Thermal Analysis of a Novel Integrated Air Conditioning

System with Geothermal Energy

S. A. El-Agouz 1 and A. E. Kabeel 2
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Abstract: Thermal analysis of a novel integrated system of a desiccant wheel, a solar collector, a heat exchanger, a ground heat exchanger,
and a water spray evaporative cooler is performed for air conditioning cooling systems. The effects of the following parameters were studied:
inlet air temperature T in;air , the inlet air humidity ratio ωin;air , regeneration temperature T Reg , heat exchanger effectiveness εHE , solar radiation
Gt , cooling coil unit effectiveness εECCU , and evaporative cooler effectiveness εEC on the behavior of supplied air temperature T sup;air ,
supplied air humidity ratio ωsup;air , cooling water flow rate ṁw , area of solar air collector ASol, efficiency of solar air collector ηSol, and
desiccant wheel effectiveness εDW . The system with geothermal energy was found to be more efficient and to provide more human thermal
comfort than the system without geothermal energy. This novel hybrid system significantly decreased the supplied air temperature from 10 to
19.5°C. The simulation results revealed that the novel integrated system can provide comfortable conditions. DOI: 10.1061/(ASCE)EY
.1943-7897.0000205. © 2014 American Society of Civil Engineers.
Author keywords: Hybrid cooling air conditioner; Desiccant wheel; Solar collector; Evaporative cooler; Ground-coupled circuit.

Introduction Air conditioning systems consume a large amount of electric

Geothermal heating and cooling systems (GHCS) provide space
conditioning (heating, cooling, and humidity control). They may
also provide water heating either to supplement or replace conven-
tional water heaters. GHCS work by moving heat, rather than by
converting chemical energy to heat, such as in a furnace. Every
GHCS has three major subsystems or parts: a geothermal heat
pump to move heat between the building and the fluid in the earth
connection, an earth connection for transferring heat between its
fluid and the earth, and a distribution subsystem for delivering heat-
ing or cooling to the building. Each system may also have a heater
to supplement the building’s hot water, or a full-demand water
heater to meet all of the building’s hot water needs.
There is no outdoor unit with a geothermal system. Rather, the
heat pump is coupled to a ground loop that is buried in the earth.
Fluid in the ground loop is used to collect thermal energy from
the ground (in heating mode) and deliver this energy to the heat pump.
In cooling mode, thermal energy is taken from the house and dumped
into the ground via the loop. Because the nearly constant temperature
of the ground serves as the energy source or sink, geothermal
systems produce a higher delivery temperature at a much higher
efficiency than air source heat pumps, especially in very cold or very
hot outdoor temperatures. The higher delivery temperature eliminates
the problems of discomfort from typical air source heat pumps, such
as in air temperature that is lower than skin temperature from the
supply air. Geothermal systems are also quiet due to no outdoor
unit, and relatively inexpensive to operate because of their high
efficiency.
1
Mechanical Power Engineering Dept., Faculty of Engineering, Tanta
Univ., 31521, Egypt (corresponding author). E-mail: elagouz2011@yahoo
.com
2
Mechanical Power Engineering Dept., Faculty of Engineering, Tanta
Univ., 31521, Egypt.
Note. This manuscript was submitted on July 28, 2013; approved on
April 14, 2014; published online on June 23, 2014. Discussion period open
until November 23, 2014; separate discussions must be submitted for in-
dividual papers. This paper is part of the Journal of Energy Engineering,
© ASCE, ISSN 0733-9402/04014030(9)/$25.00.
energy, especially in hot humid areas. A combination of desiccant
cooling and air dehumidification is a good alternative to the
traditional air conditioning system. In the desiccant cooling pro-
cess, fresh air is dehumidified and then cooled through evaporation
before being sent to the conditioned space. Because this system
works without conventional refrigerants, such as fluorocarbons,
and it allows the use of low temperature heat to drive the cooling
cycle, it has attracted increased attention especially in countries
with high humidity. Zhang (2003) and Jia et al. (2006) investigated
silica gel-based composites impregnated with CaCl2 and LiCl
successively. The experimental research indicated that the moisture
removal of the silica gel-CaCl2 wheel was larger than that of the
conventional silica gel wheel by a mean value of about 20% at a
regeneration temperature lower than 120°C under typical hot wet
climates. Comparisons between the adsorption isotherms of silica
gel-LiCl and traditional desiccants were performed at classic
temperatures (25, 35, and 40°C). The results demonstrated that
the adsorption capacity was improved by about 67–145%.
Meckler (1989) proposed a two-stage solid desiccant air condi-
tioning system, integrated with an HVAC system. An energy ex-
change was employed to precool and predehumidify the process
air by exchanging sensible and latent heat with return air from
conditioned space without the addition of external heat or regen-
eration. Afterward, the conventional desiccant wheel was used to
dehumidify the air further with external heat. As reported, 30–50%
of the dehumidification task could be accomplished by the energy
exchange. This kind of two-stage system had also been introduced
by Henning (2007). In addition, Mei et al. (1992) developed a
two-stage, desiccant unit for fast-food restaurants. In this unit, two
desiccant wheels, two heat pipe exchangers, two direct-gas heaters,
two heat recovery wheels, and two evaporative coolers were
arranged alternately. The regeneration air streams were first cooled
in the evaporative coolers and then passed though the heat recovery
wheels to absorb heat transferred from the process air. Behind the
heat recovery wheels, the airstreams were heated by the heat-pipe
heat exchangers, which transferred heat from the regeneration
air exiting the desiccant wheels, and the direct-fired gas heaters.
Then the heated air streamed through the desiccant wheels and

© ASCE 04014030-1 J. Energy Eng.

