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Experimental Validation of Theoretical Studies on Open
and Forced Flow Solar Regenerator
J. V. KAUDINYA
a
& S. C. KAUSHIK
a
a
centre of Energy Studies, Indian Institute of Technology, New Delhi, 110 016, India
Version of record first published: 05 Apr 2007.
To cite this article: J. V. KAUDINYA & S. C. KAUSHIK (1986): Experimental Validation of Theoretical Studies on Open and
Forced Flow Solar Regenerator, International Journal of Solar Energy, 4:1, 13-23
To link to this article: http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/01425918608909836
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Int. I. Solar Energy, 1986, Vol. 4 , pp. 13-23
0142-591918610401-0013$12.00/0
1986 harwood academic publishers GmbH
Printed in the United Kingdom
Experi mental Val i dati on of
Theoretical Studies on Open and
Forced Fl ow Solar Regenerator
J. V. KAUDINYA and S. C. KAUSHIK
Centre of Energy Studies, Indian Institute of Technology, New Delhi-110 016,
India
(Received June 27, 1985)
To observe the cooling capacity of an open cycle solar absorption cooling system
over a hot summer day, an experiment on open and forced flow solar regenerator has
been performed with water-LiBr and water-LiCI solution as the working fluids each
of 35% initial solution concentration. The effects of ambient temperature, ambient
relative humidity, ambientlforced air velocity and solar intensity on the desorption
ratelregeneration of the two liquid desiccants have been experimentally observed for
both the working fluids at each hour of the day. The earlier theoretical studies on the
mass desorption rates for each of the solar regenerators have also been validated for
the same operating and ambient conditions. It is found that the experimental results
are in reasonably good agreement with the theoretical predictions. It is concluded
that LiBr-H,O working fluid is better in performance than LiCL-H,O solution
and a forced flow solar regenerator is more suitable for hot and dry climate in
terms of mass desorption rate.
1 INTRODUCTION
Regeneration of hygroscopic liquid desiccant is used in open cycle
absorption cooling system (OCACS). The importance of regenera-
tion process in OCAC system can be known by the fact that the
cooling capacity of OCAC system is only determined by the amount
of refrigerant evaporated from the regenerator solution surface
during regeneration. Thus to investigate the cooling capacity of
OCAC system for a fixed regenerator area by a simple experimental
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14 J. V. KAUDlNYA AND S. C. KAUSHIK
regenerator for the different configurations and two air flow modes,
becomes more important.
Kakabaev et al. [I] in 1975 have performed an experiment on the
complete OCAC system using the roof of the building to be cooled
as a solar regenerator, under varying climatic conditions during
summer. It was reported that the effective cooling can be achieved
by using only the roof as a solution regenerator for airconditioning.
However the theoretical model of the aforesaid roof regenerator
was developed by Kaushik et al. [2], in 1985. Hollands [3] studied
experimentally as well as theoretically the performance of a brine
still solar regenerator and found a goud agreement between
experimental observations and theoretical predictions. Further ex-
periment on the open and forced flow solar regenerator system has
been performed by Peng and Howell [4] in 1982, using LiCI-H20 as
the working fluid. In 1983, Kumar and Srirarnulu [5] have proposed
a simple experiment on regeneration of lithium bromide-water and
Calcium chloride water solutions using solar energy with a forced
flow solar regenerator. However the experimental results were not
supported by any theoretical model. Moreover it seems that the
consideration of salt deposition on the regenerator surface might
have not been taken into account in the concentration measure-
ments which results in over estimation of water mass desorption
rate as well as the system cooling capacity. Recently Kaushik and
Kaudinya [6] have developed a theoretical model to predict the flow
length dependence of the solution temperature/concentration and
the mass desorption rate for open and forced flow solar re-
generators and a detailed parametric study was presented.
In this communication the authors have performed a simple
experiment to validate the theoretical results of earlier studies on
open and forced flow solar regenerators used for open cycle
absorption airconditioning. Measurements have been made for the
solution temperature, and the mass desorption rate with an ac-
curacy of having error lesser than f 5% and further problems are
described. The observed values of refrigerant mass desorption rate
at each hour of the clear day under varying climatic conditions of
April, 1985 at IIT Delhi, are found to be in reasonably good
agreement with the theoretical predictions of the model given by
the authors. The theoretical model presented there seems to be a
realistic one from practical point of view. The standard deviation
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SOLAR REGENERATOR l 5 .
between the theoretical and experimental results is found to be
,
reasonably small.
