Open AccessPassive evaporative cooling through water-filled bricks: a preliminary investigation
Author(s) -
Ana TejeroGonzález,
Francesco Nocera,
Vincenzo Costanzo,
E Velasco-Gómez
Publication year - 2021
Publication title -
journal of physics. conference series
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.21
H-Index - 85
eISSN - 1742-6596
pISSN - 1742-6588
DOI - 10.1088/1742-6596/2069/1/012123
Subject(s) - evaporative cooler , psychrometrics , passive cooling , air conditioning , brick , relative humidity , environmental science , work (physics) , humidity , water cooling , arid , architectural engineering , meteorology , mechanical engineering , civil engineering , thermal , engineering , geography , geology , paleontology
Direct evaporative cooling is widely known to be an energy efficient air-conditioning option for arid and semi-arid climates. However, care must be taken on humidity ranges achieved indoors. Existing literature presents several options for integrating evaporative cooling within buildings for passive cooling applications. This work aims at expanding the current knowledge by focusing on the use of water-filled hollow bricks to implement evaporative cooling of air in contact with the brick’s surfaces. A prototype is built and experimentally characterized under controlled air velocity, air temperature and relative humidity conditions. Results on the psychrometric conditions achieved under different geometric arrangements (i.e., with one, two or three rows of four bricks each) are presented and discussed. Insights on likely building integration of the system for passive cooling purposes in farms and agriculture applications are eventually given.