J. Energy Eng., 2015, 141(3): 04014030

 reactivated the desiccant. Under design conditions, the thermal
COP of the desiccant unit was 0.89. It was demonstrated that
the annual electric energy use and the energy cost of the desiccant
unit were 60 and 40% less than the VAC unit, respectively.
Moreover, Zhang and Niu (1999) discussed the use of low regen-
eration temperature in a two-stage desiccant cooling system.
Simulation results showed that the lower regeneration temperature
was required less than was required for the single-stage desiccant
cooling system.
As desiccants can be either solid or liquid, desiccant air condi-
tioning systems can be classified into two categories, namely, solid
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desiccant air conditioning systems, which consist of fixed bed
type and rotary wheel type, and liquid desiccant air conditioning
systems. Because of being advantageous in handling the latent heat
load, all these technologies have been used widely. Especially,
rotary desiccant air conditioning systems have been used,
which are compact and less subject to corrosion and can work
continuously, attracting more attention. To date, extensive studies
on rotary desiccant air conditioning have been carried out on
the basis of mathematical simulation (Nia et al. 2006;
Ge et al. 2008).
Chung et al. (2009) conducted a numerical simulation for the
desiccant wheel, which is the crucial component of a desiccant
cooling system. The mathematical model has been validated by
comparing with previous experimental data and numerical results.
The calculated results are in reasonable agreement with both the
experimental and numerical results. As the key operating/design
parameters, the wheel speed and the area ratio of regeneration to
dehumidification have been examined for a range of regeneration
temperatures from 60 to 150°C. Optimization of these parameters is
conducted based on the wheel performance and evaluated by means
of its moisture removal capacity (MRC), which is more appropriate
than effectiveness as a performance index of unbalanced flows.
Also, the effects of the outdoor air temperature and humidity on
the optimum design parameters are examined.
Ge et al. (2010) established a mathematical model for predicting
the performance of a novel silica gel compound desiccant wheel.
Both the gas side resistance and the solid side resistance were con-
sidered in the model. It was found that the results of this model
agree better with the experimental results. The model was presented
to analyze the effects of some main parameters on system perfor-
mance. It was found that the compound desiccant wheel had a bet-
ter performance in a climate with moderate temperature or in a
climate with a high humidity ratio. Under the basic conditions for
the simulations (ambient air is of 35°C, 15 g=kg, and wheel thick-
ness of 100 mm), an angle of the regeneration section between 100°
and 160°, a regeneration temperature between 80 and 95°C, a flow
rate of process air between 2.0 and 3.5 m=s, and regeneration air
between 2.5 and 3.5 m=s were recommended. Also, there existed
an optimal rotation speed to achieve the maximal moisture removal,
which was about 12 r=h. At last, the influences of the main param-
eters of the optimal rotation speed were discussed.
La et al. (2010) studied an innovative, thermally driven air con-
ditioning system. By combining the technologies of desiccant
dehumidification and regenerative evaporative cooling, both dry air
and chilled water can be produced. It was found that the system can
achieve a thermal COP higher than 1.0 and an electric COP of
about 8.0. The temperature of chilled water produced by the system
was around 14–20°C. This chilled water can be used with capillary
tube mats for radiant cooling.
Hürdogan et al. (2012) studied a novel desiccant based air con-
ditioning system. This system consisted of a desiccant wheel, heat
exchangers, fans, evaporative cooler, electric heater unit to simulate
solar energy, and refrigeration unit. The results obtained from the
© ASCE 04014030-2
J. Energy Eng., 2015, 141(3): 04014030
model and the experiments were also compared with each other.
It was concluded that utilization of solar energy in the system
increases the coefficient of performance (COP) between 50
and 120%.
Li et al. (2012) installed and operated a solar driven, two-wheel,
and two-stage desiccant cooling/heating system for an electronics
plant at Himin Solar Company in China. First, two different
configurations and connection types of solar air collectors were
analyzed. It was found that the thermodynamic and economic prop-
erties of 25 mm alumina are superior to 19 mm stainless steel, and
the two-stage connection type was more suitable for desiccant cool-
ing. This system was designed to satisfy space cooling demand and
heating demand. In the cooling cycle, the outlet temperature of
the solar air collectors was about 60–100°C, and their thermal
efficiency can reach 50%. For the solar driven, two-stage desiccant
