Abstract
The present study considers evaporative cooling and desiccant unit-based air-conditioning (AC) options for livestock AC application. In this regard, proposed systems are investigated by means of experiments and thermodynamic investigations. Air-conditioning requirements for animals are theoretically investigated and temperature-humidity index (THI) is estimated. A lab-scale heat mass exchanger based on the Maisotsenko-cycle evaporative cooling conception (MEC) is set up and its performance is evaluated at different ambient air conditions. In addition, a desiccant-based air-conditioning (DAC) unit is thermodynamically evaluated using a steady-state model available in the literature. The study focuses on the ambient conditions of Multan which is the 5th largest city of Pakistan and is assumed to be a typical hot city of southern Punjab. The study proposed three kinds of AC combination i.e., (i) stand-alone MEC, (ii) stand-alone desiccant AC, and (iii) M-cycle based desiccant AC systems. Wet bulb effectiveness of the stand-alone MEC unit resulted in being from 64% to 78% whereas the coefficient of performance for stand-alone desiccant AC and M-cycle based desiccant AC system was found to be 0.51 and 0.62, respectively. Results showed that the stand-alone MEC and M-cycle based desiccant AC systems can achieve the animals' thermal comfort for the months of March to June and March to September, respectively, whereas, stand-alone desiccant AC is not found to be feasible in any month. In addition, the ambient situations of winter months (October to February) are already within the range of animal thermal comfort.
| Original language | English (US) |
|---|---|
| Article number | 2675 |
| Journal | Energies |
| Volume | 13 |
| Issue number | 11 |
| DOIs | |
| State | Published - Jun 2020 |
Bibliographical note
Funding Information:Acknowledgments: The authors would like to thank Bahauddin Zakariya University, Multan-Pakistan for financial support under the Director Research/ ORIC grants (i) “Evaluation of solar chimney driven passive air-conditioning system for agricultural and livestock applications in Pakistan” and (ii) “Thermodynamic evaluation of low-cost air-conditioning systems for various applications”, awarded to Principal Investigator Muhammad Sultan. This research work has been carried out in the Department of Agricultural Engineering, Bahauddin Zakariya University, Multan-Pakistan. We acknowledge support for the Open Access fees by Hamburg University of Technology (TUHH) in the funding programme Open Access Publishing. The necessary copyright permissions are ensured accordingly for all copyrighted graphics, images, tables, and figures.
Funding Information:
The authors would like to thank Bahauddin Zakariya University, Multan-Pakistan for financial support under the Director Research/ ORIC grants (i) "Evaluation of solar chimney driven passive air-conditioning system for agricultural and livestock applications in Pakistan" and (ii) "Thermodynamic evaluation of low-cost air-conditioning systems for various applications", awarded to Principal Investigator Muhammad Sultan. This research work has been carried out in the Department of Agricultural Engineering, Bahauddin Zakariya University, Multan-Pakistan. We acknowledge support for the Open Access fees by Hamburg University of Technology (TUHH) in the funding programme Open Access Publishing. The necessary copyright permissions are ensured accordingly for all copyrighted graphics, images, tables, and figures.
Publisher Copyright:
© 2020 by the authors.
Keywords
- Desiccant
- Evaporative cooling
- Livestock thermal comfort
- Maisotsenko cycle
- Temperature humidity index
ASJC Scopus subject areas
- Renewable Energy, Sustainability and the Environment
- Building and Construction
- Fuel Technology
- Engineering (miscellaneous)
- Energy Engineering and Power Technology
- Energy (miscellaneous)
- Control and Optimization
- Electrical and Electronic Engineering