2 EXPERIMENTAL SET UP
Figure 1 shows the schematic arrangement of the experimental
apparatus used for regeneration studies. The regenerator is a
1.9 x 0.85 mete? aluminium, black painted, corrugated sheet with
movable glass cover to make the system desirably open or forced
flow solar regenerators. The solution container put at a certain
height, is a graduated glass vessel with an outlet control valve (v,) to
assure the constant solution flow. The solution of LiBr-H,O/LiCI-
H,O of 35% constant concentration is made to flow under gravity
through the rotameter with a fixed control valve (v,) at the inlet, with
FIGURE 1 Sketch of the experimental set-up of open and forced flow solar
regenerator.
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16 J . V. KAUDINYA AND S. C. KAUSHIK
a constant solution flow rate, and sprayed on the regenerator with
the help of a solution header. The regenerated strong solution, at
each hour is collected in the graduated solution vessel by a solution
pump to see the reduced solution column, keeping the outlet of the
vessel off during the measurement. In case of forced flow the air
blower at a certain speed is used to force the air through the duct of
FIGURE 2 (a) Open surface solar regenerator system. (b) Forced flow solar
regenerator system.
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SOLAR REGENERATOR 17
the closed regenerator. The air is forced in parallel and counter
parallel to the solution flow to see the comparative effects of the air
stream, on the regenerator performance. The complete experimen-
tal set up for open and forced flow solar regenerators are shown on
photographs in Figure 2(a) and (b) respectively.
3 MEASUREMENTS
The common parameters affecting the regenerator performance are
initial solution concentration (known), solution flow rate (con-
trolled), solution temperature (measured at inlet, outlet and inter-
mediate locations), air stream velocity (measured at inlet and
outlet) ambient temperature, ambient relative humidity, am-
bient air velocity and solar intensity. These all are measured by
separate devices at the time of observations. The exact observation
of water desorption rate, however is necessary which has been the
main consideration of the present experiment. At the time of
observation, first the outlet of the solution vessel is made off, then
each and every drop of the solution from the outlet pipe of the
regenerator is pumped to the solution vessel to see the exact level of
the solution column in the container. At each hour of the day this
process is repeated to know the average water desorption rate over
the day to predict the OCACS cooling capacity. Thus with a bit
more manual handling the accuracy goes up with a minimum
possible percentage error in the measurements.
4 THEORETICAL CONSIDERATIONS
Considering vapour pressure as the driving force, the theoretical
performance of the open and forced flow solar regenerators has
been modelled for steady state conditions including the regenerator
length dependence in the analysis. The ultimate second order
differential equations for both the configurations are identical in
their solutions. The computer programmes incorporating the solu-
tion and ambient conditions in it, are capable to predict the water
mass desprotion rate, solution temperaturelconcentration at each
length segments of the regenerator and average COP against the
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18 I. V. KAUDINYA AND S. C. KAUSHIK
solar intensity of any hour. The validation of experimental results
has been done by this theoretical model for each of the configura-
tions, solutions, and flow modes. The energy and mass balance
considerations for the same have been made by the authors in an
earlier communication [6].
For the present analysis, LiBr-H,O and LiCI-H20 are chosen as
the working fluids. For the range of operating conditions assumed
for computation, constants a, b and c for Li r - H2 0 are 0.87,
2810.0, -78.0 and for LiCI-H20 0.87, 2680.0 and -77.0 as in [7]
respectively valid in the temperature and concentration range of
35-70 "C and 35-40% respectively. The latent heat of vaporization
for water is also assumed to be constant in the regeneration of weak
absorbent solution. The forced convective heat transfer coefficient
between the solution film and the ambient air may be evaluated
neglecting buoyancy effects using the following relationships for
Laminar flow
For turbulent flow
and according to Dropkin's measurements [8] the psychrometeric
ratio is given by
by which the mass transfer coefficient, f l = 0.622 KIP where P is
atmospheric pressure in mm(Hg).
5 RESULTS AND DISCUSSION
Figure 3 shows the water mass desorption rate measured and
computed at each hour of the day for LiBr-H20 of 35% for open
regeneration. Table I (a & b) gives its corresponding input data
affecting directly on mass desorption rate from the solution open
surface. The figure also depicts that initially the water desorption
rate is increasing because heat and mass transfer coefficient and
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I I I
8 9 1 0 1 1 1 2 1 2 3 4 5 6
DAY TlME (hr)
DAY Tl ME (hr)
(b)
FIGURE 3
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J. V. KAUDINYA AND S. C. KAUSHIK
TABLE I(a)
Open surface solar regenerator. LiCI-H20. Date: 28.3.'1985 regenerator area =
1.6m2 solution flow rate = 10ItIhr
Time I,
hr kJl hr.