cooling system, the moisture removal can reach 9–12 g=kg with
the supply air condition of approximately 18°C and 60% RH.
Experimental results indicated that the average thermal COP in the
cooling cycle was 0.97 and the cooling capacity in the range of
16.3–25.6 kW, under ambient temperature and humidity ratio
conditions. The solar COP of system in the heating cycle was about
0.45 when the thermal efficiency of the collector was 50%.
Compared with direct heating, heating with humidification can
provide a higher state of comfort.
Much research was carried out on the solar air heater. Alvarez
et al. (2004) described the development and testing of an efficient,
single-glass air solar collector with an absorber plate made of recy-
clable aluminum cans (RAC). The maximum efficiency reached
was 74%, which was very satisfactory for an air solar collector with
an absorber plate made of recyclable aluminum cans. The advan-
tages of using recyclable materials to build the absorber plates of
the air solar collector imply that the absorbers are cheaper with a
cleaner environment.
Suleyman (2007) presented a performance analysis of four types
of air heating, flat plate solar collectors. These were a finned
collector with an angle of 75°, a finned collector with an angle of
70°, a collector with tubes, and a base collector. The highest
collector efficiency and air temperature rise were achieved by the
finned collector with the angle of 75°, whereas the lowest values
were obtained from the base collector.
Geothermal energy use in hydrogen liquefaction was studied by
Kanoglu et al. (2007). Three possible cases for accomplishing this
are (1) using geothermal output work as the input for a liquefaction
cycle; (2) using geothermal heat in an absorption refrigeration
process to precool the gas before the gas is liquefied in a liquefac-
tion cycle; and (3) using part of the geothermal heat for absorption
refrigeration to precool the gas and the other part of the geothermal
heat to produce work that it used in a liquefaction cycle.
Wang et al. (2013) studied the application of a geothermal ab-
sorption air conditioning system. The economic analysis was based
on the real-time cooling load profile. The results help engineers
appreciate the opportunities and barriers to geothermal applica-
tions, the latest developments and how this technology may help
to significantly reduce carbon dioxide emissions.
The main objective of this study is to develop a mathematical
model of the air conditioning system. The effects of the following
parameters are studied: inlet air temperature T in;air , inlet air humid-
ity ratio ωin;air , regeneration temperature T Reg , heat exchanger
effectiveness εHE , solar radiation Gt , cooling coil unit effectiveness
εECCU , and evaporative cooler effectiveness εEC on the behavior of
supplied air temperature T sup;air , supplied air humidity ratio ωsup;air ,
cooling water flow rate ṁw , area of solar air collector ASol,
efficiency of a solar air collector ηSol, and desiccant wheel
effectiveness εDW .
J. Energy Eng.
 System Description temperature (°C), ω1 is the ambient humidity ratio (kgw =kga ),
Dh is the hydraulic diameter of the desiccant wheel channels
As seen in Fig. 1(a), the integrated air conditioning (IAC) system (mm), and U is the velocity of air (m=s). By using Eqs. (1)–(5),
consists of a desiccant wheel (DW), a heat exchanger (HE), a cool- the outlet temperature and humidity from a desiccant wheel at
ing coil unit (CCU), a water spray evaporative cooler (EC), and a point 2 are calculated.
solar air collector. Then, the thermal desiccant wheel effectiveness is given by
Desiccant cooling systems can dehumidify process air stream by (Daou et al. 2006; Kanoglu et al. 2004)
forcing it through a desiccant material and drying the air. Then,
process air passes through a heat exchanger to remove the heat. ðT db2 − T db1 Þ
εDW ¼ ð6Þ
Process air should pass through the CCU and transfer its heat to ðT db8 − T db1 Þ
the circulating cold water. It then enters into the EC system and
finally, after the evaporation process, it becomes cooler and exits
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Heat Exchanger
from the IAC system.
In regeneration, the ambient air enters the heat exchanger to heat The purpose of the heat exchanger, as shown in Fig. 1(a), is to
it, and then enters the solar air collector to obtain the regeneration transfer the heat of absorption that is present in the supply air
temperature for the desiccant wheel. Then, it enters the desiccant stream after dehumidification to the regeneration air stream. In the
wheel to make the regeneration process. Figs. 1(b–e) shows the ideal heat exchange system, with negligible air leakage and heat
schematic of the desiccant wheel, the solar air collector, the cooling transfer to the outdoors, the effectiveness is defined as
coil unit, and the evaporative cooler. Fig. 2 presents the schematic ðT db2 − T db3 Þ
of the mentioned processes on a psychrometric chart. εHE ¼ ð7Þ
ðT db2 − T db6 Þ

where T 6 ¼ T 1 is the ambient temperature.

