Effectiveness of crossflow plate heat exchanger for indirect evaporative cooling

A short-cut method for calculating the effectiveness of wet surface crossflow plate heat exchangers is developed. It introduces a correction for the effectiveness estimated according to the method of Maclaine-cross and Banks. For this purpose a new model with a water film that flows down, corresponding to the real conditions in these heat exchangers, is developed. The method of Maclaine-cross and Banks is improved by an approach to determine the mean water surface temperature and by derivation of an equation for calculating the ratio of total to sensible heat taking into account the barometric pressure. Performance predictions by this method for wet surface crossflow prate heat exchangers are found to agree with the finite difference solutions. (C) 1998 Elsevier Science Ltd and IIR. All rights reserved.