Experimental investigation of a new material for evaporative cooling

Energy consumption by human-enhanced activities has led to distinct environmental problems; in particular, climate change and global warming since 1824 when Fourier first cited that CO2 emissions would warm the atmosphere (Matyssek, 2013). In hot regions, the main cause for energy consumption comes from the cooling systems of many buildings. The intensity and duration of the sunshine in hot regions has a direct relationship with the usage of cooling systems. The aim of this paper is to study the performance of eucalyptus fibre pads which can be used as a new material for the evaporative cooling process in order to reduce the energy consumption caused by cooling loads. A wind tunnel was used to investigate the performance of evaporative cooling by eucalyptus fibres. This paper also analysed the behaviour of the eucalyptus fibres under different conditions. From the experimental results, it was found that the maximum reduction of air temperature was between 11.3°C and 6.6°C, while the maximum cooling efficiency was between 71% and 49% at 0.1 and 0.6 m/s air velocity respectively.