Governing Equations Therefore, the exit air temperature at point 3 is
T db3 ¼ T db2 − εHE ðT db2 − T wb6 Þ ð8Þ
Desiccant Wheel
The most important section of the present study is calculating The energy balance between the two air streams is written by the
the outlet air conditions from the desiccant wheel, as shown in following equation:
Fig. 1(a). In this section, the temperature and humidity of the out- ðh2 –h3 Þ ¼ ðh6 –h7 Þ ð9Þ
let air from the desiccant wheel is calculated by using a mathemati-
cal model. This model is achieved by solving the heat and mass where the enthalpy of moist air can be determined from the follow-
transfer equations as follows (Nia et al. 2006): ing formula (Jones 2001):
T 2 ¼ g1 ðNÞg2 ðT 1 Þg3 ðdt Þg4 ðT 8 Þg5 ðω1 Þg6 ðDh Þg7 ðUÞ ð1Þ hi ¼ T dbi þ wi ½1.86T dbi þ 2,501.3
ð10Þ

ε ¼ f1 ðNÞf 2 ðT 1 Þf3 ðdt Þf4 ðT 8 Þf5 ðω1 Þf 6 ðDh Þf 7 ðUÞ ð2Þ Therefore, the exit air temperature at point 7 is
ω2 ¼ ω1 ð1 − εÞ ð3Þ T db7 ¼ ½h7 − 2,501.3w7
=½1 þ 1.86w7
ð11Þ

In Eqs. (1) and (2), g and f are functions of desiccant wheel Because the leakage is negligible, ω2 ¼ ω3 , ω6 ¼ ω7 ¼ ω1 . The
parameters that are as follows: states at points 3 and 7 are calculated with the above equation and
when the temperature and humidity ratio in points 2 and 6 are
g1 ðNÞ ¼ − 0.0002N 2 þ 0.0112N þ 0.4201 known.
g2 ðT 1 Þ ¼ − 0.0001ðT 1 Þ2 þ 0.0275T 1 þ 0.7993
Solar Air Collector
g3 ðdt Þ ¼ − 18.79ðdt Þ2 þ 7.92dt þ 1.75
The useful energy gain by the air was determined from (Duffie and
g4 ðT 8 Þ ¼ − 0.0004ðT 8 Þ2 þ 0.1255T 8 þ 0.6757
Beckman 1980)
g5 ðω1 Þ ¼ 594.48ðω1 Þ2 þ 26.76ω1 þ 3.79
Qu ¼ ṁR ½h8 − h7
ð12Þ
g6 ðDh Þ ¼ − 0.039 ðDh Þ3 þ 0.026 ðDh Þ2 þ 0.603DH þ 0.0912
Use Eq. (10) to calculate the enthalpy of moist air at points 7 and
g7 ðUÞ ¼ − 0.06U þ 0.7973 ð4Þ
8 where ω8 ¼ ω7 ¼ ω1 .
In terms of the standard, nondimensional parameters for collec-
f1 ðNÞ ¼ − 0.0001N 2 þ 0.0042N þ 0.4474
tors, the useful energy gain by the air is determined from (Duffie
f 2 ðT 1 Þ ¼ − 0.0001ðT 1 Þ2 − 0.0031T 1 þ 0.8353 and Beckman 1980)
f3 ðdt Þ ¼ − 21.67ðdt Þ2 þ 6.93dt þ 1.34 Qu ¼ FR As ½S − U L ðT 7 − T ∞ Þ
ð13Þ
f 4 ðT 8 Þ ¼ − 0.0001ðT 8 Þ2 þ 0.0355T 8 − 0.492
The collector efficiency factor FR can be obtained from the
f 5 ðω1 Þ ¼ 592.77ðω1 Þ2 − 41.23ω1 þ 1.283 following relation (Duffie and Beckman 1980):
f 6 ðDh Þ ¼ − 0.0572 ðDh Þ3 þ 0.0933 ðDh Þ2 þ 0.6139DH − 0.0922   
C U F0
FR ¼ a 1 − exp − L T ∞ ¼ T 1 S ¼ ðτ αÞGt ð14Þ
f 7 ðUÞ ¼ − 0.0611U þ 0.8376 ð5Þ UL Ca

where N is the wheel speed (RPH), T 1 is ambient temperature (°C), From Eq. (13), the area of the solar air collector (As ) can
dt is the thickness of the desiccant (mm), T 8 is the regeneration be calculated by assuming that ατ ¼ 0.85, F 0 ¼ 0.984, and

© ASCE 04014030-3 J. Energy Eng.

J. Energy Eng., 2015, 141(3): 04014030

 Solar air collector

Regeneration air Ambient air

9 8 7 6

Cooling coil unit

Indoor
Ambient air
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Process air 1 2 3 4 5

Desiccant wheel Heat exchanger Evaporative cooler

Ground
circulate

(a)

L
Warm air out
Regeneration air

Absorber
Process air Insulation

Cool air in
(b) (c)

Water spray system

Air out
Air in
Air in Air out

Water basin

Water out Water in

Pad material

Pump
(d) (e)

Fig. 1. Schematic of: (a) process and regeneration air streams through the hybrid system; (b) desiccant wheel; (c) solar air collector; (d) cooling coil
unit; (e) evaporative cooler

U L ¼ 4.3 W=m2 °C are independent of the position and condition The convergence criteria used for variable (Ca ) is
of the air heater (Duffie and Beckman 1980)  
 Ca Þnþ1 − Ca Þn 
  ≤ 10−8 ð16Þ
ṁ Cp Þi  C Þ 
Then; Ca ¼ ð15Þ a n max
ASol
where n is the index representing the iterations, then, the area of the
where CP Þi¼ 1.012 þ 1.89 ωi (Jones 2001). solar air heater is found.

