Psychrometric Analysis of the Effect of Laminate Evaporator's Tank Position

In this paper, the psychrometric analysis of the effect of laminate evaporator's tank position is presented. Essentially, water flyout characteristics, core surface temperature, and air resistance of a laminate evaporator is experimentally studied as a function of the tank position (either at top or at bottom) by maintaining the same operating test conditions. The tests were conducted when the blower speed was changed from low to medium; and low to high. For these tests, the system operated at low blower speed for an extended period of time before switching to either medium or high speeds. A four-pass laminate (plate type) evaporator with louvered fins with hydrophilic coating was used for this investigation.

This study reveals that the tank position has a significant impact on the water flyout characteristics, evaporator core surface temperature, and air resistance. The evaporator tank at the top resulted in a relatively large quantity of water carryover; uniform core surface temperature; and a larger air resistance (5 to 50%) in comparison to the set-up when the tank was at the bottom. Detailed psychrometry results have been presented in this paper.