Experimental investigation about the thickness of evaporative cooling pad for performance enhancement of VCR cycle

In warm climates, increasing the performance of refrigeration and air conditioning systems using an air-cooled condenser is one of the most challenging tasks. In the present investigation, the Coefficient of Performance of a Vapour Compression Refrigeration system is enhanced using an evaporative cooling pad to lower the incoming atmospheric air temperature. A reduction in incoming air temperature in the condenser would lead it to dissipate more heat than under normal conditions. This, in turn, results in a drop in refrigerant temperature and pressure in the condenser. As a result, the total compression ratio of a compressor decreases, and so does the compressor work. Finally, the refrigeration system's COP is enhanced. Experiments are carried out on the VCR system used in the water cooler, to determine the effect of varying cellulose evaporative cooling pad thicknesses on COP, refrigeration effect, and condenser heat loss to the environment. The experiments were done using different thicknesses of the cooling pad for various targeted cooling level water temperatures. The results indicated that the 5 cm thick cooling pad provides the highest COP for the cooling level of 19.1◦C among all investigated cooling pad thicknesses and different target cooling levels. (author)