© ASCE 04014030-4 J. Energy Eng.

J. Energy Eng., 2015, 141(3): 04014030

 Evaporative Cooler
In the supplied air stream, after the cooling coil unit, an evaporative
cooler, as shown in Fig. 1(a), is used. The evaporative coolers are
usually rated according to their saturation effectiveness, which is
defined by the following equation (Fouda and Melikyan 2011):
ðT db4 − T db5 Þ
εEC ¼ ð22Þ
ðT db4 − T wb4 Þ

where T db4 is the entering air dry bulb temperature, T db5 is the
exiting air dry bulb temperature, and T wb4 is the entering air
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wet bulb temperature and is defined by the following equation

(Fouda and Melikyan 2011):

T wb4 ¼ 2.265ð1.97 þ 4.3T db4 þ 10,000ω4 Þ0.5 − 14.85 ð23Þ

Therefore, the exit air temperature at point 5 is

Fig. 2. Schematic of process and regeneration air streams through a
hybrid system in psychometric chart
The thermal efficiency of the solar air collector (ηs ) is defined as
the ratio of useful energy gain by the air to solar radiation incident
on the plate of the collector (Duffie and Beckman 1980)
QU
ηSol ¼
Gt × ASol
In terms of the standard, nondimensional parameters for collec-
tors, the efficiency of a solar air heater can also be written by
(Duffie and Beckman 1980)
 
T7 − T∞
ηSol ¼ ðτ αÞFR − FR U L ð18Þ
Gt
Cooling Coil Unit
The ground temperature is affected by variations in the air temper-
ature and solar radiation. Under influence of these effects, ground
temperature fluctuates daily and annually. The annual variation of
the surface ground temperature can be estimated using a sinusoidal
function (Kusuda and Archenbach 1965). The ground temperature
is changing down to 10 m in depth after which the ground temper-
ature becomes constant (Khalajzadeh et al. 2012).
The purpose of the cooling coil unit is to cool the supply air
stream after the heat exchanger. In the ideal heat exchange system,
with negligible air leakage and heat transfer to the outdoors, effec-
tiveness is defined as
ðT db3 − T db4 Þ
εCCU ¼
ðT db3 − T w;in Þ
Therefore, the exit air temperature at point 4 is
T db4 ¼ T db3 − εCCU ðT db3 − T w;in Þ
T db5 ¼ T db4 − εEC ðT db4 − T wb4 Þ ð24Þ
The process 4–5 is a constant enthalpy process h5 ¼ h4 .
Moisture content at point 5 is calculated from the equation:
ðh5 − T db5 Þ
ω5 ¼ ð25Þ
ð1.86T db5 þ 2501.3Þ
ð17Þ
Solution Method and Validation
To solve the presented governing equations and to model the inte-
grated air conditioning system, a Fortran computer program was
written.
For simulating the desiccant cooling cycle in the ventilation
mode, as shown in Fig. 1(a), a trial and error solution is required.
Initially, the computer code inputs are outdoor design condition,
desiccant wheel properties, solar air collector properties, evapora-
tive cooler effectiveness, and heat exchanger effectiveness. Then,
the air temperature at point 8 is guessed. Therefore, the simulation
of the desiccant wheel can be done by knowing inlet conditions at
points 1 and 8 and also the wheel properties. The simulation con-
tinues in the process air stream by calculating points 2, 3, 4, and 5
with regard to the mentioned equations in “Desiccant Wheel,”
“Heat Exchanger,” “Solar Air Collector,” and “Cooling Coil Unit.”
In the regeneration air stream, outdoor design condition at point 6 is
known and the air conditioner at the point 7 can be calculated.
Then, the effects of solar air collector can be calculated using
the equations in “Solar Air Collector.”
For validation of the mathematical model, a comparison be-
tween the present study, the experimental measurements by
Kodama et al. (2001), and the numerical results by Heidarinejad
and Pasdarshahri (2010) are presented. The values of the temper-
ð19Þ ature and humidity ratio at each point are presented and compared
in Table 1. The results are agreement with the experimental mea-
surements and numerical results. The errors are due to assumptions,
such as neglecting leakage in heat recovery, the desiccant wheel,
ð20Þ and also heat transfer to outdoor conditions.

