Energy and Buildings, Vol.66, 424-436, 2013
Small-scale single-panel liquid-to-air membrane energy exchanger (LAMEE) test facility development, commissioning and evaluating the steady-state performance
A new test facility was developed to assess the performance of a small-scale single-panel liquid-to-air membrane energy exchanger (LAMEE). Mass and energy balances of the exchanger were computed for each test. The steady-state performance of the small-scale LAMEE was experimentally investigated under different operating conditions. Water was used as a liquid transfer media for the experiments and the exchanger was tested for air heating and humidifying (H&H), air cooling and humidifying (C&H), and air cooling and dehumidifying (C&D) at three different NTU values (2.5, 3.5 and 4.5) and Cr* = 7. The experimental results were compared to results from a numerical and two analytical models. In most cases, reasonable agreement among the experimental, numerical and analytical results was achieved except for the sensible effectiveness in the H&H and latent and total effectiveness in the C&H test cases. The results showed that the effectiveness of the small-scale LAMEE always increased with NTU for all test conditions. Sensible and latent effectiveness contour maps of the small-scale LAMEE were generated numerically for different inlet air conditions and for NTU = 3.5 and Cr* = 7, while the water inlet temperature was set at 22 degrees C. Finally, the effectiveness contour maps were compared with three experimental test conditions. (C) 2013 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.
Keywords:Small-scale exchanger;Liquid-to-air membrane energy exchanger;Steady-state effectiveness;NTU;Heat capacity ratio