8 1100
9 1792
10 2515
11 2986
12 3206
1 3081
2 2766
3 2295
4 1572
5 723
6 125
" A A.4
m2 kmlhr %
me"
kglhr
-
0.100
0.200
0.550
0.700
0.850
1.050
0.900
0.950
0.700
0.400
0.200
Theoretical
m,
kglhr . m2
0.003
0.168
0.329
0.491
0.578
0.604
0.564
0.434
0.295
0.119
0.014
1, Sol a r intensity, A,-Ambient relative humidity, T,-Ambient temperature,
T,,-initial solution temperature, T,,-Intermediate solution temperature, T,,-Final
solution temperature, m,-water mass desorption rate, VA-wind velocity.
TABLE I(b)
Open surface solar regenerator. LiBr-H20, 35%. Date: 11. 4. 1985 Regenerator
area = 1.6 m2. Solution flow rate = 10.0 ltlhr
Time I,
hr Wlhr
8 1005
9 1820
10 2680
11 2860
12 3191
1 3051
2 2685
3 2168
4 1352
5 781
6 183
Theore-
tical m
kg/hr n?
0.402
0.541
0.693
0.766
0.836
0.832
0.781
0.695
0.534
0.421
0.286
water mass driving potential all are increasing but after the peak of
the insolation, the water mass driving potential goes down which
reduces the performance of the open surface regenerator. Figure 4
shows the performance of LiCI-H20 of 35% initial concentration in
the same regenerator configuration. Some sharp increases in the
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SOLAR REGENERATOR
FORCED FLOW
LIBR- Hz0
---- THEOREllCAL
- EXPERIMENTAL
. 2 1
B 9 1 0 1 1 1 2 1 2 3 5 6
TIME lhr)
FIGURE 4
mass desorption rates attribute to the high insolation and higher
wind velocity at the particular span of times.
The computed results follow the narrow track with the ex-
perimental results but even then to achieve the perfection in the
accuracy of the theoretical model is hardly possible due to the
complicated phenomenon of evaporation in the open atmosphere.
Moreover the model does not include the effect of eddy currents of
the fast wind striking on the thin film of the solution flowing over
the open regenerator surface. Even then the experimental trends are
appreciably validated by the theoretical model used for computation.
Figure 4 gives the assessment of water mass desorption rate of
LiBr-H,O at different day time in parallel and counter parallel flow
modes in a forced flow solar regenerator. The input data for the
same are given in Table I1 ( a & b). The validation of the ex-
perimental results in two different modes has been shown here.
Although the regeneration performance of LiBr-H,O in forced flow
solar regenerator has been shown better in parallel flow than in
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J. V. KAUDINYA AND S. C. KAUSHIK
TABLE II(a)
Forced Row solar regenerator. Date: 8. 4. 1985. (3) LiBr-H,O 35%. (ii) Counter
flow mode. Solution flow rate = 15 ltlhr. Effective regenerator area = 1.3 mZ
Time I, v. 8 1, TA T,, T,, %f Td Tm To/ m, m,
hr Wlhr. m' kmlhr % % ' C OC "C ' C 'C 'C "C kdhr kelhrm2
&-Ambi ent air relative humidity at the inlet, &,-Ambient air relative humidity at the outlet.
T-Air stream temperature at the inlet, Tm-Air stream temperature at the mid.
T+i nal air stream temperature.
TABLE II(b)
Forced flow solar reeenerator. Date: 9. 4. 1985. Solution Row rate= 15ltlhr.
~ffective;e~enerator area = 1.3 m2. (i) Parallel Row mode
Time I, VA 1, h TA r, 'L TI Td Tam T*, m, m,
hr Wlhr. m2 kmlhr % % *C ' C "C 'C ' C "C ' C kglhr kg/hrm2
counter flow. But a direct comparison in this case is not possible
because of the different input data used for two different modes.
This was. because the solar regenerator used for the present
experiment was the one and the same unit for open and forced flow
and in two flow modes too. So a comparison was possible if the
experiment would have been done by two seperate units for
different flow modes. However, the experimental validation could
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SOLAR REGENERATOR 23
be merely but appreciably worked out here as shown in Figure 4.
The results of water desorption rates observed experimentally are
verified by the model used by the authors in [6] which gives the best
possible accuracy of the experimental set up.
Acknowledgements
The authors thankfully acknowledge the financial support from 'Tata Energy
Research Institute (India)'.
References
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