The energy balance between air and water streams is written by

the following equation: Results and Discussion
ṁP ðh3 − h4 Þ In this study, the design parameters of the desiccant wheel are N ¼
ṁw ¼ ð21Þ
4.186 dT w 15 RPH, dt ¼ 0.2 mm, Dh ¼ 2.33 mm, U ¼ 2 m=s, and the wheel
has a 20 cm width that Nia et al. (2006) used in their article. Ground
Eq. (10) calculates the enthalpy of moist air at points 3 and 4 temperature assumes a constant T w;in ¼ 20°C. The operating
where ω3 ¼ ω4 ¼ ω2 . conditions of the system and design parameters are presented in

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J. Energy Eng., 2015, 141(3): 04014030

 Table 1. Comparison of the Present Study with the Experimental Measurements and Numerical Results at State Points
Temperature, °C Humidity ratio, g=kg
Present Kodama Heidarinejad and Present Kodama Heidarinejad and
Points study et al. (2001) Pasdarshahri (2010) study et al. (2001) Pasdarshahri (2010)
1 31 31 31 10.3 10.3 10.3
2 55.35 55.5 55.2 4.33 4.4 4.46
3 24.9 24.8 24.63 4.33 4.8 4.46
4 14.35 14.5 14.18 8.96 9.2 8.89
5 26 26 25.77 10 10 9.74
6 20.5 20 19.81 12.5 12.8 12.31
7 51.1 51.5 50.19 12.5 12.5 12.31
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8 80 80 80 12.5 12.5 12.31

9 55.65 56 55.83 18.3 18.10 18.14

Table 2. Operating Conditions for the Cases Considered in the Parametric Analysis
Figures T in;air (°C) ωin;air ðgw =kga Þ T Reg;air (°C) Gt ðW=m2 Þ εHE − ΔT w (°C) εCCU − εEC − Constant
Fig. 3 26–40 25 90 800 0.9 6 0.9 0.9 N ¼ 15 RPH
Fig. 4 40 5–25 90 800 0.9 6 0.9 0.9 Dt¼ 0.2 mm
Fig. 5 40 25 70–120 800 0.9 6 0.9 0.9 Dh¼ 2.33 mm
Fig. 6 40 25 90 400–800 0.9 6 0.9 0.9 U ¼ 2 m=s
Fig. 7 40 25 90 800 0.6–09 0.9 0.9 mP ¼ 10 kg=s; mR ¼ 10 kg=s
Fig. 8 40 25 90 80 0.9 4–8 0.9 0.9 T w ¼ 20°C
Fig. 9 40 25 90 800 0.9 6 0.6–09 0.9 ατ ¼ 0.85
Fig. 10 40 25 90 800 0.9 6 0.9 0.6–0.9 U L ¼ 4.3 W=m2 °C
Fig. 11 26–40 5–25 90 800 0.9 6 0.9 0.9 F 0 ¼ 0.984

Fig. 3. Effect of T in;air on parameters, T sup;air , ωsup;air , Mw, ASol , ηSol , Fig. 5. Effect of T Reg to parameters T sup;air , ωsup;air , Mw, ASol , ηSol , and
and εDW , at ωin;air ¼ 25 gw =kga , T Reg ¼ 90°C, Gt ¼ 800 W=m2 , εDW at T in;air ¼ 40°C, ωin;air ¼ 25 gw =kga , Gt ¼ 800 W=m2 , εHE ¼
εHE ¼ εECCU ¼ εEC ¼ 0.9, and ΔT w ¼ 6°C εECCU ¼ εEC ¼ 0.9, and ΔT w ¼ 6°C

Fig. 4. Effect of ωin;air on parameters T sup;air , ωsup;air , Mw, ASol , ηSol , Fig. 6. Effect of solar radiation Gt on parameters T sup;air , ωsup;air , Mw,
and εDW at T in;air ¼ 40°C, T Reg ¼ 90°C, Gt ¼ 800 W=m2 , εHE ¼ ASol , ηSol , and εDW at T in;air ¼ 40°C, ωin;air ¼ 25 gw =kga , T Reg ¼ 90°C,
εECCU ¼ εEC ¼ 0.9, and ΔT w ¼ 6°C εHE ¼ εECCU ¼ εEC ¼ 0.9, and ΔT w ¼ 6°C

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Fig. 7. Effect of εHE on parameters T sup;air , ωsup;air , Mw, ASol , ηSol , and Fig. 10. Effect of εEC on parameters T sup;air , ωsup;air , Mw, ASol , ηSol , and
εDW at T in;air ¼ 40°C, ωin;air ¼ 25 gw =kga , T Reg ¼ 90°C, Gt ¼ εDW at T in;air ¼ 40°C, ωin;air ¼ 25 gw =kga , T Reg ¼ 90°C,
800 W=m2 , εECCU ¼ εEC ¼ 0.9, and ΔT w ¼ 6°C Gt ¼ 800 W=m2 , εHE ¼ εECCU ¼ 0.9, and ΔT w ¼ 6°C

evaporative cooling system strongly depends on the inlet wet bulb

temperature. Consequently, higher air temperature results for the air
leaving evaporative cooling system are obtained. Increasing T in;air
from 26 to 40 °C results in increasing T sup;air ; ωsup;air , ṁw , ηSol , and
εDW by 15, 20, 140, 7, and 26%, respectively, but ASol is decreased
by about 51%.

