Using six different materials to construct a
water curtain, this study aims to determine the most
effective spray cooling of an air cooled heat exchanger
under wet conditions. The experiments were carried out at
a mass flow rate of 0.005–0.01 kg/s (spraying water), an
airspeed of 0.6–2.4 m/s and a run time of 0–72 h for the
material degradation tests. The experimental results indicate
that the cooling efficiency, the heat rejection, and the
sprinkling density increase as the amount of spraying water
increases, but, the air-flow of the condenser is reduced at
the same time. In addition, the cooling efficiency of the
pads decreases with an increase of the inlet air velocity. In
terms of experimental range, the natural wood pulp fiberscan
can reach 42.7–66 % for cooling efficiency and
17.17–24.48 % for increases of heat rejection. This means
that the natural wood pulp fiberscan pad most effectively
enhances cooling performance, followed in terms of cooling
effectiveness by the special non-woven rayon pad, the
woollen blanket, biochemistry cotton and kapok, nonwoven
cloth of rayon cotton and kapok, and white cotton
pad, respectively. However, the natural wood pulp fiberscan
and special non-woven rayon display a relatively
greater degradation of the cooling efficiency than the other
test pads used in the material degradation tests.