This paper presents a comparative study of the cross-flow regenerative heat and mass exchanger (HMX) and the conventional cross-flow HMX for indirect evaporative cooling (IEC) with numerical methods. The objective of this study is mainly to clarify the applicability of the two HMXs. The numerical model was built and validated by existing experimental data. The difference in heat and mass transfer between the two HMXs was revealed by analyzing the change of the temperature and moisture content of the air, and the influence of the main operating parameters on the cooling performance of the HMXs was analyzed. In the typical operating conditions, when the HMXs are used alone, the cooling performance of the regenerative HMX is better than that of the conventional HMX under low supply air flow rate. When the HMXs are used in the multistage evaporative cooling systems with high supply air flow rate, the conventional HMX is more suitable as the first stage of the system to pre-cool the supply air, while the regenerative HMX is more suitable as the second stage to re-cool the supply air.
An analytical model for cross-flow indirect evaporative cooling considering condensation under various fresh air conditions