Effect of the Ambient Air Humidity Ratio

Fig. 4 presents the effect of the ambient air humidity ratio ωin;air on
T in;air on T sup;air ; ωsup;air , ṁw , ASol , ηSol , and εDW . When T in;air is
increased, T sup;air , ωsup;air , ṁw , and εDW are increased; however,
ASol and ηSol are decreased. At a constant outdoor dry bulb temper-
Fig. 8. Effect of ΔT w on parameters T sup;air , ωsup;air , Mw, ASol , ηSol , and
ature and for a higher humidity ratio, the air leaving the desiccant
εDW at T in;air ¼ 40°C, ωin;air ¼ 25 gw =kga , T Reg ¼ 90°C, Gt ¼
wheel at the process air stream at point 2, contains more humidity.
800 W=m2 , εHE ¼ εECCU ¼ εEC ¼ 0.9
Therefore, like the previous condition, a higher wet bulb

Table 2. In Figs. 3–11, the effects of the parameters T in;air ; ωin;air ;

T Reg ; εHE ; Gt ; ΔεECCU , and εEC are presented.

Effect of the Ambient Air Temperature

Fig. 3 shows the effect of the ambient air temperature, T in;air on
T sup;air , ωsup;air , ṁw , ASol ; ηSol , and εDW . When T in;air is increased,
T sup;air , ωsup;air , ṁw , ηSol , and εDW , are increased while ASol is
decreased. When outdoor air temperature increases, the outlet
air from the desiccant wheel in the process air stream, at point
2, increases. Therefore, the process air stream at the inlet of evapo-
rative cooling system at point 3 has higher value. On the other hand, (a)
the air wet bulb temperature increases for the higher dry bulb tem-
perature (at a constant humidity ratio). The performance of the

(b)

Fig. 9. Effect of εCCU on parameters T sup;air , ωsup;air , Mw, ASol , ηSol , and Fig. 11. Effect of T in;air , and ωin;air on contour of T sup;air , and ωsup;air at
εDW at T in;air ¼ 40°C, ωin;air ¼ 25 gw =kga , T Reg ¼ 90°C, Gt ¼ T Reg ¼ 90°C, Gt ¼ 800 W=m2 , εHE ¼ εECCU ¼ εEC ¼ 0.9, and
800 W=m2 , εHE ¼ εEC ¼ 0.9, and ΔT w ¼ 6°C ΔT w ¼ 6°C

© ASCE 04014030-7 J. Energy Eng.

J. Energy Eng., 2015, 141(3): 04014030

 temperature results. When ωin;air is increased from 0.005 to 0.025
kgw =kgda , T sup;air , ωsup;air , ṁw , and εDW are increased by about 100,
146, 9, and 59%, respectively, but ASol and ηSol are decreased by
about 41 and 5%, respectively.
Effect of the Regeneration Temperature
Fig. 5 presents the effect of the regeneration temperature T Reg on
T in;air on T sup;air ; ωsup;air , ṁw , ASol , ηSol , and εDW . When the regen-
eration temperature increases, the outlet air temperature and the
humidity ratio from the desiccant wheel in the process air stream,
at point 2, decreases. Therefore, the process air stream at the outlet
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Effect of Outdoor Design Conditions
Outdoor design conditions such as air temperature and humidity
ratio are the most important factors affecting the outlet cycle air
temperature and human thermal comfort. On the other hand, for
a lower outlet air temperature at point 5, more cooling load results.
Therefore, when calculating the outlet air temperature in various
climate conditions, it is necessary to evaluate thermal comfort con-
ditions. Fig. 11 shows the effect of ambient air temperature, T in;air ,
and humidity ratio, ωin;air , on T sup;air , and ωsup;air . This novel hybrid
system significantly decreases the supplied air temperature, and
it is changed from 10 to 19.5°C. The figure shows that the

of the evaporative cooling system, at point 3, has a lower value of
temperature and humidity ratio. When T Reg is increased, T sup;air ,
ωsup;air , ηSol , and εDW are decreased; however, the ṁw and ASol
are increased. When T Reg is increased from 70 to 120°C, T sup;air ,
ωsup;air , ṁw , and εDW are decreased from 21.33 to 17.97°C, 16 to
12.3 kgw =kgda , 0.69–0.5, and 0.95–0.64, respectively, but ṁw
and ASol are increased from 8.4 9.17 kg=s and 0.09–0.92 m2 ,
respectively.
Effect of Solar Radiation
The effect of the inlet solar radiation Gt on T in;air on T sup;air , ωsup;air ,
ṁw , ASol , ηSol , and εDW is shown in Fig. 6. T sup;air , ωsup;air , ṁw , and
εDW are slightly affected by the solar radiation Gt , while, ASol is
decreased and ηSol is increased. When Gt is increased from
400 to 800 W=m2 ; ASol is decreased by about 69%, and ηSol is
increased by about 60%.
Effect of Heat Exchanger Effectiveness
The effect of heat exchanger effectiveness εHE on T in;air on T sup;air ,
ωsup;air , ṁw , ASol ; ηSol , and εDW is illustrated in Fig. 7. T sup;air ;
ωsup;air ; ηSol , and εDW are slightly affected by the heat exchanger
effectiveness, εHE , while, the ṁw and ASol are decreased. When
εHE is increased from 0.6 to 0.9, ṁw and ASol have decreased
by about 33 and 41%, respectively.
humidity ratio of this hybrid system is changed from 0.006
to 0.014 kgw =kgda .
Comparison between the Systems with and without
Geothermal Heat
Fig. 12 presents variation of T sup;air , and ωsup;air with T in;air , and
ωin;air for a system with and a system without geothermal heat.
The percentage improvement in either system is given by
% Improvement ¼ ½ðϕwithout − ϕwith Þ=ϕwithout
× 100 ð26Þ
where ϕ is any of T sup;air or ωsup;air.
It is inferred from Fig. 12 that T sup;air and ωsup;air in a system with
geothermal is lower than that of the system without geothermal.
When T in;air is increased from 26 to 40°C, T sup;air and ωsup;air of
the system with geothermal is approximately 23–22% lower than
the system without geothermal. When ωin;air is increased from
0.005 to 0.025 kgw =kgda , T sup;air and ωsup;air of the system with
geothermal is approximately 38–35% lower than the system with-
out geothermal. Therefore, it is clear that the system with geother-
mal is more efficient than the system without geothermal to provide
human thermal comfort.

