has demonstrated significant potential for building cooling.
Keywords. air conditioning; porous ceramic; evaporative cooling; free cooling
References
Hicks N.G., Thomson T.L., Yoklic M.R., Chalfoun N.V., Kent K.J., Evaporative cooling for large exhibition spaces: A methodology for system design/engineering based on human comfort, PLEA91 Architecture and Urban Space, Seville, Spain, 1991, pp.159-164.
Gillet A.C., de Laminne J.M., Lefebvre S., An illustration of semi-passive bioclimatic architecture: The Belgian pavilion project for the Seville World Fair 1992, PLEA 91 Architecture and Urban Space, Seville, Spain, 1991, pp.589-594.
Bowman N., Lomas K., Cook M., Eppel H., Ford B., Hewitt M., Cucinella M., Francis E., Rodriguez E., Gonzalez R., Alvarez S., Galata A., Lanarde P., Belarbi R., Application of PDEC to non-domestic buildings, Renewable Energy, Vol.10 No.2/3, 1997, pp191-196.
Nahar N.M., Sharma P., Purohit M.M., Performance of different passive techniques for cooling of buildings in arid regions, Building & Environment, 38, 2003, pp109-116.
Ford B., Patel N., Zaveri P., Hewitt M., Cooling without air conditioning, Renewable Energy, 15, 1998, pp177-182.
Monteith J.L., Unsworth M.H., Principles of Environmental Physics, Edward Arnold, 1990.
How to cite this article
Ibrahim, E., Shao, L. and Riffat, S.B. (2003). 'Porous ceramics for building evaporative cooling'. SET Proceedings, 2(1), pp. 231-235. https://doi.org/10.65582/set.2003.052