Effect of the Temperature Difference between the

Ground Water and the Outlet of the Cooling Coil Unit
Fig. 8 shows the effect of the temperature difference between
ground water and the outlet of the cooling coil unit, ΔT W , on
T in;air on T sup;air , ωsup;air , ṁw , ASol ; ηSol , and εDW · T sup;air ; ωsup;air ;
ASol , ηSol , and εDW are not much affected by the ΔT W . When ΔT W
is increased from 4 to 8°C, ṁw is decreased by about 50%.

Effect of the Cooling Coil Unit Effectiveness

The effect of the cooling coil unit effectiveness, εCCU , on T in;air on
T sup;air , ωsup;air , ṁw , ASol ; ηSol , and εDW is illustrated in Fig. 9.
When εCCU is increased, ASol ; ηSol , and εDW , are unaffected, while,
the T sup;air , and ωsup;air , are decreased. In addition, ṁw is increased.
When εCCU is increased from 0.6 to 0.9, T sup;air , and ωsup;air have
decreased by about 12 and 11%, respectively. On the other hand,
ṁw is increased by about 50%.

Effect of Evaporative Cooler Effectiveness

Fig. 10 illustrates the effect of evaporative cooler effectiveness, εEC ,
on T in;air on T sup;air ; ωsup;air , ṁw , ASol , ηSol , and εDW . When εEC is
increased, ASol ; ηSol , ṁw , and εDW are unaffected, while T sup;air , is
decreased and ωsup;air , is increased. When εEC is increased from 0.6
Fig. 12. Variation of T sup;air , and ωsup;air with T in;air , and ωin;air for a
to 0.9, T sup;air is decreased by about 4.2%, and ωsup;air is increased
system with and without geothermal
by about 2.5%.

© ASCE 04014030-8 J. Energy Eng.

J. Energy Eng., 2015, 141(3): 04014030

 Conclusions
In this study, the authors have considered a novel, a desiccant-based
air conditioning system consisting of a desiccant wheel, a solar col-
lector, a heat exchanger, a ground heat exchanger, and a water spray
evaporative cooler. The authors have developed a model to
investigate the utilization of solar energy in the system. In the
model, the heat obtained from a ground source and solar radiation
was utilized. The main conclusions from the results of this study,
are as follows:
1. The system with geothermal is more efficient than the system
without geothermal to provide human thermal comfort.
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2. The supplied air temperature T sup;air increases with the in-
crease of T in;air , and ωin;air , while it decreases with the increase
of εHE , εCCU , εEC , and T Reg .
3. The supplied air humidity ratio ωsup;air increases with the in-
crease of T in;air , ωin;air , and εEC , while it decreases with the
increase of εHE , εCCU , and T Reg .
4. The ground water mass flow rate ṁw increases with the in-
crease of T in;air , ωin;air , T Reg , and εCCU , while it decreases with
the increase of ΔT W .
5. The efficiency of the solar air collector ηSol decreases with the
increase of ωin;air ; T Reg , and εHE , while it increases with the
increase of T in;air .
6. The area of the solar air collector ASol decreases with the in-
crease of T in;air ; ωin;air ; Gt , and εHE while, it increases with the
increase of T Reg .
7. The desiccant wheel’s effectiveness εDW increases with the in-
crease of T in;air , and ωin;air , while it decreases with the increase
of T Reg .
Notation
The following symbols are used in this paper:
A = area;
COP = cooling effectiveness;
Cp = specific heat;
Dh = hydraulic diameter of the desiccant wheel channels, mm;
dt = thickness of the desiccant, mm;
FR = collector heat-removal factor;
Gt = solar radiation;
hi = enthalpy;
m = mass flow rate;
N = wheel speed, RPH;
QU = useful heat collected;
T = temperature;
T 1 = ambient temperature, °C;
U = velocity of air, m=s;
U L = collector heat-loss coefficient;
α = absorptance;
η = efficiency;
τ = transmittance; and
ωi = humidity ratio.
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